NISHA KATONA ON THE ALLURE OF LIVERPOOL


“I’m passionate about this city. Just walk up Bold Street and look at those markets that have opened there. You can eat the universe. Liverpool has the oldest Chinatown in the country. I’m so passionate about Chinese food because it is so varied, uncompromising and honest. But our city does it better than any that I’ve been to. Go to Mr. Chilli’s [Seel Street], go to Mei Mei [Berry Street] – I haven’t had dim sum as good, even in Hong Kong.”


WALKING TALL Katona’s guiding philosophy is that these employees will go on to build “even better businesses than me, and they will have charitable giving at the heart of what they do,” she says. “Tat is the aim of the Mowgli Trust, to enrich lives in the cities we go to, starting with our own people. Tey are raising money for something that is life-changing. It makes people walk taller.” Liverpool, she believes,


is a city that truly embraces this. “Liverpool has the most


“It’s a wartime mentality in hospitality right now, but as entrepreneurs that is when we are at our best”


uninhibited, open-hearted people. Tey’re from immigrant stock, so they work hard to make others feel at home in their city. Tat’s the genesis of it. Tey are extremely broad- minded,” she says. Katona “can’t wait” to get to the FCSI EAME Conference and “share a room with people” in “one of the most beleaguered industries,” she says. “Tat’s an absolute privilege.


It’s a wartime mentality in hospitality right now, but as entrepreneurs that is when we


are at our best – when we are firefighting, thinking: ‘How do we fix this?’ We are, intrinsically, honestly, optimistic people, a glass-half-full people, and that is the attitude that will get us out of this recession and keep the economy going. Tat’s the attitude that creates jobs, social capital, and keeps the lights on in the high streets – making our cities places people want to live in. Tat’s what the food industry does. Tere’s nothing more invigorating than that.”


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