The Hidden World of Hospitality with Tom Kerridge

The chef lifts the lid on the industry, revealing how it operates and meeting the skilled and passionate experts driving it forward. In this first episode, he explores the highly skilled and competitive world of fine dining. Tom chats to professionals who, like him, are obsessed with the pursuit of culinary excellence, including Lake District-based chef Ryan Blackburn.

The chef continues his deep dive into the industry he knows and loves. This time, he meets brave and ambitious entrepreneurs looking to expand their businesses in the midst of some of the toughest economic conditions the industry has ever seen. In the high-risk game of hospitality, when do you twist, stick or fold?

Despite a UK-wide recruitment crisis, the chef discovers how some businesses are finding clever ways to build and retain strong, effective teams. One example is found in London's Docklands and an innovative floating hotel. The owners are pioneering an on-the-job training scheme designed to help local unemployed people take their first steps into hospitality.

Tom meets trailblazing operators who are risking everything to redefine the British pub, while trying to navigate the cost-of-living crisis. They include siblings Josh and Holly Eggleton, who used the pandemic to refurbish their Somerset pub the Pony Chew Valley, and have reopened it as a restaurant, cookery school and wedding venue. But when Tom hears how much they are in debt he worries that the siblings have bitten off more than they can chew.

The chef turns his attention to street food which is experiencing a boom when the industry is struggling. In the West Midlands, Tom meets Jack Brabant and James Swinburne, founders of an expanding street food collective called Digbeth Dining Club. They curate street food events and venues, bringing together the best independent local traders with DJs and live music to create a new kind of dining experience.

The changeable UK weather can bring sharp peaks and troughs in revenue for hospitality businesses. Tom heads to a remote hotel, an ice cream parlour and his own restaurant to look at inventive methods businesses employ to cope with fluctuating seasonal demand.

Tom visits three restaurants hoping to expand their businesses. Among them are a fusion restaurant combining Caribbean and West African dishes, a vegan restaurant and a pub-cum-butcher's shop.

The biggest celebrations in people's lives would be nothing without great hospitality operators working tirelessly behind the scenes. Tom looks at how the industry delivers exceptional service on a huge scale.

In Wolverhampton, Tom meets the team behind Grand Station, a large events venue housed in a former railway station. In the Scottish village of Grandtully, the Highland Chocolatier supplies the trade with fine chocolates relied upon by the hospitality industry. And Tom has a huge catering event of his own: the Six Nations rugby match between England and France at Twickenham.