When hospitality is your calling, you can’t help but be drawn to it. This is something Gareth has learned since the day his love for hotels and looking after other humans began. He now has 252 bedrooms, 10 restaurants, a members’ club and three floors of health, fitness, beauty and spa facilities, inside his gorgeous building – The Ned.

The famous Dorset Blue Vinny didn’t start off perfect, you know. There was a time that Dorset Blue was made in nearly farmhouse, before dying out for 300 years… Only to be resurrected by Emily’s father during a time of milk glut and butter mountains. Eventually, Dorset Blue became not only an award winning, protected food name product – but also a range of delicious soups, chutneys and a name that stands for local produce and supporting the independent hospitality industry.

From his first beer at 19 to his ‘G&T’ moment in Hong Kong… Jonathan Downey is a hospitality legend who went from building a bar whilst being a lawyer – to opening the famous Street Feast in and around London. Match Bar, Sosho, Milk and Honey, Street Feasts, 2 million visitors a year, Dinerama, Giant Robot, Hawker House…hold on tight…it’s quite the adventure!

Starting off his early life on the trawler – pulling in fish and avoiding bumping into TNT-filled mines before moving into waiting at the age of 17, Alex Aitken has worked in all areas of hospitality. A self-taught chef who has never worked in anyone kitchen except his own tells the story of how he achieved Michelin stars and kept up with the everchanging industry.

After studying grasslands and moving to the USA for a while – Joy came back to the UK to start growing her very own produce. The famous Dorset Naga chilli was grown on her land, in a cold little town in Dorset much to everyone surprise. Now she not only sells the Dorset Naga seeds but produces lots of chilli and vegetable varieties – including her 8-feet tall chilli plant Nigel.