I’m a food and travel show host; a food explorer, often visiting far away and remote places to understand traditional cooking techniques.
I believe in discovering cultures through food and over the years – filming off the beaten track – I have witnessed first-hand the power food has in bringing people closer.

Being unable to travel, my career has gone through a transformation over the last year.

I spent several months building a pizza oven and outdoor kitchen in my garden in Hong Kong.
I taught myself how to film and I have created a new web series sharing the message that whilst we can’t physically travel we can still let our taste buds do the exploring.
In the process I also became obsessed with making wood fire cooked Neapolitan pizza.

I share my story only because I’ve noticed I’m not alone in this type of career transformation.

The more I hear about it, the more I realise that there are new opportunities in the F&B industry arising all around the world.

Right now, we’re seeing the rise of the entrepreneurial home cook.
People who perhaps have always fancied themselves as bakers or chefs have started to see the benefits of providing their local areas with new food choices. It seems that right now the market and the timing is right for budding entrepreneurial cooks.

A few examples: in our neighbourhood an Indonesian lady does incredible authentic Indonesian food for self-pick up from her house: another couple of entrepreneurs have started a cookie company renting out a professional kitchen to make batches of their products for localised distribution. We’ve also got a local Biltong producer, a pie maker, a private Indian kitchen the list goes on.
In fact, while writing this piece, my parents who live in rural France have just placed an order from a locally based Sri Lankan lady who sends out a monthly menu for placing orders.
I’m quite sure the same is probably happening in other countries all around the world too.

Suddenly the idea of starting your own ‘restaurant’ isn’t as daunting a prospect as it once seemed.
I can think of a few reasons why this model might be thriving.
Whilst the global economy has taken a big hit, spending habits are still hard to kick. People have always enjoyed spending money buying from food vendors and will continue to do so.
In addition, right now, there is a captive audience of people at home and on their phones. These customers are open to the idea of delivery now more than ever and the delivery infrastructure is well developed and reliable.

It would seem we are all now less inclined to judge or place much importance on the brand: as long as products or food items are marketed in a nice way, often following a formulaic modern looking layout, then that’s enough for people to trust the brand and place an order.

In all of this, the ‘support local’ movement has never been stronger: people are more willing now to turn to their neighbours for support and to offer support.

Accordingly, in a world seemingly telling us to focus locally, there may be more opportunities to flourish for these small-scale businesses catering to a localised demographic. Helped by the increasing number of direct-to-consumer channels.

This generation has seen the empowerment of the individual brand through social media allowing people to have direct access to an audience via YouTube and other social media platforms. The line between using platforms for socialising or for self-branding is increasingly blurred.

As more channels provide access to customers, and customers in turn are more receptive and trusting towards individual vendors, there seems to be huge opportunities to market and sell products directly to consumers not just in the F&B industry but also in many other industries too.

This would suggest the potential for a decentralisation of the F&B industry.
A lean business model allowing people with innovative ideas to adapt to market needs, offering alternatives for customers at a time when restaurants don’t have the same flexibility.

These new small-scale businesses, rely on minimal overheads /investments , they are low risk and are able to adjust their business quickly, whilst growing a loyal customer base.

It is an agile business model capable of developing a strong bond between the artisan and the customer and enables customers to have direct access. It brings the concept of a restaurant right back to the basics.

As industries are being forced to lay off skilled workers, my hope is that this could well be a blessing in disguise. Talented people all round the world will let their art/cooking/writing whatever skill they have flourish outside of the confinement of a traditional structure; the same structure that may have provided security in the form of guaranteed income but perhaps isn’t as necessary as it once was.
I hope people are able to embrace such opportunities and with conviction make their dreams a reality.

I strongly believe restaurants will eventually return to where they belong at the top of the food chain.
However, when they do, they may find that they have some new competition in the form of these new small ventures. For anyone reading this with an inkling to embark on a new F&B venture I hope this article provides the extra motivation needed to get things up and running. With less barriers to entry than ever, now is the time to give yourself a new goal, be bold and make your F&B dream a reality! Get producing, get on all those annoying social media sites and get selling!