Renowned culinary institute, Le Cordon Bleu London announced the winner of their coveted  Julia Child Scholarship. Bianca-Tia Mesuria from Hackney in London, was the chosen candidate having beaten off immense competition with entry numbers for the prize at a record high this year.

An evening to discuss equality within the food industry and why it is still such a hot topic even in the 21st century. We’ll discuss the moves that many restaurants and organisations are making to ensure parity with the hospitality industry and what we can all do to make working in the food industry a more balanced place in terms of gender.

Staffing in restaurants is currently a very hot topic, particularly in London. So how do you keep a Central London restaurant with over 350 staff running like clockwork? Our co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, chatted to Caroline Taylor, General Manager of Mayfair’s Novikov Restaurant & Bar. This glamorous and huge restaurant has two dining rooms, covering Asian & Italian food, and a Lounge Bar.  Caroline shared her experience of launching and managing two of London’s most influential and ground-breaking venues the restaurant in the OXO Tower and the Fifth Floor at Harvey Nichols.  She also shared her views on staff motivation & recruitment in the restaurant world.

The Cookbook Festival returns to Chiswick from 12th to 16th September 2019 as part of the Chiswick Book Festival.  The festival has a great and varied line-up of chefs; every single one with their own fascinating approach to cooking and inspirational stories to share. If you are looking for an  intimate venue where you can meet and see the authors in action cooking and talking about their food, recipes and kitchen style, then this is the event for you.

Continuing our series of Female Food Founders interviews we’re about to approach a number of exhibitions and trade shows which support food businesses, so we chatted to Karen Green who is speaking at some of these shows. As well as being the author of Recipe for Success, about how to run a successful food business, Karen is the founder of Food Mentor which she set up to help growing food companies overcome commercial challenges.  Our co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, spoke to Karen for her thoughts on common challenges facing the budding food industries today & how the industry is changing.

In the tenth of our series of Female Food Founders interviews we look at a producer in the growing area of “free from” and allergy foods.  We first met Sonia Mason Founder of Slightly Different Foods  who have the largest range of FODMAP Friendly accredited sauces developed and manufactured in the UK at the huge Allergy and Free From Show at Olympia in London. Our co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, chatted with Sonia to discover what FODMAP is, how Small Business Sunday helped her business and how to scale up from home kitchen to wider distribution.

In the ninth of our series of Female Food Founders interviews we turn again to  education and training.  We met Catherine Farhina Founder of The Chefs’ Forum – an organisation that brings together leading chefs, colleges and food trade suppliers in the UK and beyond.  She also set up The Chefs’ Forum Educational Foundation to raise funds for young people in the hospitality industry. Our co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, chatted with Catherine  about how she got into the hospitality business, the importance of developing young chefs and her food inspirations in the industry.

We were delighted to hear there is finally a female chef in with a chance of representing the UK in the Bocuse d’Or, the world’s largest and most prestigious cooking contest. Head Chef, Ruth Hansom, of  Pomona’s on Hereford Road in Notting Hill has joined the line up of chefs who will compete in the Bocuse d’Or National Selection.

Feast your eyes on a veritable Aladdin’s Cave for pie lovers and one of most amazing Private Dining Rooms we have ever had the pleasure of being in. Our co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, visited The Pie Room at Holborn Dining Room at the 5 Star Rosewood London Hotel to chat to Sous Chef, Nokx Majozi about her  inspirations, how professional kitchens are changing for the better changed since she has been working in London and what it’s like working with Executive Chef Calum Franklin.

On July 26 Anishya Kumar of Zinda Foods won Businesswoman of the Year at the British Indian Awards 2019. We were delighted to hear this news, as our co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, had interviewed her for our very first Female Food Founders series in May. We returned to her AirWrap factory in West Drayton to find out more about what we could learn from her win and what motivates her.

Our co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, chatted to Gemma Colao Managing Director & Co-Founder of OTO CBD, a wellness company whose mission is to help people discover the power of CBD through thoughtful and effective products which can easily fit into their everyday lives.

Our friend James Haywood from OpenKitchen made part of our interview into a short podcast where you can hear Gemma discuss the challenges of marketing a product associated with cannabis, who she finds inspiring in the health, wellness and drinks industries and who is in the market for CBD infused drinks.

We eat as much with our eyes as our taste buds. As well as marvelling the colours and textures of a well presented dish of food,  the plate the food is served on can make a big difference to our enjoyment of a meal. We caught up with three talented ceramicists are have created dishes for the up-coming OpenKitchen dinner on August 21st.  Meet Lucia Ocejo, Bisila Noha and Capucine Giraud.