Wicked Leeks (published by Riverford)

Four years ago I tried to build something new in the food system but I can see now that it was too early, and in the wrong place.

Going even further back, when I ran The Café in the Park (Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire), I once had the idea of rolling out a franchise of cafés under the Riverford Organic Farmers brand. We had some good conversations, but in the end they decided it would have been mission drift for them.

In 2019 I sold the restaurant, moved to Totnes, and began developing what eventually became The Public Plate.

In 2021 and crucially, before the model was ready, I went too early and opened a pilot in a small town on the edge of Dartmoor. A lot about it worked; operationally and also in terms of the feedback from customers. 

But Covid, the cost-of-living crisis, and most importantly the wrong location for a model like this meant we had to walk away.

Since then I’ve spent four years, and completed an MSc in food policy, refining the idea. The model now draws on the best of what already works across hospitality, farming and public food infrastructure.

So it felt particularly meaningful to have the opportunity to write about it in Wicked Leeks (superbly edited by Emine Rushton), the brilliant publication from Riverford Organic Farmers that connects the dots between food, farming and politics .

Riverford is one of the businesses I admire most. It’s also part of the reason I ended up in Totnes. So it was a real pleasure to share the thinking behind The Public Plate there.

Take a look at the article https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/features/the-public-plate-a-new-model-for-responsible-restaurants-that-bring-people-together/.