Table Talk: Julian Metcalfe, founder of Itsu

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Julian Metcalfe is a British entrepreneur and one of the most influential individuals on the London high street. He revolutionised the grab-and-go lunchtime food industry in 1986 by co-founding Pret and did the same again in 1997 when he commercialised Japanese cuisine with the first Itsu.

On the podcast, he tells Liv and Lara about the influence of his Ukrainian mother; why he decided to start Itsu, in many ways a competitor to Pret; what he thinks is the future of the grab-and-go industry; and why uni is the ultimate comfort food.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Spectator magazine is home to wonderful writing, insightful analysis and unrivaled books and arts reviews.
0:06.4	Subscribe today for just £12 and receive a 12-week subscription in print and online,
0:11.7	along with a free £20 £10 £10 or Waitrose voucher.
0:15.3	Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.
0:29.7	Hello and welcome to Table Talk, the Spectator's Food and Drink Podcast.
0:31.4	I'm Lara Prendergast.
0:32.6	And I'm Olivia Potts.
0:35.9	And today we're delighted to be joined by Julian Metcalf.
0:41.8	Julian is the co-founder of Pretta Mangeet and founder of Ipsu and Metcalf's food company.
0:43.8	Julian, welcome to Table Talk.
0:44.6	Thank you.
0:48.9	Julian, we're going to start where we always do at the very beginning and ask you,
0:51.1	what are your earliest memories of food?
0:51.9	Oh, goodness.
0:56.2	I remember being in Italy on holiday for the one of the, I must have been 12, almost, not quite, but one of the very early times I ever went abroad. We were in Italy in Venice,
1:04.6	in a fancy hotel and for some reason I had the confidence to go for it and order muscles.
1:11.7	So I ordered muscles.
1:13.0	I didn't know what they were, but it changed me forever because I realized just what this texture and flavor of real food really could be.
1:23.0	And so it didn't put me off, quite the reverse.
1:24.6	I remember thinking it was extraordinary.
1:27.4	I'd never
1:27.9	eaten anything like that, nothing which tasted like that or looked like that. And from that day
	...

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