Hello, we are thefoodpeople!

thefoodpeople are united in their passion, love and natural curiosity for food, trend spotting, travel and adventure.

We are a expert team of food trend spotters and ideators. Our team hails from all sectors of the food industry. We are innovators, chefs and marketers. We are brand specialists and food researchers. We are food developers, product illustrators, food writers and more. Most of all we are all foodies with a true passion for food.

Established since 2005, thefoodpeople have expertise in global food trend spotting, reporting and predicting as well as food ideation services.

As a business we live and breathe food trends and thrive on creating market-leading food concepts that inspire and excite. We are thefoodpeople.

Charles' food journey

A fourth generation foodie, cooking at his mother's side in the kitchen is where Charles' passion for food began. Hours spent training as a chef led to him winning the title of Junior Chef of the Year. From there, he went to France to learn more, before returning home to take a degree in catering and business.

From high-street restaurants, he moved into new product development at Saxby’s. By the time he left for Grampian, Charles was head of this department, a role in which he would continue, working with, among others, Sainsbury’s. There he met Wayne and the seeds for thefoodpeople were sown. Charles co-founded thefoodpeople with Wayne in 2004.

“The reason that thefoodpeople exists is because we’ve been in your shoes. We know what it’s like; we know it’s not easy generating ideas and identifying trends.”

Wayne's food journey

Wayne’s journey started at his mother’s side, stirring at the kitchen table. Catering college followed and it wasn’t long before he was working for Raymond Blanc at Michelin-starred Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons. Next came teaching French cookery and running his own outside catering company.

After working in food retailing at Harrods, Wayne spent a number of years developing and managing businesses in the food manufacturing industry. At Grampian, he met Charles. A friendship began and, out of a shared passion, a new business was born: thefoodpeople.

“thefoodpeople have a passion for food. We understand food and have a hands-on knowledge of the food industry. We help our clients find the innovation that makes profit.”

Sarah's food journey

Sarah was invited to join thefoodpeople in the planning stages of the company to draw on her long career in the food industry.
After a formal classic French chef training and a stint working in Europe, Sarah then worked for the Brassart family as a chef instructor at L'ecole de Cuisine Francaise.
After that she set up a catering company in London cooking for high end parties and fundraisers. Next was a move to food development as a consultant to Burberry, in London.
Sarah has always been a keen writer and fascinated by the history, origins and meanings of food and encompasses this in her role as Director of Trends.

“Trends move so fast: as director of trends, it is my responsibility to provide the first piece of the puzzle, to inform and to inspire.”

Abbey's food journey

Abbey has always been a keen cook but initially pursued studying to be an artist. On deciding that art school was not for her, she packed herself off to South America and then worked on a vegetable farm here in the UK as a “marrow lady”. Yes, really.

Throughout this time there had been many bouts of ill health due to an underlying medical condition – and after using food to make herself better, she finally decided to embark on a university course at the grand old age of 22, graduating 4 years later as a Registered Dietitian from King’s College London.

Knowing that clinical work was not for her, Abbey was thrilled to start working at The Food People, combining her creativity with her love of food and good nutrition.

In her spare time, Abbey maintains a blog about her health as well as her cooking adventures, and writes patient-perspective pieces for a charity magazine. Her pet peeve is nutritional nonsense, and she is on a mission to get the nation nutrition-savvy. Contrary to popular assumption, Abbey hates a salad and would much rather sit down to a curry or a roast dinner.

Alison's food journey

Alison’s passion for food was inherited from her late mother, Marjorie, who would often have her small daughter by her side in the kitchen of the family’s country hotel outside Edinburgh.
Due to her mixed heritage and an enduring quest for adventure, Alison has lived in the UK, Canada and Italy and now calls Sydney Australia her home.
Alison is a “people and food person” and her keen eye for fashion trends drew her to Italy at a young age. Alison was immediately captivated by the variety of the regional cuisine in Italy and unable to tear herself away, she stayed and spent 6 years running a restaurant in a seaside resort. During this time Alison’s appreciation of seasonally based ingredients and simple preparation was cemented. She later brought this concept back to Australia and applied it to the three “trattoria” restaurants which she successfully opened and operated in Sydney.
Alison has a diploma in Fashion Design, a Certificate in Business Management and somewhere in there is an Arts/Law degree.

Amy's food journey

Amy studied Hotel and Catering Management at university but rather than end up in the world of hotels, she found her way to the Catering graduate scheme at British Airways. It was here that she was really introduced to the foodie world by working with top chefs and a serious food enthusiast who helped to ignite the foodie flame in her and kept her on top of all food trends. Having worked across Club World, First Class and Concorde, Amy was ready for a new challenge and moved to work as a product developer at Sainsbury's, working across various departments. Now Amy is bringing her foodie flame and product developers experience to thefoodpeople.

Beth's food journey

Affectionately nicknamed ‘sausage’ from a young age, Beth has always enjoyed food. Consuming it, cooking it, talking about it or eagerly anticipating the next food trend, Beth is thrilled to enter into a foodie career. Having worked in an academic psychology field for many years she is turning her attention to food and utilising her research skills to uncover the ins and outs of the gastronomy world. Particularly interested in the interweaving of food, society and culture, Beth is fascinated by the drivers behind trends and she enjoys travelling to different places to indulge in regional specialities! When not doggedly pursuing the globe for delicious foods to excite her palate, Beth can be found in London. Eating.

Charlotte's food journey

Charlotte was brought up in the kitchen, trained by her Mother, a trained chef. From a young age Charlotte could be found experimenting in the kitchen, and her love of cooking led her to enter cooking competitions (and she even won a few!). Raised with a whisk in one hand and a pen in the other, following school Charlotte pursued her love of the written word and returned to her native home of Jersey, where worked in business development and marketing for a start up electronics company. She later returned to the UK, working at an add-on value food company, where she remained for 4 years, becoming part of their innovation development team. It was here that she rediscovered her love for food and experimenting in the kitchen! Now working for thefoodpeople, she gets to spend her days mixing her love of food with her love of writing, and she couldn’t be happier!

Emma's food journey

Emma's food journey started early, she can't remember a time when she wasn't reading about, cooking or eating good food! At school she won several awards for her cooking which led to catering college with stints in the kitchens of Raymond Blanc at Michelin-starred Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, The Savoy and The Carved Angel in Dartmouth. From there Emma went to work for Sainsbury's where she travelled the world researching food trends and literally eating her way through countries! Emma's role at thefoodpeople is as part of the foodwatching team researching global food trends.

Kirsty's food journey

From tuna and mayo sandwiches at picnics with Mum to the more recent Michelin starred meals with her equally very foodie partner, some of Kirsty's fondest memories are of those with food. Kirsty began her foodie journey whilst at school, always cooking for her family and bringing home meals from her catering class. it was then she knew that the culinary path was for her. She studied catering and hospitality for three years at college before taking a gap year where she then began working in restaurants, hotels and even headed up the day-to-day running of a Sussex wholesale bakery. She then went to study a BA (Hons) degree in Food and Culinary Arts at University of Brighton studying anything from gastronomy to food history and has most recently been working for a specialist cookware retailer as an online coordinator and email marketer and loves nothing more than sharing all her foodie adventures with her colleagues.

Graham's food journey

Graham was adopted by thefoodpeople in 2007 to help with all things ICT related.
Graham's skills in technology began at the tender age of 7 when he was discovered on the kitchen floor with his mother's toaster in several pieces.
Graham loves food and always enjoys cooking for his family and friends, however he leaves the baking to his wife whose cupcakes are simply to die for! To burn off all the calories Graham enjoys climbing and walking and has travelled as far as the Himalayas in pursuit of a memorable mountain view.

Jenny's food journey

Raised in an agricultural community, Jenny grew up in a world of fresh and seasonal food and home-cooked meals. Her first job was for Tinsley Foods, developing vegetable ready meals and sandwiches for Marks & Spencer. From there, she moved to Smedley’s, where she developed salads for the likes of Sainsbury's, Asda and Boots.

Next she joined Bakkavor where, as an NPD Manager, she helped establish a factory that supplied chilled ready meals to Waitrose. As R&D Manager, she met thefoodpeople and she has been writing for foodwatching and contributing to many more of our services since 2006.

Joanne's food journey

Joanne's background is hotels - growing up in her parents seaside hotel and starting to work there from the age of 17, eventually taking it over. Now years later she has passed on that mantle and was looking forward to lazy days. But! having known Sarah for years Joanne was persuaded to come and run the office using her honed customer service skills to look after all our online subscribers!

John's food journey

John's love for food started initially with his love of eating. Quickly mastering this he moved on to the cooking bit.

After studying illustration and design at art school he naturally became a chef.

Moving back into the design world, over the next twenty years he built a reputation as an innovative and creative designer in all areas of print media, specialising in brand development, packaging design and advertising. Combining both his passion for food and his evangelical enthusiasm for great aesthetic and functional design, working with the Food People has proved to be his dream job.

As our illustrator it falls to John to add a visual twist to innovation workshops and the ideation capture process.

Kateline's food journey

Growing up cooking with her mother, Kateline could only imagine a life centred around food and cooking. Studying a food science degree lead to Sainsbury’s where she developed ranges across fresh foods.

Starting a food blog reviewing new London restaurants and her own recipe exploits kept her up to date with all things foodie. Sticking to the kitchen, she began catering events from dinner parties to weddings and started a teaching cooking and baking classes.

Kateline’s career has taken her from the frontline of Michelin starred kitchens to global food service and back behind the scenes to see how food reaches our plates – as long as it’s about food she’s happy!

Kristina's food journey

As a child Kristina was very picky and it wasn't until she left home that she truly started to appreciate the varieties of food. Ever since then food has constantly been on her mind!

Kristina grew up in Germany, Denmark and Italy. She travelled the world and got to know other cultures and national identities through the food she tasted on her way. Her roots are now planted in Denmark from where she reports on Scandinavian food trends.

Michelle's food journey

Michelle has a passion for making, creating and baking. As well as working for thefoodpeople she also bakes cakes and pops and creates foodie themed greetings cards.

Coming from a background in customer services Michelle is our sales co-ordinator and will talk you through all our services and show you a brilliant on-line demonstration of our system.

Morgan's food journey

Morgan was educated as a scholar at Broadwater Manor School and Brighton College, before attending St. Peter's College, Oxford with a Choral Scholarship to read for a BA in Music. Upon completion of his degree, Morgan moved to London in order to read for an MA in the Cultural and Creative Industries at King's College, University of London.
Thoughout his years of study, Morgan developed a deep-seated and insatiable love of culture, with a particular personal passion for food. Having been a vegetarian since a teenager, Morgan has always been keen to explore and adapt elements of global cuisines to practise cooking at home.
Having worked variously in consultancy, marketing and PR, Morgan worked as Managing Director for an international education company before starting his current role as Business Development Manager with thefoodpeople in 2015.

Nichola's food journey

Nichola has worked in the food industry since she was 19, most which was within a large food & beverage manufacturer where she held roles covering finance, sales analysis and planning. However, more recently she has honed her skills to become a menu and category specialist within the food service sector. She has a keen eye for detail and is a whizz at interpreting data to give value adding insights.

Her love of food started whilst watching her mum cook at home and developed through out secondary school making jalousie’s (remember those?!) and toad in the hole to take home to an apprehensive family.

Today she loves to try new cuisines, eating out (babysitting permitted) and enjoys learning about and trying new health trends. To compliment the healthy food choices, she enjoys doing HIIT classes three times a week.

Nicola's food journey

A true child of the 70’s, Nicola first fond food memories are of birthday parties and tables laden with such gastronomic delights as cheese and pineapple ‘hedgehogs’, crispy pancakes and Marathon bars (that’s Snickers to anyone born after 1990).

After gaining a degree in Business and Marketing and becoming a CIM-qualified marketer, Nicola’s adventures in food really began when she joined 3663 (now Bidvest) and took over the management of the company’s own brand portfolio of 900+ products – from frozen ready meals and gateau, to ketchup portions and tea bags, and everything in between. In this role, Nicola developed a deep understanding of the processes involved in taking great food ideas through to first production - and an unexpected love of factories.

More recently, Nicola has worked as an analyst specialising in food and drink. As part of the Menuwatching team, Nicola combines her detailed industry knowledge, practical business experience and creative mind to help answer clients’ questions about the current – and next – food trends.

Olivia's food journey

With chef parents Olivia's foodie upbringing meant she didn't stand a chance working in anything other than food, although she tried, studying Psychology to Masters level, but the draw of a foodie career proved too much and throughout her time at University Olivia poured her love of baking into writing a gluten free baking blog - Olivia was diagnosed Coeliac aged 10, missed cake so started baking!

Taking a break from studying Olivia travelled around S.E Asia, Australia and New Zealand and caught the travel bug! She is now back in London, revelling in the vibrant London foodie scene.

Rich's food journey

Creativity plays a big part in the make up of Rich’s personality and skillset. Whether it’s artistic, charitable or culinary creation, Rich is always eager to put his own flavour on things. With a degree in computer animation and as the founder of his very own registered children’s charity in Give 4 B.E.T.H., ideas and innovation are always at the forefront of Rich’s mind.

These ingredients are also what Rich brings to the table and his love of food. Being a keen cook at home for his family and friends, he’s always looking to create the next taste sensation and as the Head of Menuwatching he finds himself in prime position to do just that.

Tom's food journey

Coming from a sporting background, Tom has always had a close affinity with food - being that he has always eaten a lot of it! His personal cooking traits were honed in the early days at school where he reveled in after school cookery classes at 'Piglet's Pantry' before becoming a bit more food-savvy after moving to France at the age of 18 to pursue a professional sporting dream of road cycling.

Now living in London, Tom enjoys exploring new hangouts be it sipping coffee, devouring cake or testing the latest street food on offer!

Sophie's food journey

Half Sicilian as well as English, an obsession with food runs through Sophie’s veins. Raised on pasta and risotto, she would always be helping out in the kitchen, as well as being the family’s most fervent fan of her mother’s cooking.

Her love for food is matched by one for the written word, having studied literature at Oxford and originally trained in journalism, before moving into marketing and advertising. During her five years in a London advertising agency, Sophie handled a range of FMGC accounts – from Coca-Cola to United Biscuits.

During this period, she also wrote about food in her spare time. It was in a restaurant in California that she finally decided to marry up her passions and follow a course in food writing as a career. She now lives between Barcelona and London working for thefoodpeople – and taking full advantage of everything these culinary hotspots have to offer.

Announcements

Food & Drink Trends Event 16

2016 Food & Drink Trends Event - you missed it for this year!

We'll be back again for the 2017 Trends Event on 8th November 2017, so don't miss it out, put the date in your diary now! To find out more about what happened at this exclusive 2016 event, who spoke, what was included, the food and drink, click the link below...

We're expanding...

Our trends team are rushed off their feet, searching and reporting on more trends than ever before, so we're looking for Food and Drink Trends Analysts to join our subscription and bespoke trends teams. To find out more click the link

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