Louise Kissack on Clubhouse

Bio

First things first: I’m obsessed with food! Before starting my consultancy Spaghetti Group in 2018, I spent a decade travelling the world working for some of the biggest brands in the food and hospitality industry. In the last few years, I’ve been incredibly excited to see the innovation and diversity that independents have brought to the UK sector.

My love affair with food began properly when I worked in Paris and made it my mission to discover as much as I could about Parisian food culture. I learned to navigate the city by walking to food destinations – restaurants, cafes, markets and, inevitably, my favourite Berthillon ice-cream on the Ile de France.

In the following years, work took me further afield and I revelled in being able to eat like the locals and sample the cuisine wherever I went. I ate borsch in Russia and reindeer in Finland, I had tagines in Morocco, pho in Vietnam and ant-egg tacos in Mexico. When I changed roles and no longer had to travel as part of my job, I thought my food adventures were over…

And then the UK independent food sector exploded. My weekends became about finding the foods I loved around the world right here in my own city, and I spent them visiting new local restaurants and markets in Liverpool. I started to venture further afield, paying regular visits to Altrincham Market to discover wha the North West had to offer, and travelling to London to shop at Borough Market and learn about emerging brands like Bread Ahead and Crosstown.

I visited makers markets, vegan markets, food markets and pop-ups across the North West. I started to discover small suppliers and producers, and began to get to know some of the people behind local restaurants and food brands. I fell in love with their stories and the care and passion that they put into their food. My friends and I were constantly sharing pictures of food via WhatsApp and social media, and I decided to set up Liverpool Food Network to shout about these amazing independents and the incredible people that run them.

Whilst this allowed me to talk about my favourite products and places, it soon became apparent that some of them needed help talking about themselves. So, through Spaghetti Group, I began consulting with independent businesses I passionately believed in to help them implement what I'd learned about customer experience, branding and communications during my corporate career.