Humans of Hospitality

We are off to the world of events.  Something I’d perhaps inadvertently neglected in my conversations around the world of hospitality.  Certainly a part of the sector that todays guest Adam Phelps feels like the government has forgotten when it comes to recognition of the pandemics impact and financial support.  Adam has been working at the top end of prestigious events for 22 years.  Chatting through some of the choreography and p...

Many of your will know today’s guest Nathan Outlaw from his various TV appearances, Michelin stars, all round love of hospitality and the author of 5 well regarded books.  Chatting to Nathan you can see why he’s such a popular hospitality human.  Relaxed, positive, knowledgeable, with no pretentiousness and happy to chat about the challenges, lows and highs of his hospitality adventure.

Nathan was generous with his time in this co...

Stefan Leser is a bit different to my normal guests on this podcast since he is based in Hong Kong and rather than being a little local independent Langham Hospitality has some big backers and a number of properties spread throughout the globe.  It is that global perspective that I was really keen to explore with Stefan.  There are some really interesting things we can learn from people like Stefan and Langham Hotels, who are opera...

I think you are going to fall in love with Dan Austin, today’s guest, and the Lake District Farmers, for a whole heap of reasons.? Firstly the Lake District is just an utterly stunning part of the world, so anything we can do to support it, and the way of life that has been going on there for hundreds of years, I personally think is important.? Traditional farming, where animals can roam free on the fells for me is a big part of th...

Less so someone’s journey through hospitality this week, and more of a deep dive into a topic I hope hope you will find useful.  Today I’m chatting to Victoria Searl, founder of Data Hawks.

I’m fairly techie and I’ve found it frustrating over the years seeing the potential of data in the hospitality sector.  Cleary unlike for example selling double glazing, we operate in a social space where people often want to hear from us.  Wher...

Phil Haughton has had a great food adventure over many decades.  He has just written a book ‘Food for Thought’ that brings together this journey, combined with recipes and producers he’s met along the way.  Phil’s current business is the Better Food stores and cafes dotted around Bristol.  That combination of combining the hospitality of a cafe drawing people into the building and then hopefully inspiring them to leave with some ex...

Hamish is a brave soul who at the age of 41, with his own business and a career working around the wine and whisky trade decided that his number one love in the world was plants.  Not only was he brave enough to sell the business, he was crazy enough to have no idea where his next adventure would take him.  He pretty much let the plants decide.  He went off on a learning journey meeting an inspirational medicine man along the way. ...

Unusually we recorded this one, with my golden retriever 'Jasper' whilst giving him a walk around a 130 acre country estate. But more importantly I was joined by Darren Venables, the Estate Manager at the Chewton Glen Hotel down in the New Forest in Hampshire. 

Darren has been working at the Chewton Glen for over 30 years so really has seen a huge amount of change, and as far as the grounds are concerned has curated much of...

Sarah has been pretty vocal throughout the pandemic in representing the Scottish Hospitality Sector.  

I wanted to chat with Sarah in the first instance about how somebody goes from being the MD of a decent sized company in the city of London, to buying an ex Little Chef by the side of an obscure road in rural Scotland. Along the way driving revenue to over £1.7 million per year from a pretty small footprint. And secondly how Sarah...

Chris Davies is founder and CEO of Harvest London, a couple of vertical farms in the city of London.  Chris is going to help us understand how vertical farms could be part of the solution to feeding the planet.  As Chris puts it, this will be part of the solution and not all food will be, or can be grown this way.  But the benefits of growing food where it is to be consumed, rather than potentially 1000’s of miles away, the benefit...

It was quite a few months ago when the opportunity crossed my desk to interview Tim Hall, who is the executive chef at Burgh Island.  It caught my eye because Burgh Island is such a unique location, as a tidal island just off the south coast of Devon. 

I was intrigued to understand a bit more around the complexity of running not one, but three restaurants, on an island that for many hours of the day cannot be accessed at all, or ce...

Lee Cash was always driven to become self employed in the hospitality sector.  He learnt his craft with some of the best, from Robin Sheppard at Bespoke Hotels and chef Raymond Blanc.  But all the time driven and motivated to test himself, to learn all he could and get ready to put into practise the art of perfecting 1000 little details to make his own venues successful.  I always enjoy chatting to people who really have proper hos...

We’re going big this week, and actually I don’t mean a big podcast, but a big business, chatting to Jonathan Neame, the chief executive of Shepherd Neame Brewers.  With 320 pubs and pre pandemic turnover of £150 million they are bigger than the normal business I chat to on this podcast, but they have a really interesting family history.  Having been around for over 300 years, and maintained family ownership I think they qualify as ...

From honing his skills in hotels on an employed basis, to learning the art of the restauranteur with his own venues, to taking all of that knowledge and finally getting to apply it in his very own hotel with his partner Rob, Tim has been on a great hospitality journey.

And the captains club is a special kind of place.  Wether simply attracting the locals for a light lunch, or a few cocktails as the sun sets on the river, or minglin...

Michel Roux Jr is a true 'Human of Hospitality' who was practically born in a kitchen when his Mum went into labour whilst working in his Dad 'Albert Roux's' restaurant.  Michel is well known, partly simply through the recognition of his Dad and Uncle opening Le Gavroche in 1967 and becoming the first British restaurant to be awarded 3 Michelin stars, but also via his extensive work on television through shows s...

Richard is a great example of a 'Human of Hospitality' having worked in the sector almost all of his working life.  Richard started the business with his Dad and his family, and recognises all that his family risked, even selling grandmas house to purchase a run down manor, covered in vines and a somewhat dilapidated air.  They started small with only 7 bedrooms, but had a vision and a yearning to create something special a...

Emma has had a fascinating career working in the heart of government in the EU,  in part negotiating trade deals.  Great timing for a chat that starts with Emma’s thoughts on the EU and our opportunities and risks as we hurtle towards departure. You’ll be pleased to hear Emmas is pretty optimistic on post EU trade, particularly where the export of exceptional British beer is concerned of course.  

We also chat about Emma’s experien...

A very different style of episode this week.  Rather than a detailed conversation with one awesome human of hospitality we have 9 great humans, most of whom have been previous guests.  And we have just one topic of conversation.  Why they are supporting the campaign for a Minister for Hospitality.

This campaign was launched by Claire Bosi but had been sat languishing at around 38k signatures on the government petition website.  To ...

Surely schools are the place to improve knowledge on food, on what we should eat, to inspire a life long love for whole food and to understand the difference between real food and processed food.  To understand that food is essential for life, and that in the modern world nobody should be going hungry.  To try and fathom how on earth it is possible for the same areas struck be food poverty and lack of access to food to at the same ...