In the kitchen at Bianchis restaurant, surrounded by stainless steel, knives and meat slicers, Olly Harrison-Stock, in his chef's blacks, appears so comfortable and capable it would be easy to assume he had been working in hospitality since he was a teen. But Olly, who has worked at the Italian restaurant in Montpelier for around a year, only began training to become a chef in 2019 in his 30s, completing his apprenticeship at a five-star London hotel virtually during the lockdown.
Before that, he had a successful career as a radio DJ and had recently signed a contract with Heart Radio. Articulate and personable, it’s obvious upon meeting Olly that he would be equally at ease in front of the mic and mixing desk as a whisk and stove.
With a father who was a radio plugger, Olly says he grew up knowing he wanted to work in the business. He said: “When everyone at school was like ‘I want to be a footballer, I want to be an astronaut’, I was saying, ‘I want to be a radio presenter.’”
