#270 - Hospitality Meets Neel Radia - The story of the Disney dream, the panto and the cake

At 16, Neel Radia had no idea what he wanted to do with his life.

Then somebody in a careers office suggested hospitality.

What followed was a dream job at Walt Disney World, eighteen months backpacking around Australia, a temporary return to the family food business that somehow became 15 years, nearly two decades supporting the National Association of Care Catering, national television appearances, a hospitality pantomime and, eventually, a social enterprise built around cake.

Which is quite some journey from “I’m not really sure what I want to do.”

Neel is somebody who repeatedly comes back to one deceptively simple idea:

If something matters to you, try it.

We Cover

Discovering hospitality almost accidentally at 16Applying for exactly one gap-year job — Walt Disney WorldLearning from Disney culture and wanting to be part of itHaving a five-year Disney management opportunity disappear after 9/11Taking 18 months out to travel and rethink lifeJoining the family business “for a year” — and staying for around 15Why family businesses are rarely as easy as outsiders assumeBeing effectively railroaded into his first chair role at 26Turning a deeply painful family experience into a drive to improve food and drink in careHelping champion safer texture-modified foodAlmost turning down national leadership because he feared public speakingGoing from media training to appearing on BBC News within weeksGetting comprehensively outside his comfort zone in a hospitality pantomimeTaking one weekend every month completely offlineCreating Cake for KindnessWhy a piece of cake can mean far more than simply something to eat

Quotables

“If you don’t try, you never know.”

“Sometimes we need to stop looking at everyone else and start looking at ourselves.”

“There’s always time. Always time.”