To the kid at the back of the class who hates school and thinks life won’t get any better: take heed from Charlie Phillips. “I was an academic rebel,” he admits. “I enjoyed saying ‘no’ to teachers, and I didn’t do homework. When I got mostly got Bs and Cs, my academic school tried to kick me out, and I was the only kid in the year who didn’t apply to uni.”
When his school, Latymer Upper in Hammersmith, told everyone to find some work experience, “all my mates were at law firms and finance floors, whilst I was picking basil and scrubbing dishes at the River Café,” he says. Food was his thing: Phillips founded Morty & Bob’s, a three-strong restaurant chain (in King’s Cross, Kensal Rise and White City) and event-caterer which brings in more than £3 million a year.
