Bruno Zoccola has one tip for would-be entrepreneurs: get a job amongst the meat at Smithfield Market. “It made a man out of me,” says the foodie, who started there as a runner aged 17. “I couldn’t wait to leave school: after my parents moved here in the 1950s from Italy, I was brought up by my grandparents who could only speak Italian, and I never fitted in.
“Then I started at Smithfield: at 3.30 in the morning I’d buy meat for £1 a pound and sell it for £1.10 a pound - this, I could relate to. Buying, selling, talking to people, convincing them my product was better than the next guy’s, Smithfield bought out all those skills that were inside me and school hadn’t developed.”
