What's The Story? Hash Brown Glory

Orange wine, unforgettable hospitality events and the building of…outbuilding

Hello and welcome to another jam packed episode of What’s The Story? Hash Brown Glory! We’re your hosts, Tom Bower and Lee Harding and this week we’re joined by the powerhouse herself, Mel Fowkes of Outbuilding! We dive right into Mel’s incredible journey from her beginnings in the travel industry and being furloughed during the pandemic to building one of Leicestershire most recognisable pop-ups, events and supper club brands. Curating a wide array of food and drink events, Mel has a unique skill set when it comes to creativity and organisation. Her energy is infectious as is her passion for what she does. It’s often overlooked just how important consistency and drive are in hospitality, interacting with people and giving them world class experiences is what Mel’s all about, and it shows. Mel’s alter ego Clemmie as quickly becoming as loved as Mel herself, creating communities and spaces that people love is what she’s all about. Jump in with us for this hilariously awesome episode of the pod! You can find Mel here: www.outbuildingbar.co.uk [http://www.outbuildingbar.co.uk] You can find us here: https://rustickitchendeli.com [https://rustickitchendeli.com/] As ever, thanks for listening!

Our RKD book, listener questions, paper airplanes and beer

Hello and welcome to What's The Story? Hash Brown Glory! We're your hosts, Tom Bower and Lee Harding from Rustic Kitchen & Deli! This week, we're all alone. No guest. Nobody else to talk to. Besides producer Adam, but he doesn't count. It's just us two. We dive into a few exciting goings on at RKD, including...OUR VERY OWN BOOK! HOLY MOLY. We're currently debating the title, its contents and so much more so we'd love to hear from you with what you think we should name it... Oh, and should we include our famous hash brown recipe or not? We also answer some listener questions that we've been collecting and some of which we definitely haven't written ourselves... Things like, what goes into an RKD dish? What was the most difficult RKD dish to make? What are some of the biggest mistakes you've made? And so many more... We all know that hospitality is an ever changing industry and it's important to be able to adapt, and cope! We think it's fair to say that we're well positioned to be able to talk about this kind of stuff given the eventful year we had last year. If you know, you know. We talk about the kind of attitude you need to work in food and catering, what goes into the systems that power restaurants and so much more so make sure you tune in, and give us your undivided attention. As ever, thank you so much for listening and make sure you're subscribed to never miss an episode! Tom & Lee x

An Italian pastry legend joins us to talk pastries, sweet treats and mamma's recipes

Howdy! Welcome to What's The Story? Hash Brown Glory! With us your hosts, Tom Bower and Lee Harding. This week, we're joined by the absolutely incredible Lorena Moloney of Pasticceria Lorena joins us for a fabulous chat about all things pastry and baking. From the way Mamma used to measure by eye to creating some of the UK's most unbelievable desserts, we talk about Lorena's journey from dance teacher to pastry extraordinaire and everything in between. Where's Tiramasu actually from? What's a nun's breasts cake? What's your favourite dessert? We answer all this and more in this week's episode. Lorena is a phenomenal baker, just a quick look at her website or instagram will show you just how incredible her work is. What a pleasure it was to have her on the pod. You can find her here: https://www.pasticcerialorena.com https://www.instagram.com/pasticcerialorena/ You can find us here: https://rustickitchendeli.com As ever thank you for listening and make sure you're subscribed to the pod to avoid missing out on all this foodie deliciousness! Tom and Lee x

Standing out in hospitality, 90s chef vibes and the most important thing in the kitchen

Hello and welcome to What's The Story? Hash Brown Glory! with your hosts Tom Bower and Lee Harding. This week, we're joined by Cassie Davison of Kith & Kiln and best selling author of 'Stand Out Hospitality'. Cassie's work in the hospitality sector has given her some incredible insights and knowledge of how the industry works, so much so that she even wrote a book. A book, may we add, that mentions RKD! Winner winner chicken dinner. Also, you can download it free here: https://standouthospitality.scoreapp.com We talk about the importance of experience, consistency, marketing and more in this great chat about our favourite thing, hospitality. We also answer possibly one of the most vital questions ever, what's the most important thing in a kitchen? You can find Cassie here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassiedavison1/ You can find us here: https://rustickitchendeli.com As ever, thank you for listening and make sure to leave us a cheeky five star review! Tom and Lee x

Tom & Lee invited the firefighters who saved the cafe round for some scran

Hello! Welcome back to What’s The Story? Hash Brown Glory! With your hosts, Tom Bower and Lee Harding of The Rustic Kitchen & Deli! It’s been a while since our last episode… We do have an excuse. Way back in 2025, RKD suffered a disastrous fire that destroyed a lot of the building, we were closed for months, but, we’re now back up and running and we’re delighted to welcome back the firefighters that attended! We wanted to do something to show our gratitude, so we did the thing we do best. We created a dish.  After learning what their go to foods are, we created the THREE ZERO PAPA ONE. A stunning medley of poached eggs, roasted chorizo, toasted sourdough, Aleppo pepper flakes, avocado, spinach and cherry tomatoes with £2 from every dish going towards the firefighters charity. So, this week we hosted the firefighters that helped save Rustic for a breakfast they’ll never forget, their very own THREE ZERO PAPA ONE. A few even got behind the mics and cameras and joined us to talk about how it went down when they got the call about RKD. We also have news! We entered into the Pie Awards and we won...well you’ll have to find out what we won by listening to the episode! As ever, thank you for listening. You can find out more about the firefighters charity by heading here: https://www.firefighterscharity.org.uk [https://www.firefighterscharity.org.uk] You can find RKD here: https://rustickitchendeli.com [https://rustickitchendeli.com] And as ever, thank you so much for tuning in! Tom and Lee x