Humans of Hospitality – Details, episodes & analysis

I so loved my first research chat with Thomas about Regenerative Farming & Carbon Credits that when the opportunity came up to record a podcast I took the chance to travel across the country and meet him face to face.  I adore Thomas’s idea and the knowledge he has gained as a fourth generational farmer in Cambridgeshire . 

In a nutshell Thomas spent a bit of downtime in lockdown pondering how to solve a global problem.  But he did that looking out of his window in a very real, local and achievable way, that could have almost instant and measurable results.  

As is all too often the case it’s the simple ideas that look like they have the greatest opportunity.  If any of you listening have seen the ‘kissing the ground documentary’ on netflix then this is the deep dive podcast equivalent of one way to help with the challenge of what is happening to our soil.  If any of you have listened to my podcast with Guy Singh Watson about organic farming, where we also touch on how many harvests are left in our soil, then this will be a great follow on episode. 

For any of you simply interested in offsetting your carbon in your business, Thomas is now providing a measurable, British solution.  A solution where you can potentially visit the farm that is saving the carbon and see what they are doing, why they are doing it and the difference it is making.  And not only will you be saving carbon, you will be helping that farmer on a transition from intensive to regenerative.  Perhaps helping the farmer fall back in love with ecology, and biology and being custodians of the land for a short, but oh so important period of time.

And if you are a restauranteur or work in hospitality in general, perhaps just asking questions, and caring more and more about where your food is coming from and who is growing it, is a great start point building momentum to support farmers who really want to be part of a positive movement.

I’m utterly confident that Thomas and his Gentle Farming business and carbon credits are going to do well.  I’ll be looking into buying some myself and offering support, and I hope you will too.

Chat with Thomas on Linked in or follow Gentle Farming on Instagram or Twitter.

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 planning required to deliver for clients who expect perfection, and are happy to pay for it was inspiring.  100 meals delivered to the table in perfect synchronisation by 50 model looking FOH members, immaculately presented is just one that creates a vivid picture in my mind.

Adam has looked after famous rock stars, the best jewellery and fashion brands and big festivals, but more recently has had to be exceptionally creative to find a way to navigate the impact of COVID.  Losses have racked up, but Cellar Society are working hard to keep their team employed and ensure their loyal customer base does eventually come back to them when permitted to do so. 

 It feels fitting to be releasing this episode on the day that the government are once again pushing back full opening from the 21st June and the night club sector and large event companies must not be forgotten.  Restaurant and pub garden trade is currently strong, but many in our sector continue to struggle.  But this is not a covid specific episode and I think you’ll enjoy the conversation.  Much of the story is about Adam and his teams adventures and business journey so far.

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 benefits of harvesting food and getting it to the restaurant door within four hours, rather than perhaps four weeks.  The benefit of a perfect summers day, every day, no matter the time of year or external weather conditions.  The use of tech and automation and the potential for companies to ship their perfect growing recipe to perhaps tweak just a couple of bits of the growing process to grow the perfect leaf.  A little more water, 1/2 an hour less light, more blue light than pink light, a slight nutritional change.  All of this can effect the flavour of what we grow and eat.  And in Chris’s case much of this learning is being done around basil, but can be applied to so much more.  And it is clearly a recipe that is working.  Chris and Harvest London have just raised over a million pounds of investment, including from the UK governments future fund and demand is fast outstripping supply as they have grand plans for the future.

Find Harvest London online or follow them on instagram.

This week you meet a champion of the sea and of preparing seafood simply and sustainably. Whether you’ve got one of his cookery books, visited his award-winning Seahorse and Rockfish restaurants or watched him on TV with world class rugby player Matt Dawson, you’ll know that Mitch Tonks is one of the country’s most fervent ambassadors for fish   

You’ll hear just how fervent, when he talks about the planetary benefits of freezing fish; whether prawns should be on or off the menu and what he’s doing to make sure that the rubbish his trawlerman collects from the sea isn’t dumped straight back into the ocean.  

He’s also great on the difference between real hospitality and the stage set version and why the willingness to chat is a must if you want to become a restaurant owner. 

I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Mitch, and I'm confident you'll enjoy this weeks conversation.

A cheeky little mid week bonus episode this week from the lovely Jane and Dave who left the NHS and the MET Police to show hospitality makes a great choice of career change...

So, have you heard the one about the nurse, the police officer and the award-winning pies? You’re about to. 

Dave and Jane’s journey to what they now call ‘Pie Land’ was not conventional. It began when they bought a convenience store in Worcester, thinking it would be a nice retirement project after busy careers in the Met and NHS.  But with 600 customers a day, and a hungry demand for Dave’s pork rolls and Jane’s chocolate Tiffin, retirement was put on hold.  And a good thing too, because without that foundation, Hampshire would not be enjoying what is a growing selection of delicious pies – from steak and kidney to gluten-free  egg, bacon and chorizo, which earned the couple the accolade of  ‘Supreme Champion’ in the 2019 Great Hampshire Sausage and Pie Competition. 

Not bad for an operation that began, and has stayed, in the cellar of their home in South Sea.   And that’s where I join them, at the end of a busy week producing 1000 pies….   

I think it’s fair to say that over the last decade, we’re all trying to do our bit to help the planet. Whether it’s getting rid of single-use plastic or recycling, we know what we should be doing.

But actually, there’s one area of our lives that trumps all that effort:  what we eat. As you’ll hear in this week’s conversation with Andrew Stephen, the CEO of the Sustainable Restaurant Association, the power of your appetite is phenomenal. As an individual, what you choose to eat, and where and when you choose to eat it, represent your biggest impact on the natural world.

As you’ll also hear, nothing is straightforward about the choices you make. For instance, soy is praised by many for replacing dairy products, but criticised by others for its part in the deforestation of the Amazon.

That is why the SRA is such a brilliant organisation. It helps restaurants and diners to find their way through the maze and understand how they can become more sustainable in a range of practical, achievable ways.

This week we’re learning about how to move food around planet earth via just the power of the wind.  Awesome produce, better for the environment, direct from the producer to the consumer, delivered by the wind.  I'm going to take you back in time, when beautiful tall ships criss-crossed the sea to deliver foods we couldn't grow ourselves. 

You might think I'm describing the 18th or 19th century. Actually, I'm only turning the clock back by a few months, when a former herring logger called The Gallant sailed serenely into Newhaven, with a cargo of olive oil, almonds and sea salt.

This programme is about the amazing groups that have an impressive vision:  to transport food and drink across oceans(and to our plates) in a way that is not only kinder to the planet, but - in the case of Sail Cargo South East  - also supports community groups who benefit from being out on the sea.... Plus they give hospitality businesses like The Herb Kitchen brilliant stories to share about their wind-powered ingredients.  

You’ll hear from Dan Cuss, co-founder of The Herb Kitchen later in the programme.  But first we meet Dhara Thompson, co-founder of Sail Cargo Southeast and the Sail Boat Project based in Sussex...

Getting to chat to Michael was awesome, like meeting my brother from another mother.  But he has a way cooler accent!  I share Michael's views on a great deal of issues around hospitality...not least his thoughts around reviews, tripadvisor and the like.  This really was an utterly delightful conversation.

You may already know Michael from the BBC's Great British Menu programme.  In 2016 he did pretty well, getting to the finals. A year later, he went one better, winning the entire competition and the chance to prepare a banquet for Wimbledon Tennis Club. 

Actually, Michael Bremner wasn't a stranger to preparing great food under the watchful gaze of the people just about to eat it. When he opened his first restaurant, 64 Degrees, in Brighton in 2013, he designed the restaurant so diners were just an arm's stretch away from the chefs. They could see the dishes coming together right in front of them. (The same early design also forgot about a bar: you'll hear how that turned out later!) 

In the next hour you'll also discover how avoiding food envy has shaped Michael's award-winning menu...and how he and his partner Carla (who gets legendary status in this edition) had the wherewithal to open a second, very different restaurant only months after his marathon at Great British Menu. 

In this episode we're going to learn alot about dairy farming, milk and happy cows.  Grab a notebook, there is a lot to learn!

Tom Foot and Neil Grigg are too humble to say this, but in building up their Open Air Dairy, they've become true pioneers in their industry. What they do is awesome.  Cows that live 13 years instead of 3 in intensive farming, less antibiotics, happier cows, happier humans, happier fields, awesome milk and cheese...what they've achieved is exciting for the future of farming.

Like many tenant farmers, they didn't have hundreds of thousands of pounds to build conventional sheds and indoor milking systems.  So when a fantastic farm came their way, they had to think outside the box. Or as one observer put it, they took the box, ripped it up completely and threw it away! 

Inspired by a farmer in the 1920s, they've transformed second-hand trailers and bails into mobile milking parlours. Instead of herding their cattle to a shed every day, they take the sheds direct to the cows. Everything really is done in the open air, all year round! 

What started as a cost-saving exercise - and the figures will astound you - has thrown up so many more benefits: great tasting milk; family-friendly working hours and super-relaxed cattle. I should know. A few of them enjoyed rubbing themselves against me as I recorded this conversation with Tom.   

Enjoy my nervousness as I work out whether they are bulls or heffers.

Love Drinks, has two clear strands to it: first, to share the amazing stories behind the spirits portfolio Kirsty has built up since 2007. Whether it’s an organic cachaca or a cold-brew coffee cut with wheat vodka, all the independent brands distributed by Love Drinks are created with dedication and craftsmanship – and they all feed into Kirsty’s philosophy of drinking less and better. 

The second – Love Well - goes back to when Kirsty was in her early 20s. The late nights and long hours triggered a series of panic attacks and a realisation that she had to look after herself. As you’ll hear, she’s applied the look-after-your-wellbeing principle to the whole of her team and to bartenders in general. 

No wonder Kirsty’s been given a British Empire Medal for services to the drinks industry.