Espresso: Tom Kerridge - You'd be Crazy to Open a Restaurant (Without Knowing This..)

Full episode here! 👉🏻 https://youtu.be/cVG8TqtxJQE

After 20 years running The Hand & Flowers and 35 years in kitchens, Tom Kerridge says something most chefs won’t: restaurants don’t make money anymore.

In this clip, Kerridge breaks down why margins have been wiped out, why being “busy” means nothing, and why opening a restaurant today can actually be the worst financial decision you make. It’s a brutally honest look at hospitality — from pricing, staffing and VAT, to the hard leadership calls that come with ownership.

This isn’t about food. It’s about business reality, risk, and the uncomfortable decisions that keep companies alive.

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📱 ON THE MENU
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🍽️ Why packed restaurants still lose money
📉 How margins in hospitality were quietly eradicated
🤔 Why opening a restaurant now makes less sense than ever
⚖️ Separating emotion from business decisions
🚪 Closing sites, letting people go, and radical transparency
🧠 The shift from reactive chef to strategic operator
🔥 Why Kerridge thrives on risk — but hates being a passenger
🧩 What COVID taught him about control and problem-solving