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Episode 04 - Feeding Speedy by Tom Speed - "American Food, British Accent"
78 Plays3 years ago
"American Food, British Accent" - Feeding Speedy
Tom is a British freelance chef and food writer based in London, where he runs pop-up restaurants inspired by his passion for American cuisine. Through his Instagram account @feedingspeedy, Tom also runs weekly cook alongs to share his love of food and shine a light on inspiring food founders and influcers doing incredible things.
In this episode, Tom discusses what inspired him to becoming a self-taught chef, how he finds diversity in American food (beyond the streotypical burgers), and how he brings American cuisine across the pond to London.
He details what it's like to take a step towards pursuing passion in food. How one finds things like corn tortillas or andouille sausage in the UK. What it was like to serve his first customer at his food popup. How to prepare shooting cooking videos on TikTok.
You can follow Tom's journey on his website, his Instagram, and his TikTok, linked below:
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@feedingspeedy?lang=en
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/feedingspeedy/?hl=en
Website: https://feedingspeedy.com/
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Convos with Jordan' and Guest Tom Speed
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello everyone, and welcome to Convos with Jordan, the podcast where I, Jordan Keith, interview and introduce you to people pursuing their dreams, living authentically, and self-actualizing to their true selves.
00:00:19
Speaker
Guests discuss their unique experiences, trials, and tribulations that they have overcome, shape them into who they are today, and where they are headed next on their life's journey.
00:00:29
Speaker
On our solo episodes, I'll draw upon personal experiences from my own life, concepts from the self-improvement community, and topics revolving around success and inspirational ideas so that you can become the person you want to be.
00:00:42
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in on this journey.
00:00:47
Speaker
Good morning, everyone, and welcome back to our fourth episode of Combos with Jordan.
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I'm your host, Jordan Keith.
00:00:54
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Today we have as our guest, my friend, Tom Speed of Feeding Speedy, a British freelance chef and food writer based in London, where he runs pop-up restaurants inspired by his passion for American cuisine.
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Through his Instagram, at Feeding Speedy, Tom also runs weekly cookalongs to share his love of food and shine a light on inspiring food founders and influencers doing amazing things.
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You can follow his journey on his website, FeedingSpeedy.com, as well as his Instagram, at FeedingSpeedy.
Tom's Culinary Passion and American Cuisine Exploration
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Welcome to the show, Tom.
00:01:24
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Glad to have you here.
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Why don't you describe yourself a little bit?
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Obviously British, obviously a little bit posh.
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And we met in a running club.
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So take it from here, Tom.
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Tell our listeners a little bit about yourself.
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Well, pleasure to be on, Jordan.
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Thank you for the invite.
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And yes, we met running.
00:01:45
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So I'm Tom.
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I'm, as you can tell, a British guy.
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I actually am a bit posh.
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That's probably fair.
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So I love American food.
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I love American culture.
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I met Jordan probably in 2016, I think it is, when I moved.
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I was in New York for a couple of months with work.
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And I didn't know anyone and I just wanted to make some friends.
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And I so distinctly remember...
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thinking it was a complete hoax because I was googling like running clubs in New York and this website random website was like oh like we all meet every uh Saturday morning at Whole Foods um so like come here and then uh and then we'll run together and I was convinced this was a lie I was convinced it was like a like the website was dead it was just so embarrassing so I really was nervous the first time I went but I was so glad I did because it was a great
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moment to meet a completely diverse group of New Yorkers who were all doing the same thing which was trying to find connections with people.
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So that's how we hit it off.
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So yeah the description is pretty accurate.
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So I have a full-time job in marketing but outside of that I'm a freelance chef.
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So food is my passion, food is how I, is the framework that I see the world in.
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I think about food all the time and I just love
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uncovering stories through food um and my uh my instagram feeding speedy is my size project my passion my love um i hope that passion comes across in all of everything that i do but i do you know
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great recipe content.
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I do pop-up restaurants in London where I try and bring American food that I think is real and the American food that I have had in London.
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And yeah, I just try and have a good time feeding people and making them happy.
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Yeah, and I think that's amazing.
00:03:34
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I remember distinctly, I think it was one of your last weekends in New York, like you wanted to go to IHOP for some reason.
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So after we ran, we walked over to the IHOP on 14th, you know, like a little towards like towards the East River.
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And everyone else is like, why would you want to come here?
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And you're like, oh, I feel like this is like a quintessential American experience.
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Yeah, I got I remember that.
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And oh, I was in so I was in when we were messaging a couple of weeks ago, I was in Texas on holiday and with my girlfriend and I went past an IHOP and I told her that story.
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And I was like, IHOP is an icon.
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And I think the thing is, you know, I'm a child of the 90s and I
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when you're in the UK and you grew up in the 90s and early 2000s, American TV dominated your life.
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You know, be it like when I was a lot younger and it was like Disney Channel, Nickelodeon.
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But then like when you go through like Friends Generation, How I Met Your Mother, like these...
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shows completely romanticize the American experience.
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And I know that it's not necessarily real, but it really captures, you know, a certain group of, you know, and I consider myself like someone who really loves America and American culture.
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It really captures that essence of what it is like to be an American.
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And I just love kind of getting as many of those like real experiences as possible because, you
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Hell yeah, like Michelin star restaurants are brilliant and all that kind of stuff.
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But some of my happiest food memories have been standing outside a taco truck in the middle of some random neighborhoods with like sauce dribbling down my hand as I eat my fourth
Impactful American Road Trip and Regional Cuisine Discoveries
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taco.
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Like that's the kind of stuff that I get so excited about.
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And that feels more real to me.
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And I remember I used to I had a checklist when I was living in America about going to Applebee's, White Castle, In-N-Out,
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the five guys in America, because obviously there's five guys in the UK, but that's real, that's the real life for me.
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And I want to have those experiences.
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So yeah, thank you for taking me to IHOP that time.
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And I think it's like here, like you see, like right now we're about to go in election season and I'm not going to hit on politics type stuff, but always like in these campaigns, it's always like a politician, you know, like in a diner usually.
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And that's what I think IHOP captures that type of experience.
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Right.
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But you've seen so many different types of like American food experience.
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I remember, um,
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years ago like so how did you feeding speedy like you got inspired by american cuisine was there a particular cuisine that kind of like made you like kind of fall in love with oh that's a great question um so so yeah so feeding speedy was originally started just because i wanted to capture recipes and just kind of almost for my own benefit just have a memory log of everything that i'd seen and eaten and stuff like that um
00:06:21
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I think when I was, before I, yeah, before we met, I had done a American trip, a road trip.
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So I took a mini work break sabbatical and I went for six weeks from New York to LA and back by the, by the South on a like coach with like a group of people.
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And it was an amazing experience.
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I was probably 24, 25, just completely insane.
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open to any of these kind of cuisines and anything that I kind of could get my hands on and I just wanted to experience real America I think you know from a kid I've been into my parents took us to Florida you know every other year I've been to New York loads I went to LA once like I hit all the big
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kind of your classic touristy places and I wanted to see the rest of America and I was very conscious that I was seeing quite a distorted America.
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I was seeing a very kind of, you know, in some sense, liberal, metropolitan, like that kind of America and I wanted to see something else.
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So I had a really great experience of that trip and there were countless stories I could tell you but I think
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in answer your question the thing that really inspired me was when i went to new orleans so i actually have been as you'll you'll remember i just went uh there a couple of months ago um with my girlfriend and it was one of those places that i was like i need to take you to this place because you know and i remember talking to a guy while we were there and he was like if you were to drop someone who had never been to america or didn't know what it was into new orleans
00:07:48
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they would not think they were in America.
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They would have no sense that this was part of a bigger country that had the kind of perception that it has.
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It was a very unique space.
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And from a cuisine perspective, that was the first time I really understood what regional American cuisine was.
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And again, as a Brit, and I'm in London, and London is quite good with regional stuff, and I think it's quite sophisticated in some ways.
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But to be honest, if you were to ask the average Brit, like, what's American food?
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They would say burgers.
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They'd say McDonald's.
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They'd say, like, steak, house, TGI Fridays, ribs.
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Someone more sophisticated might say, you know, Texas barbecue.
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But really, like, that's not big.
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But pretty much that would be it.
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And the idea of, you know, dishes that I had in New Orleans, like gumbo, jambalaya, those kinds of...
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really specific dishes to an area would have very very minimal awareness in the uk and london even now and and there are some restaurants who are brilliant so there's a couple of places um that um do fantastic authentic yeah southern food new orleans food but um that was what made me realize that actually there's a real there's a real lifelong interest for me in american food because actually
00:09:07
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The general perception is that it's quite homogenized and run and dominated by big brands.
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But actually, if you scratch the surface, you can see each state has a flavor and a style and a difference that
00:09:19
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not anyone else really understands if you're not in America.
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So that's what has motivated me to keep trying to uncover these gems and uncover these different dishes.
00:09:29
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Yeah, I
Influences and Inspirations in Tom's Culinary Journey
00:09:30
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think that's amazing.
00:09:30
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And like you said, New Orleans is actually one of the few cities in America I haven't visited yet, but it has that kind of like French inspired culture, the Creole Cajun type of culture that makes it really unique.
00:09:40
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And
00:09:41
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a really unique aspect.
00:09:42
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Like you mentioned the diversity of food too, like barbecue alone, Texas barbecue, Kansas city, barbecue, Carolina barbecue.
00:09:48
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I think when you delve into America, like you said, you know, the stereotype a lot of times is, Oh, McDonald's KFC.
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I hear it is very popular abroad too.
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Yeah.
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And it's,
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Way more diverse than you would suspect because of all the type of cultures.
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Like I learned recently, you're probably aware, tacos come from Turkey.
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Turkish immigrants immigrated to Mexico and created the taco.
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Speaker
That's like the El Pastor, the whole spit.
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Yeah.
00:10:15
Speaker
Yeah, Pastor, yeah.
00:10:17
Speaker
And actually, to be honest, I feel my interest with food by watching, you know, Anthony Bourdain has always been an icon and inspiration for me.
00:10:27
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David Chang is also someone who I'm really inspired by.
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And Ugly Delicious, his great show on Netflix, was where that story uncovered.
00:10:35
Speaker
And I think he takes a very holistic view of food that I find super interesting, the idea that every culture and cuisine is
00:10:43
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kind of in some ways has the same base ingredients or base kind of techniques and what's great is that if you give different groups of people different things they create different things but actually if you take a step back and you realize they're all quite similar um you know a crepe is the same as a taco is you know and and as is the same as the kind of um um egera the ethiopian flatbreads like there's lots of different kind of similarities in some sense to all of these things
00:11:09
Speaker
um but obviously they're very unique to that area and unique to that that cuisine and those people which um again i find so interesting and i think is why food uh is such a important kind of topic to learn and to uncover stories within because it's not just food it's not just fuel it's about it's about a family or a cuisine's uh kind of background um and how they express themselves yeah it's kind of like your um
00:11:34
Speaker
I remember I went to a military academy here in the States and there's a civilian college across the street and this admiral like always ragged or senior captain whatever ragged on this one cadet student because he took this class over at the civilian college called Asian culture through food and that blew his mind that that there was a class like that.
00:11:53
Speaker
But what you're saying is there's a lot of cultural avenue through these foods.
00:11:56
Speaker
I guess like for you, what are
00:11:59
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What are some dishes that really speak to you or really like epitomize a certain place and that you've kind of brought over to London and you love to share with people?
00:12:10
Speaker
Interesting.
00:12:10
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Well, it's funny, this is quite a good time to have this chat because I'm in the midst of building a bit of a TikTok series around... The working title is A Brit Making American Dishes that you might not have heard of.
00:12:23
Speaker
So there's a couple of dishes that stand out that I'm currently just playing with and thinking about.
00:12:29
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Oyster po'boys are the thing that first brings to mind.
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So...
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I never really got oysters until I came to New Orleans and then I had a round of charbroiled oysters and I had a round of like just neat raw oysters and then I had an oyster playboy and then I finally understood how amazing oysters are.
00:12:46
Speaker
And what's great about those dishes is that they are very, they have like a kind of a real richness from the New Orleans experience and what those dishes meant and how they fueled a certain group of people.
00:13:00
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And now they're just so iconic within that neighborhood that having great po'boys is something that I just,
00:13:05
Speaker
like think about a lot and crave a lot and and I've got a recipe that I've made with them um and uh they don't you know we have like good sandwiches in the UK and there's actually there's a movement now in London of um almost a kind of gourmet Subway sandwiches so um taking really great ingredients reimagining your kind of Subway classics but then and but it's but it's branded in a very kind of Subway way and almost quite like ironic way which is quite interesting
00:13:36
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But, you know, things like Poe Boys are really interesting to me because that's a dish that doesn't exist in London, but could do so well because it's just a delicious kind of sandwich.
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It's just a great thing that people should know about.
Challenges and Strategies in Creating American Dishes in London
00:13:50
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When I did my very first pop-up, though, I did gumbo, and that was a really great thing for me because it was a dish that kind of, it was the one dish that when I had it, I felt like I'd eaten something new.
00:14:03
Speaker
And it was kind of one of those things that, you know, sometimes in life you don't, you feel like you just have the same thing all the time.
00:14:08
Speaker
But like, for me, like when I remember the first time I ate like gumbo was like, wow, this is a different, this is like a different language.
00:14:17
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It's like, it's a different way of,
00:14:19
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taking ingredients that I know and making them into something new.
00:14:24
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So I had a go at making my own and I did a pop-up in, and this would have been 2019.
00:14:29
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It was my very first pop-up and I did, my menu was gumbo, pecan pie, cornbread cooked in a skillet, which again was like a new thing for me, like really, really tried to make it as classic as I could and mac and cheese and people loved it.
00:14:44
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And I think it went really well.
00:14:45
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I was super nervous.
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And I remember the very first person I served
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And this was like kind of, you know, classic SOZ law like scenario, but you know, I opened up, it's in, it's based in Pimlico, which is like just below south of the river, very near to Westminster.
00:14:59
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It's a very quirky space.
00:15:01
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My friend, one of my best friends, Amir, who is also a food, he's a food, proper food writer.
00:15:06
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He's written a cookbook.
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He used to run this space and I borrowed it from him.
00:15:11
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And the very first person who cooked, who came up to me was an American.
00:15:17
Speaker
was someone was like oh I and I was like oh I was like she's like oh I'm from I can't remember where she was from but she she said oh like I I found out through someone that this was happening and I had to come down and try some authentic American foods and I was like what a stressful first customer like this could be terrible you have no so what but obviously you know in the in the in the way of doing I just said yeah of course like
00:15:40
Speaker
you know kind of act like you do all the time and it's not just your first time doing the actual pop-up and she thought it was great and it was a really nice moment of I was like okay well I can feed someone who's had it before and it's not terrible um but yeah I think that was the dish that had it but then also that was the dish that made me realize that there is an education challenge so or you know a logistical challenge so obviously you know this that
00:16:05
Speaker
authentic gumbo has andouille sausage in it now andouille sausage is a sausage that is um you know local to new orleans local to cajun cuisine andouille sausage is so hard to find in london it's basically impossible the most stressed i got about that first pop-up was trying to find sausage i couldn't find it anywhere and i ended up and and this is like classic kind of hustler story but i ended up
00:16:32
Speaker
Googling restaurants in London that had gumbo on the menu and then calling them and then asking to talk to the chef to say, where did you get your sausage from?
00:16:40
Speaker
Because I can't find any and I'm trying to do this pop up.
00:16:42
Speaker
And like, can you help?
00:16:44
Speaker
And actually that's where like, you know, I think there's a kind of unspoken rule in chefs of like helping.
00:16:49
Speaker
And I think it's a great community.
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And I think if people understand what you're trying to do and are very supportive, actually, that it's amazing.
00:16:55
Speaker
And this guy was like, here's who I get them from.
00:16:58
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They're based in Kent, which is kind of out of London.
00:17:02
Speaker
And they're really good.
00:17:03
Speaker
So I trust them.
00:17:03
Speaker
So like, that's what you should get.
00:17:05
Speaker
And so I did.
00:17:06
Speaker
And then thank God I found the right people.
00:17:09
Speaker
And it was amazing.
00:17:10
Speaker
But it shows that it's really hard to like sometimes to make these dishes because you don't have the raw material.
00:17:17
Speaker
um so relies a little bit on kind of yeah word of mouth and trying to find the right suppliers um but yeah that's uh that's the dish yeah that's amazing that you brought that up because that was going to kind of be my next question too kind of like hey do you encounter supply chain issues with these ingredients or you know like kind of that market research how do i get these things and everything that's incredible but i i remember um
00:17:40
Speaker
I mentioned like before we started recording that I went out to Greece with a friend who's also British and he asked like myself and then his old roommate who's American.
00:17:48
Speaker
He's like, Hey, did you guys bring any of that Mac and cheese?
00:17:51
Speaker
Like the powdered cheese, I guess like is like not allowed to be brought into the UK for like food safety reasons or whatever.
00:18:00
Speaker
They don't consider it like real food or something.
00:18:02
Speaker
You know what I'm talking about, right?
00:18:04
Speaker
Right.
00:18:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:07
Speaker
That's funny.
00:18:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:08
Speaker
I mean, I think what's, um,
00:18:10
Speaker
It is interesting how I think you have to find the right suppliers and you can get stuff.
00:18:18
Speaker
So I did another pop up.
Organizing and Executing Successful Pop-Ups
00:18:21
Speaker
later that summer, which was a Mexican, like, taqueria concept.
00:18:25
Speaker
So I just was like, you know, Mexican food is not, is, you know, there are some decent Mexican places, and particularly at the high end, there's some really good high end Mexican races in London.
00:18:36
Speaker
But I think the mainstream Mexican kind of taste is not there.
00:18:39
Speaker
It's not the same.
00:18:40
Speaker
It's, it's, it is, again, like, going back to, like, my travels and stuff, like, you know, this Mexican food is unbelievable in Texas, actually, I had some amazing Tex-Mex in, in Mexico, this, this summer, but
00:18:52
Speaker
I realized that I wanted to like have my own spin on this.
00:18:54
Speaker
So the biggest thing that I was trying to find, and again, it all goes back to the right ingredient and the right product.
00:19:00
Speaker
The thing that I missed and the thing that London is not good at, and even now in, and I, you know, in a supermarket context, corn tacos, sorry, corn tortillas are not, don't really exist.
00:19:13
Speaker
So all of the, all the market is all flour.
00:19:16
Speaker
So, you know, I think that kind of comes back from, I know that flour tortillas are authentic in some sense, but the taste to me of taco is corn.
00:19:24
Speaker
And that was the thing that made me realize it was an amazing, different thing.
00:19:28
Speaker
So I knew that for this pop-up, I had to find corn tacos and it just took forever to find any kind of authentic Mexican thing.
00:19:38
Speaker
But then I, and then this is where like the world's great and there are people who do amazing things.
00:19:43
Speaker
So in Houston, which is really in the middle of London, very close to here, actually.
00:19:46
Speaker
So like kind of central London, there is a Mexican restaurant that has a Mexican like food supermarket, like for authentic product next to it.
00:19:56
Speaker
So and I don't know the story ins and outs, but it's a very authentic place.
00:20:01
Speaker
And I was so amazed.
00:20:03
Speaker
And I went into this place and it was it was honestly like.
00:20:07
Speaker
a dream because I walked in and I was like here is here's some uh nopales here's queso fresco here's dried chipotle here is um fresh corn tortillas that are in the fridge that you have to like buy and then use not not from the packet which is again amazing um and I was like this is my supplier this is who I need and and it was great because they were thankfully not that far away from what where I needed to go but it was
00:20:34
Speaker
It took a lot of hustle to get that.
00:20:36
Speaker
And this is where, you know, I have this thing about foods that you should really think about what you're creating for your customer.
00:20:45
Speaker
And you have to have a standard that you don't negotiate on.
00:20:50
Speaker
Because, you know, there are a lot of people who cook in London, in anywhere, and you can feed people a decent, you know, meal,
00:21:00
Speaker
But if you don't have a standard that you want to set, then you basically are just like everyone else.
00:21:06
Speaker
And I think the thing for me is I want to be different.
00:21:08
Speaker
I want to stand out and have that standard.
00:21:10
Speaker
And particularly if it's something like as important as taco, you have to be like, this is the best taco that I can produce.
00:21:16
Speaker
And I know that because the ingredients I put into it are the best I can find.
00:21:20
Speaker
And that was, again, just a nice story, I think, of product and how I try and be quite led on those ingredients and trying to find the right stuff.
00:21:28
Speaker
I find it fascinating.
00:21:29
Speaker
You're kind of talking about this idea.
00:21:31
Speaker
One, you're a very sharp guy.
00:21:32
Speaker
You're doing your market research.
00:21:34
Speaker
You're finding your suppliers to find the most authentic experience because it seems like there's a cornerstone ingredient or ingredients around these cuisines.
00:21:41
Speaker
Even though everyone has, say...
00:21:44
Speaker
You know, in Indian food, there's a samosa, right?
00:21:47
Speaker
But in Mexican cuisine, there's an empanada, right?
00:21:50
Speaker
But you're trying to find the most authentic experience.
00:21:53
Speaker
And you're like, it's you're being very intentional about this and like setting a standard for like the experience because you're
00:21:59
Speaker
It's not just food, right?
00:22:01
Speaker
It's not just sustainment.
00:22:02
Speaker
It's also an experience that you're trying to provide people, like kind of a cultural immersion.
00:22:06
Speaker
And London's super diverse, right?
00:22:07
Speaker
So I'm not surprised you haven't been, you know, you've been able to find things.
00:22:11
Speaker
But what type of relationships have you built up?
00:22:14
Speaker
It seems like, do you know what your next pop-up is going to be too related to that?
00:22:17
Speaker
It seems like you have quite the network of, you know, foodie people.
00:22:20
Speaker
Yeah, well, I think...
00:22:22
Speaker
I'm quite, I think one of my strengths is being able to build relationships with people.
00:22:28
Speaker
I love doing that.
00:22:29
Speaker
I think it's something that's important in life, be it work, personal relationships.
00:22:34
Speaker
You have to invest in people and think about
00:22:37
Speaker
and think about them as, you know, equals in that relationship and that investment.
00:22:42
Speaker
So I've been, yeah, I mean, I've got some kind of irons in the fire for my next pop-up.
00:22:47
Speaker
I'm not quite sure timings at the moment, but what I want to do is thinking about kind of, again, another, I want to shine a light on another regional American kind of moment in a cuisine and create something amazing.
00:23:00
Speaker
And I think, again, I think you are right.
00:23:02
Speaker
Like it goes back to, there are some core ingredients that,
00:23:05
Speaker
that you need to source that are slightly difficult.
00:23:08
Speaker
And then that's the thing that will unlock the magic.
00:23:11
Speaker
And I work, you know, I work with some really interesting suppliers across London that, you know, I'm quite specific around trying to get fresh suppliers who are quite local to where I'm doing the pop-ups.
00:23:21
Speaker
So in Pimlico, we have a great network of people who we work with.
00:23:25
Speaker
I did another one in South London, like Bermond, not that South, but Bermondsey area.
00:23:30
Speaker
But again, I used a local, you know, I was creating these great veggie burgers,
00:23:36
Speaker
And I needed some like fresh buns for brioche buns.
00:23:40
Speaker
And I used a bakery that was like a couple of doors down.
00:23:42
Speaker
That was a brilliant supplier and super, super iconic, actually, because it's called St.
00:23:48
Speaker
John's Bakery, which is a St.
00:23:50
Speaker
John restaurant.
00:23:51
Speaker
It's Anthony Bourdain's favorite restaurant.
00:23:53
Speaker
It was a very kind of iconic British institution.
00:23:55
Speaker
And I think the other thing I was going to say that, you know, may be interesting is that the thing I try and do is I do try and keep it grounded in London as well and grounded in Canada.
00:24:05
Speaker
I experienced because I never want to like feel inauthentic just having someone else's cuisine.
00:24:10
Speaker
So my last pop up was this June and it was the Queen's Jubilee.
00:24:16
Speaker
So I did a collaboration with a brand in Bermondsey, brilliant brand called Hiver Beers, which are a honey beer brand based in London.
00:24:25
Speaker
And we did the Queen Bee Jubilee pop-up, which was me serving vegetarian sloppy joes, loaded nachos with beer cheese sauce and...
00:24:38
Speaker
a uh kind of a my i call it the ultimate veggie burger which is kind of my take on almost like an in and out burger but made vegetarian um and uh then they they had their fantastic beers and it was a great experience for me because it was my first time properly collaborating with a brand in that sense um and uh it was also just nice because it kind of the flavor of it was like the you know the jubilee it was quite a joyous weekend in london uh very sunny lots of people out um
00:25:04
Speaker
And yeah, so there's obviously a very distinctive, you know, the way I frame it on my kind of socials and stuff is American food, British accent, which is, it's American food, but my take on it, which is kind of influenced by my British kind of, either be it British ingredients, my kind of techniques, or just kind of my spin on stuff that I've had.
00:25:26
Speaker
So yeah, I have the networks that I kind of went on a tangent a little bit, but my network is my power, and I think
00:25:33
Speaker
you know, for anyone doing anything like this, it's so important to, to surround yourself with good people and nurture those relationships.
00:25:39
Speaker
Yeah, I absolutely agree.
00:25:41
Speaker
As someone too, who loves obviously talking, connecting with people, seeing what people are doing.
00:25:45
Speaker
I think that's really amazing in that you timed it well, you know, like that kind of growth, doing it with a brand and actually doing a brand to deal.
00:25:51
Speaker
You do work in marketing as your profession.
00:25:53
Speaker
So that doesn't surprise me at all that you're able to angle that in, really network in and get something going.
00:25:59
Speaker
The Jubilee must've been amazing too.
00:26:01
Speaker
I know like,
00:26:02
Speaker
The Queen obviously recently passed, and I'm sorry that I'm sure that was really hard.
00:26:07
Speaker
I mean, we're in a different era now because there's a king now, right?
00:26:11
Speaker
And there will continue to be a king for a long time.
00:26:16
Speaker
Yeah, it's a funny time in London, and it was a very funny time in the UK when all of that happened, and it was an unusually somber time.
00:26:25
Speaker
I think for the world as much as anything else, but you feel it very strongly when obviously you're so...
00:26:30
Speaker
you're so kind of so surrounded by it but the Jubilee itself was very joyous and I think it's you know it was a great moment for me personally just because I hadn't done a pop-up because of the pandemic for a year and a half so it was a big moment for me to like kind of step up and cook again for people so yeah it was a great thing and it's something I definitely want to do I've got yeah I definitely will do it in the new year but I think I want to try and do one
00:26:58
Speaker
before Christmas if possible, although I keep looking at my diary and realizing that I'm running out of time.
00:27:03
Speaker
Yeah, because with that too, like, are you targeting kind of like quarterly pop-ups?
00:27:08
Speaker
Is that kind of the intention too, to do it like once a quarter?
00:27:11
Speaker
Because it seems like there's so much extensive planning with finding the suppliers, you know, doing branded deals possibly.
00:27:17
Speaker
It's quite a big project to undertake on top of running the rest of Feeding Speedy as well as just, you know, typical work, right?
00:27:24
Speaker
Well, yeah, I mean, it's
Vision for Feeding Speedy and Balancing Passion Projects
00:27:26
Speaker
a good point.
00:27:26
Speaker
And I think my girlfriend, when she listens to this, will be rolling her eyes as you list out all of this stuff.
00:27:32
Speaker
Because, yeah, I think the thing about entrepreneurship in general and side hustle culture is that
00:27:39
Speaker
it sounds really sexy and it sounds really cool when you look at it from the outside but when you are doing it and you are committing to doing it it's a slog it's really hard and there are loads of things that people don't see that you just have to do um you know and you're right like from the pop-ups it's it's honestly like the pop-ups in my head are like two months worth of planning and execution um and you know it goes from like you're right like
00:28:03
Speaker
the initial kind of kickoff with the potential brand or suppliers.
00:28:07
Speaker
It's about planning it.
00:28:08
Speaker
It's about defining what the vision is for the marketing and then doing the marketing and then repeatedly kind of saying to people, come by like the, you know, and I ended up for this pop up.
00:28:19
Speaker
I just had a go at doing lots of different video content kind of on TikTok and that went really well.
00:28:23
Speaker
But then, you know, you invest a lot in doing that stuff.
00:28:26
Speaker
So,
00:28:27
Speaker
Honestly, it takes me, you know, quarterly is, would be a great thing.
00:28:31
Speaker
I think honestly, like if I did two or three a year, I'd be like chuffed because it just, you know, it takes over your world.
00:28:38
Speaker
And, you know, the problem also is financially, it doesn't really pay back.
00:28:42
Speaker
Like it's, it's a brilliant thing for a brand building perspective.
00:28:45
Speaker
And I think my, my kind of whole vision for Feeling Speedy is it's less about
00:28:50
Speaker
you know, if the end goal for me is not like a restaurant chain or a restaurant of any kind, the end goal for me is almost like me as a personality in the space who can become an authority figure in that world of American food.
00:29:03
Speaker
And so what I try and do is think about how do I deliver that proof that I can be an expert and
00:29:10
Speaker
part of that for me is the pop-ups are a good proof point of like, well, I cook food in real life for people and they eat it and they like it.
00:29:17
Speaker
That's for me, like quite a credible proof point.
00:29:20
Speaker
And then, you know, the other stuff that you'll see that I do, all the kind of recipe content and all the storytelling that I do, again, it's like a proof point of like, well, here are my recipes that I create that you can enjoy that are, again, grounded in America.
00:29:33
Speaker
And then the cooking conversations is kind of, in my head, almost a bit becoming its own thing, but just is almost my like,
00:29:40
Speaker
ability to kind of talk about food more generally and get inspired by people who I think are really exciting so it's it's just a quite you know those are my three pillars of stuff um and uh I try and balance them with my with my personal life with my work life with sleep and I don't always get it right um but I try to
00:30:03
Speaker
do things that make me happy and fulfill me.
00:30:05
Speaker
And I think the thing with all of these things outside of your full-time job is that you have to do stuff that you enjoy and you would do if like no one else really cared.
00:30:16
Speaker
And then at some point someone might care and watch, you know, watch your videos, follow your stuff.
00:30:20
Speaker
And then suddenly it goes up.
00:30:23
Speaker
But you can't come, you can't start with the vision of like, I want a hundred thousand followers or whatever, because you'll, you'll lose your own,
00:30:31
Speaker
you'll lose way before you'll quit way before you ever get that.
00:30:34
Speaker
Right.
00:30:34
Speaker
It's not about like, Hey, I'm going to be the successful influencer and I'm going to be known by everyone.
00:30:39
Speaker
It's more like, Hey, this is what's bringing me fulfillment because I've struggled with that.
00:30:44
Speaker
I think a lot of people do entering the working world.
00:30:46
Speaker
And, you know, for me getting out of the military, going into the civilian workforce, I've learned that like, Hey, my job doesn't need to bring me fulfillment.
00:30:53
Speaker
You should like and enjoy your job, but it shouldn't bring you fulfill.
00:30:56
Speaker
You know, it doesn't need to bring you fulfillment.
00:30:57
Speaker
And this brings you a lot of fulfillment.
00:30:59
Speaker
I can tell, you know, you love,
00:31:01
Speaker
cooking you love food uh it's awesome that your girlfriend is supportive you know I imagine she's like oh Tom I'm gonna have to entertain this whole project and I'm gonna have to try his food because I'm sure you cook for her a ton or and everything too right yeah well I have I have I mean yes I mean and she's a great cook as well to be honest um so that's we we very much share that but I also uh you know my friends I think you know it's quite it's quite nice but I sometimes have to
00:31:28
Speaker
test a lot of my recipes before I do pop-ups I practice so uh I often invite like a group of friends over and say hey like I've got a pop-up in two weeks time I need to practice the whole menu do you want to come over and just like eat it all and like tell me what you think and obviously that's a good popular thing and people like that and are always willing to help so that's nice um
00:31:47
Speaker
But it, you know, also I have to like, I have like really funny kind of things of like, I have to make, you know, I don't know, sloppy joes.
00:31:56
Speaker
I had to make four, four or five times in the space of two weeks because I had to kind of get the like spice ratio the way that I wanted it.
00:32:03
Speaker
And there's a moment where like my sister or someone like 10, I was like, I don't want to try anymore.
00:32:07
Speaker
Like, I don't want it.
00:32:09
Speaker
can you like and I'm like I'm sorry this is too much um but yeah like it's it's you've got it you know again it goes back to this like you set your own standard um and no one's telling me like this is good this is bad I'm like well if I want to serve it and I want to put my name to it or my face to it I want to be proud and
00:32:27
Speaker
that is the standard that I want to set when I think about all my dishes, really.
00:32:31
Speaker
And I've learned that.
00:32:32
Speaker
I think this is something that when I first were doing them, I was perhaps a bit more relaxed about.
00:32:37
Speaker
But I think now that I've got older and a bit more kind of thinking more kind of,
00:32:42
Speaker
strategically about all of this stuff i just want to be proud i want to be proud to share you know all the recipes i create online i make them they are good i promise that they will be tasty if you follow how i do them and it's the same with the pop-ups like i will never serve a burger and expect someone to pay money for something that i wouldn't eat and pay that money for yeah and like on that
00:33:03
Speaker
I had two thoughts.
00:33:05
Speaker
One, the pop-ups are like, kind of like musicians going on tour, right?
00:33:07
Speaker
Like musician, musicians, a lot of times don't make money on tour.
00:33:11
Speaker
They actually lose money, but it gets that exposure to like their music.
00:33:15
Speaker
And then people do album sales or buy merchandise and all of that.
00:33:18
Speaker
And it's like what you're saying a little bit pre-recording, like, you know, like with Tik TOK and you know, I'll, is your Tik TOK is at feeding speedy as well, by the way, because that's a huge thing.
00:33:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:29
Speaker
So I'll be sure to include that in the beginning and the primer, but, um,
00:33:32
Speaker
Yeah, because I want to capture all of that.
00:33:34
Speaker
But it's almost like with all these things, it's like gaining exposure and everything too, you know, and that's what these pop ups are about getting the word out, which is awesome.
00:33:42
Speaker
You're a marketing guy.
00:33:43
Speaker
So you totally understand that way better than I do.
00:33:46
Speaker
Have you thought about and the thought occurs to me, you know, you mentioned, you know, your friends, your sister, like, I don't want to eat any more food.
Cross-Cultural Food Experiences and Longing for Home Flavors
00:33:52
Speaker
You know, the one you've been here for it, right?
00:33:54
Speaker
You know, the one holiday in America, that's all about eating food, right?
00:33:59
Speaker
Thanksgiving.
00:34:00
Speaker
I've always, I had thought that doing a Thanksgiving, because also like it's coming up for that time of year.
00:34:04
Speaker
I had the one, the one thought I had done was it would be really cool to do a Thanksgiving themed moment here because actually there's, there's quite a big, you know, quite a sizable American population who live in London.
00:34:16
Speaker
So I think with a bit of kind of good planning, that could be the thing.
00:34:23
Speaker
So it's a good, it's a good thought.
00:34:25
Speaker
I had, I had like a kind of,
00:34:27
Speaker
I had some thoughts going through my head a couple months ago about a Halloween like kind of moment, but that's not realistic now, but I do think Thanksgiving is the one.
00:34:36
Speaker
And then what's great about that is that there are so many iconic dishes that again, like are good, are dishes that do exist in London, but don't necessarily have like the airtime of others.
00:34:46
Speaker
So like pumpkin pie would be the thing that I've made.
00:34:49
Speaker
I have a really good pumpkin pie recipe that would be good to, I could, I could serve.
00:34:53
Speaker
And there's a lot of like really interesting dishes you could do with like,
00:34:57
Speaker
I find Thanksgiving really interesting because of the side dishes are very similar to what we would call a Sunday roast, like a British Sunday roast.
00:35:07
Speaker
But they are quite unique.
00:35:09
Speaker
So I always think about the sweet potatoes with the marshmallows on top.
00:35:13
Speaker
uh like candied yams and stuff um and i'm like that's not a thing in london at all in the uk at all but like that is a you know that's something you guys have so you know what could be the twist on that that would be very unique so yeah hey it's a good thought um that's not a bad idea to be honest
00:35:28
Speaker
Yeah, and it's really funny because when you mention it, like because Thanksgiving, obviously, they were all British, you know, immigrants, essentially, who came together with Native Americans and everything.
00:35:37
Speaker
So it's almost like you would be doing like, oh, you know, they took some British cuisine with Native American flavors.
00:35:43
Speaker
And now you're bringing that back over to cross the pond to the UK to bring it back over and put in like all these other little things.
00:35:51
Speaker
And yeah, I imagine for a lot of people, because like when you were living in New York, you lived in San Francisco as well.
00:35:57
Speaker
I don't think we mentioned that in this episode, but you've lived in like some major US cities.
00:36:02
Speaker
Were you like missing any British food in particular at the time?
00:36:05
Speaker
Were there certain dishes that you were like homesick for?
00:36:10
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:36:11
Speaker
I mean, it was funny before before I came back from San Francisco because of the pandemic I had.
00:36:18
Speaker
So I was living in a I forget I forget what it was called, but I was living in a like we live like we work, which is kind of a platform where people who are typically who are expats or traveling around America can live.
00:36:31
Speaker
live and for one price they have like a room in a space but it's a community so they do have community events and it's all quite good and I remember having a really great chat with them saying I was like I'm a chef I want to do like supper clubs and I'd love to do it with you guys and my angle was always going to be I'm going to bring authentic British food to San Francisco I was going to be like I'm going to serve you Sunday lunch on a Sunday the way that my mum taught me how to do it so that you can have what I would have and I would have uh you know the classic British desserts that again like
00:37:01
Speaker
you would like pudding, like you'd have like cake and custard and stuff that I would have at school and all those kinds of dishes that again, don't exist in America.
00:37:10
Speaker
So I think I'm, I think I'm always a fan of like bringing something to an area that doesn't have it.
00:37:14
Speaker
But I think the thing I would always miss was,
00:37:18
Speaker
weirdly, this will sound odd to you, but Indian food was what I missed the most.
00:37:24
Speaker
So I think there's a lot of good replicas of other dishes that you could have in New York in particular, because I know it has quite a good, like there's a good like British scene.
00:37:33
Speaker
So you can have that.
00:37:34
Speaker
But Indian food just doesn't doesn't compare to what Indian food in London in particular, but also Birmingham, which is where my girlfriend's from, what it is.
00:37:44
Speaker
It is
00:37:45
Speaker
so entwined with British culture and British taste that my childhood was growing.
00:37:52
Speaker
I'm from Northwest London, which is a big Indian community.
00:37:56
Speaker
A lot of my best friends are Indian and I grew up in their households with their mum cooking me Indian food that was just unbelievable.
00:38:04
Speaker
So when I was in those spaces, actually,
00:38:09
Speaker
I miss Indian food more than anything else.
00:38:12
Speaker
And I think I always draw the analogy of it's a bit like if an American live, move to the UK and what they think about Mexican food in the UK.
00:38:22
Speaker
So like Mexican food in the UK exists.
00:38:25
Speaker
But it's not what a Mexican food is really like in America.
00:38:29
Speaker
And it's like that kind of nostalgia for that kind of cuisine.
00:38:33
Speaker
That was what I missed so much.
00:38:34
Speaker
Yeah, I can totally see that.
00:38:35
Speaker
And I know like there's a lot of interrelationship with British and Indian food.
00:38:39
Speaker
And I can totally see that.
00:38:40
Speaker
I've heard that the, you know, in London, that the Indian food scene is its own thing completely.
00:38:44
Speaker
It's like it's a big deal.
00:38:48
Speaker
Yeah, and I can totally see that.
00:38:50
Speaker
I remember, so like at one point after you'd left New York, I moved to the Lower East Side.
00:38:55
Speaker
I lived on Orchard in Houston for a couple of years.
00:38:57
Speaker
Have you ever been to this place?
00:38:58
Speaker
Like I didn't realize in the East Village that there's a string of like Indian as well as some Sri Lanka restaurants, but they've got like a store underneath it.
00:39:06
Speaker
I didn't realize how famous that place was until I moved out of New York.
00:39:10
Speaker
I had no clue.
00:39:11
Speaker
Like they've got all sorts of spices.
00:39:13
Speaker
Have you ever been to that?
00:39:16
Speaker
um I I'm trying to I I have a vague memory of going to like some Indian places in New York just to kind of experience it and and I think they were good it was just there was something that was was slightly missing and I couldn't really ever tell you what it was and um yeah and you know I think all cuisines in big international cities have great
00:39:38
Speaker
restaurant that you can find if you really search for it and perhaps I just didn't I didn't know where I was going and where I should have found but yeah it was certainly just that whole cuisine is just I love it again like I think it's up there with like the cuisine that I would have if I had one cuisine I could only eat the rest of my life it would probably be Indian just because I it's actually so diverse I've been to India and it's like
00:40:01
Speaker
the stuff that I have is like scratch the surface of what that cuisine is but uh yeah I definitely think it's what I'd miss yeah I've seen on your Instagram too like I've always wanted to attend an Indian wedding and it seems like you've gone to a few right I'm like oh man that would be an amazing incredible experience already so we are recording again but yeah before technical difficulties sometimes happens I mean it's amazing that we're able to talk anyway from like such far distances right
00:40:28
Speaker
That's true.
00:40:29
Speaker
That is true.
00:40:30
Speaker
I was just saying about Indian weddings, I think.
00:40:32
Speaker
So I, yeah, I've been to about six or seven this over the past couple of years.
00:40:39
Speaker
My friendship group from school is mainly Indian and it's just so joyous and it's so different to kind of a traditional British kind of wedding culture.
00:40:50
Speaker
So it's amazing to kind of be a part of.
00:40:52
Speaker
And it's also over many days.
00:40:54
Speaker
So I think it looks like I go to more than I actually do because it's the same person.
00:40:58
Speaker
getting married, but it's three wedding days.
00:41:01
Speaker
So just amazing.
00:41:03
Speaker
And I, you know, it's very much part of my kind of childhood and part of my kind of my, my, my group of friends now is, is that.
00:41:10
Speaker
So yeah, it's a very nice kind of facet of my life as well that I really enjoy.
00:41:14
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that's incredible.
00:41:15
Speaker
Like, it's a bucket list item of mine to at least once, like, and I have a few Indian friends actually here in Dallas.
00:41:20
Speaker
So I'm like, oh, hopefully, you know, from India, or their parents immigrated, and they're like, first generation American or whatever.
00:41:26
Speaker
But I'm like, oh, hopefully, I get invited to an Indian wedding at some point, because that would be such an amazing cultural experience, like three days, I've heard like,
00:41:35
Speaker
Have you been to where they ride elephants and stuff too?
00:41:38
Speaker
Or is that?
00:41:39
Speaker
No, I haven't.
00:41:40
Speaker
We don't.
00:41:41
Speaker
I don't think they do that in the UK at all.
00:41:44
Speaker
But I've heard that in the past they used to do that.
00:41:47
Speaker
But they have the dances and there's a day of just dancing, which is really exciting.
00:41:53
Speaker
And also very different to what I think the thing that it's made me realize is that
00:41:58
Speaker
Indian weddings are all about the joy of love and celebrating love very loudly and proudly.
00:42:06
Speaker
British weddings typically are a bit more refined and a bit more like a kind of lovely garden party, which is completely fine and definitely also legitimate.
00:42:15
Speaker
But I think it feels I love the just exuberance that comes from Indian weddings and where they just like like people dance like the idea, I think, of dancing would terrify most British people.
00:42:26
Speaker
But like these people who never danced like.
00:42:29
Speaker
They get up with their families.
00:42:30
Speaker
They all dance like the dads and the uncles.
00:42:33
Speaker
And I'm just like, that is so normal.
00:42:35
Speaker
And I love it.
00:42:37
Speaker
And I just think it's very, very inspiring.
00:42:39
Speaker
Yeah, it seems like you love just like different cultures too.
00:42:43
Speaker
Like, you know, Indian culture that you've been exposed to in the UK coming over here to America too.
00:42:48
Speaker
And you eventually want to try and get back here, right?
00:42:50
Speaker
Would that like make Feeding Speedy slightly different at that point?
00:42:53
Speaker
If you do, like you'd mentioned like you and your girlfriend want to come back and live in New York.
00:42:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:58
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, definitely.
00:42:59
Speaker
It's definitely on our kind of on our radar.
00:43:01
Speaker
I think it's it's the thing about America for people who don't live in America is that there is such a magic to the culture and the life, which I know isn't necessarily reality.
00:43:14
Speaker
And I know that like every country, there are issues and problems.
00:43:19
Speaker
And, you know, I know America has some pretty unique, challenging problems to navigate, to say the least.
00:43:25
Speaker
But what I would say is that when I think about the experiences I want to have in my life, I think having the experience, number one of living abroad is an experience that if anyone is able to, I think should grab.
00:43:39
Speaker
Because what it does is it really opens your eyes to the diversity of life and how different people can live.
00:43:47
Speaker
And it just it just broadens your outlook to recognize that you can lots of people can live different lives and it's completely fine and completely within the realms of possibility.
00:43:58
Speaker
And there's no really right or wrong way to live.
00:44:01
Speaker
It's just kind of as long as you're kind and compassionate and try try your best.
00:44:05
Speaker
I think it's really, really kind of amazing to see.
00:44:08
Speaker
But you're right.
00:44:09
Speaker
I think, you know, we would love to go back to America.
00:44:13
Speaker
I'd love to understand.
00:44:14
Speaker
I don't, I never really thought like what Feeding Speedy would look like in America.
00:44:17
Speaker
I guess the thing that I have to sometimes figure out, and this is, you know, an evolution of how all of this works is that what's my, what's the role of Feeding Speedy in my life at that time?
Future of Feeding Speedy and Evolution of Food Service
00:44:27
Speaker
And what would be most interesting that I could tap into that might excite other people to follow?
00:44:32
Speaker
So, you know, for me, if I was living in New York, I know a lot of my UK based friends and families and followers would love to just see that experience played out.
00:44:42
Speaker
So like,
00:44:43
Speaker
Where do we go for dinner?
00:44:44
Speaker
What recipes am I exposed to?
00:44:46
Speaker
What are the experiences I'm having in America that we don't have in the UK?
00:44:51
Speaker
But then also it's inspiration for me.
00:44:54
Speaker
You know, I sometimes think about, you know, if I was to create a restaurant concept, I would ground it in something that I would have identified in America that is so unique and compelling that I just think it would work.
00:45:07
Speaker
And in some ways, I kind of almost feel like Feeding Speedy is the precursor to something big, which is my exploration of American food and what I make sense of it as.
00:45:19
Speaker
for something that could happen after.
00:45:20
Speaker
So yeah, I don't know quite how it would look, but I think it's, it would definitely still exist.
00:45:25
Speaker
It just is kind of my platform for inspiration really.
00:45:28
Speaker
And how that evolves with food, because you just hit on this topic too, like you mentioned maybe a restaurant, maybe not a restaurant just now.
00:45:35
Speaker
There's other mediums too, like these pop-ups or food trucks.
00:45:38
Speaker
And do you see the expression of food differently with these kind of
00:45:42
Speaker
methods of delivery, I guess, you know, for lack of a better term.
00:45:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:45
Speaker
I mean, I mean, it's, it's, I'm sure it's the same in Dallas.
00:45:49
Speaker
I'm sure it's the same in New York and big cities, the food scene and how food has evolved over the past, honestly, like over the past two years has been incredible in terms of,
00:46:00
Speaker
how we get food, how we expect food to kind of exist in our world.
00:46:06
Speaker
And just, you know, if you think in the UK, obviously we have Deliveroo and Uber Eats and you guys have Seamless and other kind of delivery platforms and apps so that, you know, you can get brands that are, you know, get your products
00:46:22
Speaker
restaurants cuisine into your homes.
00:46:23
Speaker
And one of the emerging kind of business models that is happening very, very early in London, which I find really fascinating is the idea of creating a brand
00:46:34
Speaker
of restaurant that doesn't actually have a restaurant that only exists on these delivery platforms.
00:46:40
Speaker
So the benefit of that obviously is that you just, it's just basically a marketing and branding job and you can reduce your overhead and you don't have to have a kind of the challenges of a restaurant.
00:46:50
Speaker
And one of the things that I know from my pop-up life is that restaurants are so expensive to run and maintain and you basically don't make any money unless you become really, really famous.
00:47:01
Speaker
and then can expand and then franchise out.
00:47:03
Speaker
So it's really difficult to actually make money at all.
00:47:08
Speaker
So the idea of a building of, you know, and in some sense, I might be inadvertently walking towards this path because it's quite interesting to me and would actually be quite fulfilling.
00:47:19
Speaker
The idea of if you can create a, you know, Feeding Speedy is the brand.
00:47:24
Speaker
And then off the back of that, you can then create on the side a
00:47:28
Speaker
menu concepts that you can just fulfill through delivery platforms and then you can get to a really exciting place where like the power of your brand then becomes the vehicle for your fulfillment um and you don't actually have a restaurant um I think there's a romantic in me who who's like I want a restaurant I want like a thing that I go to and I pour my heart and soul into but
00:47:50
Speaker
To be honest, there's other ways that you can do it that are more, to be honest, more efficient and actually could have a bigger impact.
00:47:57
Speaker
So it's, you know, they're all a bit work in progress.
00:48:00
Speaker
But I think the thing that is fascinating is that the great thing is with the right knowledge and the right confidence,
00:48:09
Speaker
you can create food and sell it pretty much in any capacity now.
00:48:15
Speaker
Like, you know, there's some really interesting models as well that is almost kind of peer-to-peer food creation where, honestly, like me as someone who just makes the food
00:48:26
Speaker
like stuff in my kitchen that's for five people and then i can sell three portions of that to the local community and then people can pay for it and then pick it up that's something that that is emerging and starting here i don't think it's particularly well known but it's something that does exist so you know that's one way of doing it the taste the kind of the the delivery only is also another concept
00:48:48
Speaker
And then obviously you've then got the whole kind of thing of like the food truck scene in the UK, in London.
00:48:55
Speaker
I was in Austin recently and their food truck scene is awesome and very, very different, but really, really cool.
00:49:02
Speaker
So there's lots of different things.
00:49:03
Speaker
And I think for me, it's just trying to be smart about what the overheads are to sustain it because, you know, we're going through as the UK and the US really kind of cost sensitive times,
00:49:14
Speaker
will probably be in recession soon.
00:49:17
Speaker
People are really, really kind of pulling back on stuff like food service.
00:49:22
Speaker
So you have to be really clear why someone deserves to spend their money on you.
00:49:28
Speaker
And that's the challenge that I have to kind of navigate.
00:49:31
Speaker
But the idea of a brand building first, I think, isn't a bad idea for me.
00:49:36
Speaker
Yeah, and I think this is interesting because you're talking about these ideas of scalability, which, you know, I work in kind of like the cybersecurity tech space as like my main job, you know.
00:49:46
Speaker
But, you know, these ideas of e-commerce fulfillment centers applying to food, I think that's a really interesting concept because we've seen that happen with retail, obviously, and how that's exploded.
00:49:56
Speaker
And while at the same time talking about that immersion experience, too, which people do enjoy and everything, because we see from the pandemic,
00:50:05
Speaker
We don't want to be in our homes all the time, 24-7.
00:50:08
Speaker
That's very challenging.
00:50:09
Speaker
And we need variety and we need to see around.
00:50:11
Speaker
So there's these two concepts and everything, as well as just the brand idea, too.
00:50:17
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:50:17
Speaker
And I think this is where I haven't quite kind of figured it out in my own head yet.
00:50:23
Speaker
But I think the thing that draws me to food and restaurants is...
00:50:27
Speaker
the magic of service and uh you know i i uh my background when i was at school i used to love theater i used to love kind of plays and performance and sometimes i always think about restaurants as the equivalent of a great show so you have a you know
00:50:44
Speaker
Before it starts, there's a kind of nervous energy and there's an excitement.
00:50:47
Speaker
Then it's showtime, it's seven o'clock, guests start coming in.
00:50:51
Speaker
Then there's the performance of the kitchen with the waiters.
00:50:54
Speaker
And there's very much kind of in service of people, in service of your audience.
00:50:59
Speaker
And then there's a crescendo at the main meal.
00:51:01
Speaker
There's potentially some other things that happen afterwards.
00:51:03
Speaker
And then it finishes and there's a finale.
00:51:05
Speaker
And
00:51:07
Speaker
That I think people love service.
00:51:09
Speaker
I think people love being served.
00:51:11
Speaker
I think one of the things that the, you know, the, the why I think the hospitality industry is so powerful is that it's one of those few spaces where you are, you allow yourself to feel so at served by others in a space, which otherwise you wouldn't.
00:51:26
Speaker
And I think that's really interesting and potentially why a delivery, you know, a delivery only thing you have to be, well, what's the service element?
00:51:33
Speaker
What's the thing that you can bring,
00:51:35
Speaker
If there's not someone there delivering it, how do you then make them feel special?
00:51:40
Speaker
And how do you make them feel valued?
00:51:42
Speaker
And ultimately, from my marketing head, how do you build brand love?
00:51:45
Speaker
Because if you don't have someone physically interacting with you or the person who is interacting is a seamless driver or a kind of delivery driver in my world, then you don't have the brand kind of connection.
00:51:58
Speaker
And one of the things that fascinates me is when brands kind of touch people
00:52:03
Speaker
touch customers and like what the little moments are, because I think those are the magic moments that then mean that you can create not just a food thing, but actually a brand that people want to invest in and buy and grow with.
00:52:16
Speaker
So yeah, I haven't quite figured it out, but I think there's some interesting space in like, how do you bridge the gap between pure functional e-commerce and marketing?
00:52:25
Speaker
something that's very joyful and very kind of specific.
00:52:27
Speaker
Like an experience because when, like you said, when we go to restaurants and my ex-girlfriend, she was actually a hospitality major in college.
00:52:35
Speaker
Her like dream was originally at that point was to open her own restaurant.
00:52:39
Speaker
Then she didn't want to work.
00:52:39
Speaker
She wanted to work standard hours.
00:52:41
Speaker
So switched over to finance, but
00:52:43
Speaker
You know, I could see that passion she has.
00:52:45
Speaker
And you have that, you know, for her experiences, restaurants, like she educated me so much.
00:52:49
Speaker
I'm like, oh, this is Danny Meyer, David Chang, all these people, you know, like who created all these little brands and it's quite creative, right?
00:52:56
Speaker
Because like with Speedy and Speedy, there could be all these different concepts.
00:53:00
Speaker
Like I think it's Danny Meyer who created Shake Shack, right?
00:53:03
Speaker
He also has daily provisions, right?
00:53:05
Speaker
And there's our Union Square Cafe.
00:53:06
Speaker
There's these little kind of concepts he had in his head.
00:53:10
Speaker
And do you see that for yourself?
00:53:11
Speaker
Kind of like,
00:53:12
Speaker
speeding speedy you know American you know American food British accent and other like little things that you would like to dream up and kind of you know make into reality like totally like I think when I was in San Francisco I think I would uh I would almost like have a little checklist of
00:53:28
Speaker
restaurants that I would go to and you know at that point I was literally like it was so early I didn't know anyone so I just I love going out for dinner by myself when I'm in America because actually it's some uh there was quite a lot of trips that I went on that I didn't have any I didn't know anyone it was you know before we would go on trips I just would go because I was like well do you know what I want to have those experiences um and I would write down restaurant ideas because the thing again like and it's I think when you're when you're someone who does isn't from the place you see it with fresh eyes
00:53:57
Speaker
And you're like, that's really different.
00:53:59
Speaker
And so, you know, I always think about the iconic American diner.
00:54:02
Speaker
And I just think that's such a such a pure expression of like what American democratic America is and how it's so just kind of comforting and reliable.
00:54:13
Speaker
And, you know, you're not going to get the best of anything, but you'll get good of everything.
00:54:18
Speaker
most things and it's just that comfort blanket for lots of American people and you know I always thought that yeah I think if I was to kind of wave a magic wand and have like lots of money for lots of funding I think that would be the thing like I would have you know you would have your feeding speedy is American food British accent and I would have my like diner concept I would have my New Orleans dive bar concept because I have this like very strong memory of like a really kind of dark and danky kind of
00:54:45
Speaker
like blues bar almost that was just amazing and just very and like the food that was very much associated with New Orleans came from there and then yeah I think there's other stuff like barbecue joints and Tex-Mex stuff that I would love to play with and almost like again it goes back to like resetting the standard right so when you are in food service there are certain compromises you have to make and I know that but the thing that you do is you know you always want to push the bar and innovate and drive things up
00:55:15
Speaker
So there could be something really interesting about doing that.
00:55:18
Speaker
And as I say, I'm not necessarily going to charge off and do that tomorrow, but I certainly think that it's a really interesting concept to play with for sure.
00:55:26
Speaker
Yeah, I think it is too.
00:55:27
Speaker
Like you said, I feel like, like we were talking about earlier, this concept of like cultures have similar things, right?
00:55:33
Speaker
You know, we mentioned like, say the samosa and empanada, you'd mentioned some other things.
00:55:37
Speaker
I would say like, now that I'm thinking about it, like the diner experience is almost very similar to the British pub in a way of a comfort blanket.
00:55:43
Speaker
Would you, would you like agree or what?
00:55:46
Speaker
I get that.
00:55:47
Speaker
I get that.
00:55:48
Speaker
That's an interesting idea.
00:55:49
Speaker
I think, I guess the similarity would be that it is the,
00:55:52
Speaker
it's kind of base camp for a lot of of like Americans and British people it's a reliable standard that exists pretty much anywhere and is said it's kind of meant to be that kind of place where if everything goes wrong at least that still exists and and we can kind of start again so yeah I think there's that's an interesting analogy I think that's probably fair
00:56:17
Speaker
Yeah, I think, like, you know, I'm really excited to see like where you go next and what your next pop ups are going to be because it's incredible to see like how I remember pre pandemic.
Overcoming Entrepreneurial Challenges and Embracing Success
00:56:28
Speaker
So that would have been about like three years now.
00:56:30
Speaker
I remember like you like launching your first pop up like, oh, wow, this is incredible, you know.
00:56:36
Speaker
Yeah, well, I mean, it's amazing.
00:56:37
Speaker
And it's what I love is that staying connected with you and a couple of other American friends, it's quite a fun like sense check of like whether it's any good or not.
00:56:45
Speaker
Because I'm just like, oh, God, if I like completely misunderstood everything and then like you'll be like, this is not what I remember.
00:56:52
Speaker
And I'll be like, oh, no, that's that's fair point.
00:56:54
Speaker
But
00:56:55
Speaker
I just, I think the thing is I'm, I'm, I have a very good and stable job, but I think there's a spark in me of wanting to like create magic alone from it all.
00:57:06
Speaker
And I will keep doing this and keep having this fire.
00:57:10
Speaker
And I'm sure it will continue with me, you know, for years to come in different forms, but the pop-ups are the most pure expression for me of just, just trying to go, have a go and figuring it out, which is,
00:57:22
Speaker
I think, you know, lots of people, I think, think about entrepreneurship and thinking about what they can do.
00:57:27
Speaker
And there are also people who do it and it's amazing.
00:57:30
Speaker
I think the thing that sets the people who just think about it with the people who actually do it is that there's a moment where you just have to commit and you have to kind of manage the risk around it and know that if it all goes wrong, you only kind of lose a little bit.
00:57:44
Speaker
And sometimes it's just pride.
00:57:46
Speaker
Like it's not really like I did my first pop up and I think I remember I invested 500 pounds in it.
00:57:53
Speaker
So yeah,
00:57:54
Speaker
I forget to be honest it's probably 500 at this point like the exchange rate is so bad so you know it's that's like you know that's like money but it's not that much money and if you can just I was like prepared to be like look do you know what this is I'm going to spend 500 pounds learning this and what was really great was I ended up actually doubling that money you know I meant I made like a good profit off of the first pop-up anyway which was completely you know not expected but
00:58:21
Speaker
That was the first time that I was like, okay, now I've lost the fear.
00:58:25
Speaker
Now I can do pop-ups whenever I want because I've got over that big first hurdle.
00:58:28
Speaker
And I think a lot of what stops a lot of people doing stuff is the first hurdle.
00:58:32
Speaker
Because once you realize that actually it's not as intimidating or you don't lose as much if it goes wrong, then the world becomes your kind of oyster and you can do what you want.
00:58:43
Speaker
And I think that power of like, you're in charge, you're the one who can create something that then people enjoy.
00:58:51
Speaker
certainly is exciting to me.
00:58:52
Speaker
So yeah, it's one of those things that I definitely want to keep doing it and we'll see where we go.
00:58:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:57
Speaker
And I'd love to see it as someone starting out on this path too.
00:59:00
Speaker
There is that initial like, hey, can I do this or whatever?
00:59:03
Speaker
And you just got to start doing it.
00:59:04
Speaker
And like you said, at that point, it's like, well, once you get past that point and you're seeing like the reception to it, you're like, all right, now the world's my oyster.
00:59:13
Speaker
I can go put these on some po'boys and continue like selling them, right?
00:59:16
Speaker
Yeah, totally.
00:59:18
Speaker
And I think a lot of
00:59:21
Speaker
I think there's a maturity in life where you realise that no one, you don't need to ask for permission to do stuff.
00:59:28
Speaker
And particularly things that you're passionate about, there'll always be a nagging down your head that you shouldn't do it or like you need someone else's permission to do it.
00:59:36
Speaker
And sometimes I think you have to switch that voice off in your head and just do it anyway and assume that you're
00:59:40
Speaker
the expert.
00:59:42
Speaker
And then at some point you will become the expert without realizing it.
00:59:45
Speaker
But it's the first time that you put on the front and say, right, I've, it was that first customer who I served and was like, and who was American.
00:59:52
Speaker
And I was like, I've literally never served a public person, like person from the public ever.
00:59:57
Speaker
And the first person is an American who's trying my food.
01:00:00
Speaker
And I just had to smile and be like, here you go.
01:00:03
Speaker
And the best thing was that she ate it.
01:00:04
Speaker
She said, thank you.
01:00:05
Speaker
And then she left and she didn't complain.
01:00:07
Speaker
She didn't think it was weird.
01:00:08
Speaker
And suddenly I felt more like, oh, okay, well, she thinks I can do it.
01:00:12
Speaker
So why not just do it?
01:00:13
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:14
Speaker
It's like, it's incredibly validating.
01:00:15
Speaker
You hit that hurdle because for so many people, they want to start so many things and it's just all about, um,
01:00:21
Speaker
doing it, right?
01:00:22
Speaker
And then like, what a great like first test.
01:00:24
Speaker
You're like, all right, the real deal.
01:00:26
Speaker
Americans coming to try it.
01:00:27
Speaker
How will it go?
01:00:28
Speaker
It went well.
01:00:29
Speaker
And you're like, all right, this is awesome.
01:00:30
Speaker
I'm going to keep doing this.
01:00:32
Speaker
Yeah, totally.
01:00:34
Speaker
But I don't know.
01:00:36
Speaker
I just think that's incredible.
01:00:37
Speaker
And, you know, I think we're coming up on the hour here.
01:00:41
Speaker
You know, you know, sans are a little technical difficulties here.
01:00:44
Speaker
And I've really enjoyed recording this episode with you.
01:00:47
Speaker
And, you know, I can't wait to publish it.
01:00:49
Speaker
That's going to come soon.
01:00:50
Speaker
You know, like I'm launching within the next couple of weeks.
01:00:53
Speaker
Is there anything else you'd like to tell the listeners?
01:00:55
Speaker
Obviously, we're going to plug all your social media so they can follow you and your journey on this.
01:00:59
Speaker
This has been incredible.
01:01:01
Speaker
Yeah, well, I mean, thank you, Jordan.
01:01:04
Speaker
It's been really good to talk to you.
01:01:05
Speaker
And it's also just nice to just reflect a little bit on the journey and what I've been up to.
01:01:09
Speaker
I think the thing, yeah, I would love anyone to follow me, but I'd also would love some, particularly if this goes out to like a largely American audience, I'd love just like thoughts and suggestions because I'm on a journey discovering American cuisine and it's so diverse.
01:01:26
Speaker
Any particularly kind of recipes or dishes that like you're like, this is something that I love.
01:01:31
Speaker
that you should know about i'm all is because i really want to uncover those gems that exist within a state or a town that like people come to that place to enjoy and i don't know about it and there are loads of things i don't know about um so yeah uh i'm i'm definitely open to suggestions so please give me a follow and uh
01:01:52
Speaker
just see what I'm up to.
01:01:54
Speaker
Awesome.
01:01:55
Speaker
Thanks, Tom.
01:01:55
Speaker
And guys, like I'll post Tom's stuff up.
01:01:58
Speaker
It'll go up on Instagram as well as I'm going to list it again at the beginning of this episode and near the end.
01:02:04
Speaker
So feeding speedy.com at feeding speedy on Instagram and TikTok, you know, shoot him a follow or shoot him a DM and like, let's get this conversation going.
01:02:13
Speaker
Right.
01:02:14
Speaker
Brilliant.
01:02:17
Speaker
Thanks for listening to today's episode, everyone.
01:02:20
Speaker
Please follow our Instagram account at combos with Jordan, where you can receive updates on new episodes and connect with each of our guests and their social media.
01:02:29
Speaker
See y'all in the next one.