Full names: Myles Hopper & Giles Humphries
Roles: Co-Founders of Mindful Chef
DOBs: 15/04/1988 & 24/08/1986
Birthplaces: Exeter & Taunton
Twitter Handle: @MindfulChefUK
Website: mindfulchef.com
Fun Fact: Miles: I have a ginormous Norwegian Forest cat called Murdoch…he’s huge. Gyles: I once found a real human skeleton whilst chasing my rugby ball over a cliff edge…
Jack: So you’re two of the three who originally founded this thing but you know each other from waaaaaay back at school right? Could you give us an idea, in a nutshell, of how you got to today? What you were doing before Mindful Chef, and where the idea for Mindful Chef originally came from? What do you both do at the company?
M: I was working in London as a personal trainer following a year out in Australia. Giles approached me about this idea of helping people eat healthy, great-tasting food and I thought it was a great way to be able to help people on a far wider basis than I was currently doing. I make sure all of our meals are nutritionally balanced, write a lot of the sites content around health and wellness and look after the partnerships team.
G: I was working for the creative agency M&C Saatchi in Piccadilly. Life was good and I was enjoying London but felt, like a lot of others around me, that my diet could be much better if a simple service. After speaking with our third co-founder, Rob, we gave Myles a call and started dreaming up Mindful Chef. I look after our brand and marketing, for me building a fantastic brand is one of the most exciting things you can do.
Onto the name – why ‘mindful’? Is there a Buddhist connection here (i.e ‘Sati’?)
M: There’s actually not a Buddhist connection! We chose Mindful Chef as we really believe our service is mindful throughout. We promote mindful eating, as our customers know exactly what ingredients are going into the recipes, plus the produce is sustainably and locally sourced from the West Country.
G: Our ingredients are truly good-for-you and our customers have reported that their overall health and wellness has improved dramatically as a result of enjoying a Mindful diet. We often get emails and calls letting us know that people have better skin, have more energy, are feeling leaner etc. It’s great to hear.
M: Our packaging is also fully recyclable and the woolcool packaging we use to keep the meat and fish products chilled is biodegradable, so it’s mindful from that aspect too.
Whereabouts in Devon are you guys from/based and what’s good there in terms of food and drink? We have a writer down in Cornwall, not too far from you and the seafood there is quite something!
M: I’m from Exeter but spend a lot of my time at our caravan in North Cornwall. There’s soo many good places to eat but I suppose it you want really good seafood you have to head to Rick Steins in Padstow.
G: I’m from Sidmouth, a small coastal down just outside of Exeter. We went to school in Exeter so spent a lot of time enjoying the cities restaurants and bars which are popping up ever more regularly as the city grows. There are some phenomenal seafood restaurants along the coast in Devon but for me the best memory of seafood goes back to long summers spent in Cornwall. One of my favourites is Surfside, a little restaurant nestled at the back of the beach – you can literally walk straight out of the surf, roll down your wetsuit and sit with the sand in your toes enjoying a chilled drink and the freshest seafood dishes.
How/where did you find your head chef – the Leiths trained Louisa? What’s her style of cooking?
G: Funnily enough, much like most of our staff, Louisa found us. We were on the verge of needing someone full time and she happened to be free and looking for a couple of weeks of work before she headed to India for a month of cooking and yoga. We loved her so much in that two weeks that we offered her a job there and then. She brings the perfect fusion of modern styles using both British and worldwide flavours. We’ve had a few amazing curries from her time in India.
Personally, what are both of your most and least favourite foods?
M: I never used to be a fan of fish but this has changed since tasting Louisa’s recipes. I now regularly order her seafood dishes every week. Favourite food would have to be steak.
G: My favourite has to be any dish using our fabulous organic beef from Eversfield Organic farm in Devon. Like Myles, I’ve really got into the seafood dishes, especially with the summer they are an ideal way to stay trim whilst enjoying fantastic flavours.
I tend see a lot of food boxes these days and an increased interest in eating ‘better’ (which is great!). How do you plan to set yourselves aside from the competition, and are there any industry trends you reckon we should be looking out for?
M: We position ourselves as The Healthy Recipe Box company, we never include refined carbs (such as white pasta and white bread.. essentially cheap fillers!) in any of our recipes, instead they are packed full of nutritious, locally sourced fresh produce.
G: What truly sets up apart is that all of our recipes are gluten free and dairy free, plus we’re the only recipe box company offering a nationwide vegan recipe box. There’s a increasing demand for gluten-free food, which anyone will recognise by the growing shelf-space in supermarkets devoted to gluten-free products. Veganism is also a massively growing trend, which is predicted to continue, not only for health reasons but environmental too.
What’s a ‘day in your life’ like? Could you give us an insight into life at Mindful Chef?
M: I wake up and have breakfast before cycling into work. Catch up on emails in the morning before heading to the gym or park with the team around lunch time. The afternoons are generally spent either writing content for the blog, working on partnerships with like minded brands or speaking to our customers.
G: Pretty similar to Myles. I’ll either run or cycle to work, bash through some emails before calling a few customers (very important to us) and then heading to the park or gym with the team. We make sure that the team ethos is firmly based around a good work life balance – far too many organisations these days fall into a culture of ‘facetime’ at their desks whereby staff feel they have to sit there through lunch or late into the evening, nonsense! The most productive organisations are ones full of people who get enough exercise, enjoy fresh air every day and get enough time away from computer screens.
What’s your greatest/most memorable professional moment been, so far?
M: Being nominated for start up of the year and there’s one which I can’t mention just yet but keep an eye out for over the next few months.
G: For me, it would have to be looking around a month ago and it dawning on me that our small team of three had grown to 9 full time staff. All of whom are brilliant ambassadors for the business and generally lovely people.
Where do you get your ideas?
M: We can’t take the credit for the meals, that’s all chef Louisa. She tells me they all stem from her travels across the world experiencing different cultures.
G: We spend a lot of time looking at the health and wellness market keeping tabs on what some of the coolest brands are doing out there.
What’s your philosophy, summed up in a sentence?
M: Mindful Chef makes healthy eating easy and enjoyable.
G: As above
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve had, how did you overcome it, and what did you learn from it?
M: Post Christmas we had a lot of extra orders – everyone trying to eat a bit better after all of the Christmas parties. We weren’t set up well enough to fulfil the orders to the standards we expected of ourselves. We learned from this very quickly and put processes in place to ensure we are never in the same situation again.
G: Yup, the surge in orders going through the roof in January took us somewhat by surprise. We expected a big hike but could have never predicted the sheer volume. Word was spreading though, which was fantastic.
Who’s the person who’s most inspired you in your work – food industry or otherwise? Is there anyone that you draw inspiration or strength from? Do you have any specific culinary influences?
G: Tamara and Simon Hill-Norton. Co-founders of Sweaty Betty. If you listen to their story it is one of grinding through the tough early years but remaining laser focussed upon their brand and vision. I can see a lot of similarities with how we try and position Mindful Chef as a premium British brand. They are also, by all accounts, thoroughly nice people which for me is important, you don’t have to be a d*ck to succeed in business.
M: This will sound rather ridiculous but Dwayne Johnson. The man’s work ethic is unquestionable and from all accounts he seems like a really nice, genuine person.
What do you enjoy most and least about what you do?
G: Building a brand has to be right up there. You can read textbook after textbook on the mechanics of a startup but to truly stand out you have to build a fantastic brand and service that resonates with the consumer. That’s what I love. Least would have to be the team washing up sessions in the kitchen.
M: The thing I enjoy most is speaking to customers about how Mindful Chef has improved their lives. The least would have to be Sundays in the warehouse 
What advice would you give to aspiring food entrepreneurs who’d want the kind of results that you’ve had?
M: Keep going. There will always be tough times but if you truly believe in what you’re doing keep working hard and you’ll make it.
G: Stay focussed on your USP and don’t deviate. There will be lots of opportunities and distractions, but in the early years you have to stay true to your core business or you’ll find your time is stretched thin.
If you weren’t doing what you do now, what would you be doing instead?
M: I’d like to be running my own gym or I’d have found a way to emigrate back to Australia.
G: Working on another startup with a friend – it’s such a rewarding journey (and you learn shedloads), perhaps in Australia too!
If you could get anyone to try your foods (fictional or real, living or dead) who would you pick and which of the meals would you like them to try? Assume that they go on to be your brand ambassador…
M: Has to be Dwayne Johnson again. I’d like to know whether our meals could fill him up
G: Actually we had a goal that David & Victoria Beckham would try our meals, and guess what, they did! We sent them a box speculatively and their team emailed the day after saying they loved the box and enquired as to whether we could feed the whole family – we of course said yes!
What’s your ultimate aim and goal for the business? If you could achieve anything with it, what would you pick? Money and reality are no obstacle, so shoot for the moon…
G:To be serving healthy good-for-you meals to people across the world. We already have a lot of interest from Australia and America so I wouldn’t mind opening an office in one of those countries to start with!
M: We would be everyones one stop shop for all things related to health and wellness. Food, clothing, advice etc. Really I want to spread our message that healthy eating can be really easy and get people into cooking again. Living a healthier lifestyle can enable you to achieve so much more than you realise.
Where next for you and Mindful Chef?
G: It’s a very exciting time at Mindful Chef, we’ve just launched our new website and are currently focussing on expanding, so that more people can experience our service. There’s plenty in store for the near future including one very exciting development that i’m not allowed to talk about, so I’ll have to leave you in suspense for now.
And we always ask three customary ridiculous questions…
If you had a time machine that could send you backward in time as far as you wanted (without any logical paradoxes, timeline contamination, etc.) – what period of time would you visit and what are the first 3 things you’d do once you got there?
M: I studied Ancient History at university so would love to travel back to Ancient Rome. I would visit the colosseum, take a walk around Rome and visit the Roman baths.
G: The 60’s surfing scene in the US. No mobile phones or modern technology, just beautiful sunsets and waves. I’d grab an ice cold drink, light a fire on the beach and watch the sun go down.
If you could swap lives for the day with any fictional character (and you’d be guaranteed to return to your life after 24 hours), who would you choose, and why?
G: Batman, need I explain more…
M: Superman… so I could fight crime alongside Gilo…
If you had to become some kind of vegetable related superhero, which would you become, and what would you superpower be?
M: Mine would have to be either spinach or broccoli. Vegetables that pack a real punch in terms of nutritional value and quality. Super human strength like Popeye. Either that or the ability to fly – everyone wants to fly.
G: 100% the mighty purple sweet potato. Bold, vibrant, different and healthy. Packs a punch anywhere.
