The Review - RESTAURANTS Published: 11th October 2007
Keith Bird, founder of the Natural Kitchen
Wholesome attitude to profit
Tired of his corporate career, Keith Bird turned his life around with one of the capital’s largest emporiums – a market store, restaurant and café in Marylebone, writes Peter Gruner
A FORMER top Asda store executive who tired of the corporate life is the brains behind the capital’s hottest new health food emporium.
Keith Bird, 41, has swapped the business suit for a T-shirt, and instead of working out supermarket profits, is busy eulogising about the health benefits of organic foods.
With satisfied customers like singer Lily Allen, actor Alan Rickman and Sunday Times food critic Michael Winner, it seems the Natural Kitchen in Marylebone High Street can do no wrong.
Keith and his team have transformed a former Sketchley dry cleaners into a colourful three-storey market-style store with an upstairs restaurant and café.
“Making a profit is secondary,” he said. “This is about sharing something special. That doesn’t mean, of course, that we can forget our investors.”
Already he has noticed former supermarket colleagues nosing around the Kitchen. But even if they could adapt his ideas he doubts that they could ever capture the amiable atmosphere of the store.
Health food staff often have a reputation for blandness, verging on disdain for their customers. Keith was determined that all 50 members of staff would be chosen for their friendliness and enthusiasm for the job. “I’m a poacher turned gamekeeper,” said Keith this week. “I used to do Asda-WalMart’s business strategy and develop new retail format. But I got sick of fighting with the board over prices, which I didn’t think was the only factor when it comes to food.” He realised, he said, that when it came to quality some of the best-tasting food could not be provided by the big supermarket chains, but by Britain’s small but expanding hand- crafted cottage industries.
For example, unlike the supermarkets, he refuses to allow any of the fresh fruit and vegetables to be air freighted from abroad.
“Instead you’ll get fruit and vegetables in season,” he said. “This month we’ve got beetroot, Brussels tops, carrots and celery to name just a few. On the fruit side there are blackberries, Beurre Hardy pears, elderberries and grapes. By not flying food in we don’t pollute the planet and we can concentrate on home markets.”
What about claims by government food scientists that there is little difference between organic and non organic foods? “I think there is a big difference,” Keith said. “Organic foods definitely taste better. Try our carrot juice. There’s none of the bitterness that you get with non-organic varieties.”
The store also holds wine-tasting and cheese-tasting events and basic home economics workshops for customers on how to debone meat and chicken joints and the best ways of using all the meat and bones in cooking.
Organic food supplier River Cottage – made famous by TV personality Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall – will be holding a British mushrooms identity workshop at the Natural Kitchen. Among the Kitchen’s shareholders is property developer Elliott Bernerd, who has helped develop Camden market and the South Bank. “Everyone involved is interested in organic and whole foods,” said Keith. “But the aim is to bring a market buzz to this style of shopping.”
The store sells delicious Bramley apple juice from the Queen’s Sandringham estate and an excellent Tregothnan tea from the UK’s only tea plantation in Cornwall. And award-winning Well Hung Meat Company is one of the suppliers whose methods make for a richer taste.
What about price? Keith said: “A medium cup of organic Fair Trade coffee served in the café is £1.75, which is cheaper than Starbucks. You can buy a big packet of apple chips which have been roasted rather than fried for 55p. That’s cheaper than a packet of crisps, tastes much better and is so much better for you.
“The problem with supermarket shopping is that so much food is thrown away – like the ‘three for two’ offers which customers take home and then leave it at the back of the fridge. Here you will ultimately save money by being selective, buying the best quality and only what you need.”
• The Natural Kitchen, 77-78 Marylebone High Street, W1. Tel: 020 7486 806. www.thenaturalkitchen.com
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