Five Minutes With: Charlie Bigham ‘’Business should be a force for good!’’ Charlie Bigham set up shop back in 1996 with the sole aim of creating really delicious dishes for foodies. Jacqui Priestley, owner and editor of Wokingham Local spends ‘’5 mins with Charlie Bigham’’. WL: Thank you for your time Charlie and welcome to Wokingham Local. So, can I ask first of all, did you enjoy cooking from an early age? CB: Well, I was about 13 or 14 when I started to cook. WL: Did you have an ambition to become a famous chef and do you have an ambition to be a celebrity chef now? CB: I had no ambition to be a chef, and celebrity chefs had not been invented yet. I describe myself as a cook, rather than a chef. Chefs in restaurants are true professionals to get their different dishes out all at the same time, and hats off to them! WL: Our special feature is entitled ‘Tastes of the World’, what did you learn and gain from the experience of traveling around the World? 28
CB: I have been very fortunate to do lots of traveling and I learnt a lot about food. What I feel about food in the UK is that we have such diversity from everywhere else in the World because we are so open to ideas from other countries and to incorporating them into our own recipes, so there isn’t just one style of British cooking, and that is replicated in our extensive range of foods. WL: What gave you the initial idea to start a company selling freshly prepared meals? CB: Well I needed a job, and I like to work for myself, as I was never very good at working for someone else, and I guess I just thought I would take a ‘punt’. My thinking was that there must be more people like me out there, leading busy lives, and occasionally thinking I love cooking, but WOKINGHAM LOCAL • MARCH 2022
