Two things come up regularly on the podcast.  Firstly, quite a few of my podcast guests have gone through significant career changes to become food, drink and hospitality entrepreneurs.  I’m thinking Rupert Holloway at Conker Gin, who gave up surveying to set up his own distillery, or Claire Burnet at Chococo who swapped marketing for freshly made chocolates.  

As the winner of the 1979 Formula One world championship this weeks guest, Jody Scheckter certainly knows a thing or two about a second career, and in fact even a third!

Secondly, obsession, maybe William Curley creating the very best chocolates or Jethro Tenant and his quest to make the best sea salt.  Jody certainly takes things to the extreme.  He started with such a simple idea.  How to provide the very best, tastiest, food for his family.  That simple seed of an idea has taken Jody on an incredible adventure, learning the most phenomenal amount about every stage of food production, from seed to plate.  In fact, before the seed, Jody and his team of chemists and biologists spent eight years just researching the soil!  As he says, everything we eat, that does not come from the sea, comes from the soil at some point.  So if you have an obsessive nature, are use to winning and always want the best, that is the natural place to start.

Nowadays, as the founder of Laverstoke Park Farm, Jody Scheckter is better known for his commitment to biodynamic and organic farming, and his herd of water buffalo, which provide the milk for award-winning mozzarella and ice cream. 

Laverstoke Park Farm has also diversified into hops and ale; sparkling wine and black pudding. While these products are varied, the vision underpinning them is always the same: to be the ‘best-tasting and healthiest, without compromise’.