I've been both very lucky and very fortunate to have been involved in cutting edge new ideas and innovations in my life. I just wish I had the patent or copyright. But then its been a major period in invention and creativity, and the last 50 years have not just been creative ideas, they have been engineering and market based and especially media and technology strong.
I just wanted to be a creative foodie as a chef and presenter trying to instil a passion for fun and experience when eating and drinking with an ambiance or charismatic style and "oomph" at a decent price. I had enjoyed French cuisine and Italian food in France and Italy. They had a sense of "joie de vivre" and "bon viveur" every time they dined. And in those countries it wasn't expensive. Yet as I grew in my food career in the 70s, the UK had limited choice or great food from great chefs mainly in London at vast cost. I wanted to change that. I had a lot to learn. Early days in Hastings gave me a great grounding, learning the best and the worse, the simple and the ambitious. And I also got involved in the early days of entertainment and hospitality management, from Pier shows and Theatre to organising an up and coming celebrity itinerary. I mixed with some of the most famous in the 70s and some outstanding acts, some legends and some that disappeared as soon as they arrived. I also worked with some pains in the backside!
Yet my life has not just been food and entertainment. I have moved sideways so often. And every time it has been to create something new and radical.
In the catering world I was very involved in moving a very old fashioned seaside service of many food services into more efficient times with microwave ovens. In the 70s they were an industrial product. By the 80s they were a domestic product. When I worked for KFC /PepsiCo we started to use computerisation for timed and programmed cooking. I later worked on new engineering methods for mass food production that then finished up as "cook-chill and boil in the bag TV Dinners" all for domestic rushed lives using the microwave. Then we changed egg and chicken methodology radically by using pasteurisation.
As that world was developed further I had my road accident and my life changed drastically-as per previous post- I went into being a changer of habits and lifestyle for people as I was encouraging people that had been affected by mental health or disability to take up training or employment. I was also a "guinea-pig" and was one of the first to use MRI being developed in Nottingham.
I left "people help" to be "business and enterprise" help as an Economic Development Officer, where the world of computer chips, new devices, mobile phones and websites was evolving. There was Napster and My Space and NO Facebook. Whilst DOT COM bubbles came and went Universities were the place for "social networks" . Facebook actually started at Harvard. In Nottingham we had Student Net. It was sold for mega money 25 years ago! And I didnt take up any personal or financial interest I but knew all about it.
Wow how the world has moved on...and I have been so close to some of these new ways.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/618268.stm
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