The Cutlery Club Conversations

The Boiling Pot: When Leaders Avoid the Hard Conversations In hospitality, we have learnt to handle complaints from the customers, hopefully with total grace, but we're even better at avoiding a two-minute conversation with our own team and letting things bubble away to boiling point over months. Advita Patel — communications consultant, coach and author of  Decoding Confidence  — and I unpack why...

Chris King was one of the creators of Birch — Hotel of the Year within months of opening. Now he's doing it again with Crafted at Powdermills in East Sussex, recently nominated in the Boutique Hotelier Awards. Not that he chases awards, but they are good for business; although, as Chris learned, they are no guarantee of any long term success. This is a founder who understands that failure is only...

In this episode I meet up with Rob and Benita at ⁠Hokus Pokus⁠ in King's Cross, creators of ⁠Tonic Magazine ⁠ — best described as a heady cocktail of drink, travel and adventure. During this conversation they share candidly about the realities of combining marriage with running a business together; Benita's journey surviving breast cancer; and why the magazine's Spotify playlists are part of that...

Welcome to the table! In this episode, I am joined by the brilliant Alison Cork MBE – entrepreneur, interiors expert and all-round inspiration.  She’s built businesses, shaped beautiful homes and is a fierce champion of women in business. Now in her 60's, she is more motivated, stronger and healthier than ever and her recent book, Fit & Fabulous over 50 reflects a huge shift in her approach to...

In this November 2023 episode of The Cutlery Club Conversations I am chatting with the delightful food and drink writer, Andy Clarke. Andy is also well known as a Television Producer, having worked on some brilliant programmes like Saturday Kitchen and one of my absolute faves, ⁠Gordon, Gino and Fred.⁠ He also presents the summer day festivals, Pub in the Park so rubbing shoulders with top celebs...

Here, we go off on a detour and chat domestics. To clean, or not to clean, that is the question. And that's it in a nutshell really.

The 3rd and final Course. The Rose is finished and we are on to the G&T's - it's a tad noisy, I'll say no more!

Part 2 - The Main Course, where we ditch the small talk, fill the glass with Rose and things get a little deeper. We talk about the woman behind the character and how being a soap star ingratiates you with the public in ways that other roles can't. Diane shares some invaluable advice for young aspiring actors and talks about the diversity of the roles she undertook before joining Eastenders. W...

So, here I am, once again, enjoying another conversation with one of the special guests from a Cutlery Club Salon, my dear friend, Diane Parish, best known for her character as Denise in the award-winning British soap opera, Eastenders.   Diane hosted a Cutlery Club dinner earlier this year to celebrate International Women’s Day, alongside the brilliantly funny author and stand-up comedian, Rosie...

In this episode of The Cutlery Club Conversations I talk to my lovely friend and very talented artist, David Gwinnutt. It's a very chilled conversation between two friends - me sipping tea on my sofa, David nursing a tequila hangover with a big glass of water! You'll get a sense of who he is from our banter and hopefully enjoy the light-heartedness of it all. Apologies for any sound discre...

In this final part of my conversation with Bob we talk more on love, family, friendship, Pina Coladas, cricket, toast......we really cover some ground! This conversation may have ended here, but I am thrilled to say we have forged the most wonderful friendship as a result of this time together. We are kindred spirits when it comes to our love of music and nature and I am now blessed to call him a...

This podcast episode was recorded in July 2022 following the Cutlery Club salon in the St Pancras clock tower, King's Cross, London when Claire Fox was my chosen guest of honour. Claire is now a non-affiliated member of the House of Lords, a controversial undertaking and one that has brought her heavy criticism, due to her previous calls for its abolishment. She founded the Academy of Ideas and Ba...

In this second episode of The Cutlery Club Conversations,  I'm in conversation with talented Interior Designer, my naughty neighbour and great friend, Maggie Greening. We sip Buck’s Fizz in Maggie's charming and quintessentially English ‘country’ garden - except it’s suburban London….the sirens and helicopter are a bit of a give-away. We talk about the inspiration behind her styling of the fi...

In this first ever episode of The Cutlery Club Conversations, I talk to the inspiring and ethical entrepreneur, Matt Phelan about his farming background, his love of tech, his inclusive attitude to leading and why he believes everyone should have a coach!  Matt had been my first guest speaker for the re-launch of The Cutlery Club Salons. It was a really intimate, candlelit evening, styled bea...