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.

In the eighth of our series of Female Food Founders interviews we turn to the growing demand for cannabis infused drinks and the world of CBD – the non-psychoactive component of the cannabis plant.  We met Gemma Colao Managing Director 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 daily lives. Our co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, chatted with Gemma about the regulations of marketing a product associated with cannabis, what the health benefits are and whether the market is really growing in the UK.

In the seventh of our series of Female Food Founders interviews we look the world of tea. Although tea is one of the world’s most popular beverages, it tends not to be treated with the same reverence we see given to coffee.  We met Kim Havelaar founder of Roqberry Tea who is on a mission to blend the rules when it comes to tea.  Our tea loving co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, chatted with Kim about about the world of tea, how to become a tea sommelier and how to make a product stand out in a crowded market.

Our co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, chatted to Renée Elliott, the founder of Planet Organic about her mission to push organic and natural food out of the niche it was in back in 1995. 

Our friend James Haywood from OpenKitchen made part of our interview into a short podcast  where you can exclusively hear Renee’s views on the organic food market, whether being a women in the food industry has its advantages and her new mentoring and coaching business, Beluga Bean.

In the sixth of our series of Female Food Founders interviews we turn once again to ice cream. But here is a very adult ice cream made in partnership with award winning spirit and liqueur producers.  We met Jane Woodhead co-founder of Speakeasy Ice Cream. Each flavour is made with no artificial additives and features a single alcohol as its centrepiece.  Our co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, chatted with Jane about about the luxury ice cream market, developing a product for both chefs and consumers and why her logo is a blindfolded tiger.

Our co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, chatted to Katie Chesney, Head of Marketing EMEA of The One Group, who moved  from restaurant management to marketing the STK Steakhouse group of restaurants in EMEA.

Our friend James Haywood from OpenKitchen made part of our interview into a short podcast  where you can exclusively hear Katie’s views on hospitality, working as a women in the food industry and advice to people wanting to move into restaurant marketing.

In the fifth of our series of Female Food Founders interviews we were delighted to interview Renée Elliott who had a mission to push organic and natural food out of the niche it was in back in 1995.  Planet Organic is now the UK’s largest fully certified organic supermarket and sells over 8,000 product lines in eight stores within the M25.  Our co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, chatted with Renée  about changes in the organic market since the mid nineties, her inspirations and that tricky definition of sustainability.

With the move towards plant-based food is there a future for steakhouses? Our co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, chatted to Katie Chesney, Head of Marketing EMEA of The One Group, who moved from  from restaurant management to marketing the STK Steakhouse group of restaurants in EMEA. Katie shared how she moved into the hospitality world, STK’s relationship with farmers, her favourite dishes on the menu and her views on some of the issues facing women in the food industry.

In the fourth of our series of Female Food Founders interviews we turn to ice cream, as summer is finally here. Also with the Allergy and Free From Show taking place in London, we met Cecily Mills founder of Coconuts Organic, dairy free ice cream.  Cecily’s ice cream secured two investment offers from Dragon’s Den. Our co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, chatted with Cecily about about dairy-free, Dragons and driving sales in Tesco.

Our co-founder, Janie Ash, spoke to Chef Patron, Stosie Madi from The Parkers Arms about her being the only woman in the north of England to win a place in the Estrella National Restaurant Awards Top 100. Our friend James Haywood from OpenKitchen made part of our interview into a short podcast  where you can exclusively hear Stosie’s views on working as a women in the food industry and why we need more female role models in food.

July 2019 saw the 10th anniversary of Imbibe Live, one of the UK’s biggest on-trade events for the drinks and hospitality industry. Attracting thousands of visitors each year to Olympia London, our co-founder Mecca Ibrahim went along, keen to discover the latest trends.  She didn’t quite expect to see that the future of the drinks would mean less alcohol, more sustainability and an industry catering to future drinkers looking to get their kicks less intoxicating ways.