HUNGRY is THE podcast for Challenger FMCG & Hospitality Founders wanting to pour gasoline on growth.
We chat with the industry BIG HITTERS. We ooze out the HIDDEN success secrets they’ve never told before and dive deep into their gut-wrenching failures, so you avoid them.
We help you grow bigger, faster, stronger.
Over the last 6 years, we’ve chatted to some insane guests on the poddy:
Rory Sutherland, Seth Godin, Jamie Laing, Spencer
Matthews, Tom Kerridge, Sir John Hegarty,
The founders of SOHO House, TRIP, The Devonshire, Tony’s Chocolonely, Vita Coco
Look, I’ll be blunt,
HUNGRY is NOT your normal podcast.
HUNGRY is NOT scripted and sterile Q&A interviews.
HUNGRY is for pretty much no one.
HUNRGY is a deliciously fun, wild and crazy, ADHD rollercoaster of free flowing conversations.
got what it takes?
Buckle up. Strap in.
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more
I thought Karan would define success in the usual restaurant terms — reviews, covers, repeat customers. His answer went somewhere way more interesting. In this episode, I sit down with Karan Gokani to talk about how Hoppers became one of London’s most iconic restaurants — and how it has stayed busy, relevant, and loved for over a decade in an industry where that feels almost impossible. Karan shares the principles behind that success: make it personal, find your purpose, build a culture of kindn...
============================================== ♨️Still bloody HUNGRY? Course ya are. Each week I spend 15 hours writing my newsletter. It’ll take you 5 mins to read. Full of wisdom from the biggest names in food and drink. Subscribe here - https://hungryfeast.beehiiv.com/🍲 ============================================== 🤝 Let's Connect! ►Let’s link-up here (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-pope/) ►Stalk me here (https://www.instagram.com/_hungry.pod/) This episode was edited by: G.Thomas ...
Jeremy King doesn’t just talk about restaurants — he talks about change, class, creativity, ego, instinct, death, literature, leadership, and why the best dining rooms become tiny theatres of human behaviour. In this conversation, the legendary restaurateur behind The Ivy, Le Caprice, The Wolseley, Arlington and now Simpson's in the Strand explains why “maintaining standards” is actually the road to bankruptcy, why great restaurants must constantly evolve, and why hospitality is really about lov...
============================================== ♨️Still bloody HUNGRY? Course ya are. Each week I spend 15 hours writing my newsletter. It’ll take you 5 mins to read. Full of wisdom from the biggest names in food and drink. Subscribe here - https://hungryfeast.beehiiv.com/🍲 ============================================== 🤝 Let's Connect! ►Let’s link-up here (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-pope/) ►Stalk me here (https://www.instagram.com/_hungry.pod/) This episode was edited by: G.Thomas ...
"Hospitality happens for people, not to them." In this masterclass of an episode, Unreasonable Hospitality author Will Guidara sits down with Dan Pope on the Hungry podcast to unpack the magic behind Eleven Madison Park's meteoric rise to the best restaurant in the world. From leaving a full bottle of cognac with the bill, to systemizing serendipity with Tiffany & Co. engagement flutes, Will explains why true excellence requires a healthy dose of unreasonableness. They dive into the tension ...
📙Download HUNGRY Big Banging Reading list here 🧾 HUNGRY survey would be so grateful if you may please fill out ♨️Still bloody HUNGRY? Course ya are. Each week I spend 15 hours writing my newsletter. It’ll take you 5 mins to read. Full of wisdom from the biggest names in food and drink. Subscribe here - https://hungryfeast.beehiiv.com/🍲 --------------------------------- 🤝 Let's Connect! ►Let's link-up here (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-pope/) ►Stalk me here (https://www.instagram.co...
A rare behind-the-scenes roundtable with four of the UK’s most exciting challenger brand founders — Toby Hopkinson of All Things Butter, Jack Scott of DASH Water, Imme Ermgassen of Botivo, and Florence Cherruault of The Pickle House — filmed live at Strakers. Dan digs into the messy, brilliant reality of building modern food and drink brands: when to stay focused, when to diversify, how to win retail listings, why hospitality can build cultural credibility, and what happens when your “side idea”...
Building a great restaurant starts with something unexpected: chaos Controlle chaos. This week on Hungry Phil and Abs of Poor Boys talk high-energy design, bold menu choices, and how creating a memorable, slightly disorienting experience gets people talking—and coming back. They share how they turned unconventional ideas into a powerful brand, including how they used an ingredient chefs have been throwing away to create something customers couldn’t get enough of. The conversation dives into how ...
📙Download HUNGRY Big Banging Reading list here 🧾 HUNGRY survey would be so grateful if you may please fill out ♨️Still bloody HUNGRY? Course ya are. Each week I spend 15 hours writing my newsletter. It’ll take you 5 mins to read. Full of wisdom from the biggest names in food and drink. Subscribe here - https://hungryfeast.beehiiv.com/🍲 --------------------------------- 🤝 Let's Connect! ►Let's link-up here (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-pope/) ►Stalk me here (https://www.instagram.co...
Your Restaurant should slightly confuse people when they walk in. Yes you heard that right. According to Lukie Farrell (Speedboat), that tension—between chaos and clarity—is exactly what makes a place unforgettable. In this episode, Lukie breaks down how he built one of London’s most talked-about Thai restaurants by embracing controlled chaos, bold design, and just the right amount of confusion. From smuggling authentic Thai ingredients to refusing Western shortcuts, he explains why authenticity...
Once you hear this, you’ll never walk down a supermarket aisle the same way again. A sensory scientist walks into a supermarket… and suddenly nothing you buy is accidental. In this episode, Charles Spence breaks down how evolution, psychology, and a bit of brand mischief shape everything from what we crave to what we click “add to basket” on. From the savannah to the supermarket, your brain is still wired to hunt for energy-dense food — and brands are quietly exploiting that wiring with color, s...
♨️Still bloody HUNGRY? Course ya are. Each week I spend 15 hours writing my newsletter. It’ll take you 5 mins to read. Full of wisdom from the biggest names in food and drink. Subscribe here - https://hungryfeast.beehiiv.com/🍲 --------------------------------- 🤝 Let's Connect! ►Let's link-up here (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-pope/) ►Stalk me here (https://www.instagram.com/_hungry.pod/) 📙Download HUNGRY Big Banging Reading list here 🧾 HUNGRY survey would be so grateful if you may ...
Welcome to the chaotic, beautiful, and brutally honest world of Ravneet Gill. In this episode, the acclaimed chef and Junior Bake Off judge peels back the curtain on the grueling realities of hospitality. Ravneet opens up about the messy middle of launching her hit London restaurant, Gina, navigating the dual guilt of motherhood and entrepreneurship, and learning to let go of perfectionism. She also shares hilarious anecdotes about accidentally convincing the internet David Blaine was moving int...
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 c...
Purdy & Figg's CEO, Jack Rubin, shares how their cleaning brand achieved explosive growth, including a £1 million sales day, by prioritizing customer acquisition, extreme simplicity, and extensive A/B testing instead of traditional branding. The discussion covers the critical role of operations, the strategic avoidance of complexity in product and channels, and the importance of good judgment—a blend of data, rationality, and intuition. Rubin also reflects on lessons from past ventures and literature, advocating for a long-term vision and slower, more sustainable growth over chasing short-term hype.
📙Download HUNGRY Big Banging Reading list here 🧾 HUNGRY survey would be so grateful if you may please fill out ♨️Still bloody HUNGRY? Course ya are. Each week I spend 15 hours writing my newsletter. It’ll take you 5 mins to read. Full of wisdom from the biggest names in food and drink. Subscribe here - https://hungryfeast.beehiiv.com/🍲 --------------------------------- 🤝 Let's Connect! ►Let's link-up here (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-pope/) ►Stalk me here (https://www.instagram.co...
Ever wondered what it takes to build a £10M restaurant empire? Chef Adam Handling joins Dan Pope to unpack the brutal realities of building a £10M restaurant empire. From nearly losing his parents' house during COVID-19 to making £148,000 on Valentine's Day via home deliveries, Adam's journey is a masterclass in resilience. We dive deep into his Chanel vs. Hermes philosophy on brand building, why his team researches guests online for the ultimate dining experience, and his bold mission to redefi...
Former professional footballer Hal Robson-Kanu discusses how adversity shaped both his football career and his business philosophy. Reflecting on being released by Arsenal F.C. at 15 and suffering serious ACL injuries, he explains that real resilience comes not from eliminating doubt but learning to live with uncertainty and continue acting despite it. He argues adversity is essential for development, because only through facing difficulty do people discover their capacity to persevere. Robson-K...
Ivan Orkin is one of the most unlikely success stories in the world of food. A Jewish kid from New York moves to Tokyo, opens a tiny ramen shop in the suburbs, and somehow ends up becoming one of the most respected ramen chefs in Japan — a country famously protective of its culinary traditions. In this conversation, Dan sits down with the founder of Ivan Ramen to unpack how that happened. Ivan talks about teaching himself ramen, opening his first shop in Japan with barely any money, and the mome...
*updated version* A masterclass in the nuts and bolts of running a world-class restaurant. In this episode, Dan sits down with one of Britain’s most uncompromising chefs to talk about building a two-Michelin-star restaurant in the least glamorous location imaginable — a strange little oasis tucked under a Nottingham flyover, surrounded by graffiti, traffic, and the occasional burning car. But that’s exactly the point. Sat explains why great restaurants aren’t just about food — they’re about thea...
From bricks through the window in 1960s Skelmersdale to queues around the block in Liverpool, this is a story of immigrant hunger, insecurity, obsession with standards — and building something that blesses a city. Dan sits down with Nisha Katona — founder of Mowgli Street Food — the woman who turned authentic Indian home cooking into the first national Indian street food chain in Britain. Nisha breaks down why Mowgli was never meant to be a “curry house,” why Hindu home cooking avoids garlic and...
This week on Hungry, the founders behind SULT — the electrolyte brand turning “unhinged luxury” into a cultural movement. From building a status-driven brand that people actually want to post on Instagram, to rewriting the rules of marketing in the age of TikTok and YouTube, this is a masterclass in modern brand-building. We get into why unpredictability creates obsession, why most brands overcomplicate business, and how SULT uses storytelling, sex appeal, humor, and world-building to stand out ...
Most companies bet everything on one big launch. Doug Lamont thinks that’s how you kill growth. In this clip, the former CEO of Tony's Chocolonely and Innocent Drinks breaks down a radically different way to scale — one built on rolling innovation, layered bets, and removing fear from failure. Instead of over-researching, over-launching, and over-spending, Doug explains why the smartest brands: - test cheaply - back winners late - kill losers fast and never rely on a single “big idea” to carry t...
