Episode #90
EP84 | Renoll Webb | Roots, Resolve and Red Leicester | Local Heroes Podcast
This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan sit down with chef and street-food entrepreneur Ren Webb for a remarkably open conversation about food, family, resilience and starting again. Ren talks about growing up in Slough, living with a stammer, experiencing racism and gradually finding the confidence to own every part of his story. He shares the huge influence of his Grenadian mum and his late dad - the man who took Ren and his brothers into the kitchen as teenagers and taught them to cook so they would “never have to depend on anyone.” That lesson stuck. From working in a butcher’s at 14 to professional kitchens, live-in chef jobs and eventually building his own Caribbean food business, Ren’s life has repeatedly found its way back to food. He also speaks candidly about some of the hardest periods of his life: homelessness, discovering that the little girl he had raised wasn’t biologically his daughter, difficult relationships, losing his dad and the challenge of rebuilding both himself and his business. Moving to the North East offered an opportunity to start again - initially on a friend’s sofa, before finding work, a home and eventually bringing his food business to the North East too. Alongside the more personal moments, there’s plenty of warmth and laughter as the conversation wanders through curry goat, jerk chicken, sugar sandwiches, the perils of putting pizza in a paper bag and Ren’s wonderfully questionable childhood combo of Red Leicester and strawberry jam. There’s even a three-course last meal - despite Dan's strict two course limit! A warm, funny and deeply personal conversation about family, identity, second chances and the role food can play in carrying our memories, our culture and the people who shaped us.
