Oliver Peyton Restaurateur Oliver Peyton's first business ventures were nightclubs in the 1980s, but he moved into restaurants in the 1990s. He currently owns several restaurants throughout London, which, over the years, have been as much applauded for their architectural achievements as for their gastronomic standards. His most recent enterprise is The National Dining Rooms inside the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The eco-friendly restaurant Inn the Park in St James's Park is another of Peyton's ventures. Peyton wholeheartedly believes that "restaurants should be about having fun" and he thinks that the most common mistake made in the restaurant business is lack of vision - which, he feels, transfers from food to design to everything else. "I generally begin with a food concept, then start thinking about the design and how to amalgamate those things," he says. Matthew Fort once described him as the Phineas T Barnum of restaurateurs, saying "He has a penchant for the spectacular and the idiosyncratic". Prue Leith Prue Leith started her catering company Leith's Good Food and opened the Michelin-starred restaurant Leith's in the 1960s. In the 1970s she started Leith's School of Food and Wine. Since then she has opened a training restaurant and catering college in South Africa and a charitable training restaurant, the Hoxton Apprentice, in London. Previously a cookery columnist for a variety of national newspapers, Prue has also written 12 cookery books, three novels and has been a television presenter. She also chairs several charity organisations: Focus on Food, the largest charity working in schools to help the teaching of cooking in the curriculum; the British Food Trust, promoting food education to the general public; and 3E's, a not-for-profit company working to improve failing state schools. In January 2007 Prue took over as chair of the School Food Trust, working to improve school meals in England. Matthew Fort Matthew Fort worked on the food pages of the Guardian for more than ten years. He also writes for Esquire, The Observer, Country Living, Decanter and Waitrose Food Illustrated. In 1992 he won the title of Glenfiddich Food Writer of the Year and, in 1993, Glenfiddich Restaurant Writer of the Year, as well as The Restaurateurs' Association Food Writer of the Year. He has written five books. Matthew has been a presenter on UKTV Food's Market Kitchen since April 2007. One of Matthew's greatest passions is Italy, which he visits every year.
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