JK

Jacob Kenedy

Things Jacob Says on Podcasts

“The maths thing I learned is it's very easy to say I only need 1% or half a percent or a quarter of a percent of people to come. But the difference between 0.1 and 0.01 is tenfold. It's a big difference, even though it's a tiny number.” — Jacob Kenedy, The Go To Food Podcast “I think you'd be a naturally more talented eater. I think you can learn, particularly through childhood, to really appreciate taste and to learn what good is. Cooking is kind of a skill, but there has to be something really wrong with you if you can't learn how to do it.” — Jacob Kenedy, The Go To Food Podcast “I opened Bocca so that I could eat that food in London. And I think that was what was the killer move. Because I was opening a restaurant for myself, and you can do that well. You can't really successfully imagine what other people want. It's a disservice to them.” — Jacob Kenedy, The Go To Food Podcast

Where to Find Them

Jacob Kenedy has been a guest on The Go To Food Podcast and The Food Programme .

Recently: “Jacob Kenedy - How Bocca di Lupo Changed Italian Food in London & Why Great Restaurants Struggle to Survive” on The Go To Food Podcast (October 2026); “Alastair Little: A Life through Food” on The Food Programme (June 2017).

What They Said

“The maths thing I learned is it's very easy to say I only need 1% or half a percent or a quarter of a percent of people to come. But the difference between 0.1 and 0.01 is tenfold. It's a big difference, even though it's a tiny number.” — Jacob Kenedy, The Go To Food Podcast

Kenedy on why his large restaurant at Cambridge Circus failed. The plan needed only a tiny share of the people passing through each day. What nobody figured, he says, is that the one thing people at that intersection don't want to do is stop.

The Go To Food Podcast · 2026-10-05 Permalink → Listen →
The Go To Food Podcast Around 31:57 into the episode
Speaker 4

And I wish we'd started small, because I think if we had, we'd still be here. But it was such a kind of behemoth of a building and a business that trying to make changes there felt like trying to steer the Titanic. And we were hemorrhaging money left, right, and centre. The rent was half a million pounds a year almost. And it was so big, it took a lot of staff to work it, even in the quiet times. The other reason it didn't work is I've discovered something about maths. But we looked at the site, and I can't remember how many people passed through Cambridge Circus every day. And we figured that we needed to capture a very small percentage of those people in order for the business to work. What I didn't figure, none of us figured, is the people who are going through Cambridge Circus, the one thing they do not want to do is stop.

Speaker 1

No.

Speaker 4

They want to get out of that hideous intersection as fast as possible. And the maths thing I learned is it's very easy to say I only need 1% or half a percent or a quarter of a percent of people to come. But the difference between 0.1 and 0.01 is tenfold. It's a big difference, even though it's a tiny number. And so when you're dealing with small fractions of things, to be careful.

Speaker 1

Yeah, tough.

Speaker 4

So that was heart-wrenching when it closed. You feel like it's a failure, but it feels like a per like not like the business has failed. You've failed.

Speaker 3

Yeah. Is it harder to stay relevant nowadays? I mean, every brush to touch, Jeff, we talk.

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode
“I think you'd be a naturally more talented eater. I think you can learn, particularly through childhood, to really appreciate taste and to learn what good is. Cooking is kind of a skill, but there has to be something really wrong with you if you can't learn how to do it.” — Jacob Kenedy, The Go To Food Podcast

The host asks whether some people are naturally more talented cooks than others. Kenedy says no. For him the mechanics are basic, and what matters is learning to tell good from great, which he thinks is learned and not inherited.

The Go To Food Podcast · 2026-10-05 Permalink → Listen →
The Go To Food Podcast Around 17:26 into the episode
Speaker 4

So I did. And I came for six months the first time. I was kind of young and I stayed with her in her house, which was probably a bit weird for her. We became very close friends. And then the second and third time I went out, I went for longer periods. Beautiful. Do you

Speaker 1

think you can be a naturally more talented cook than other people? No,

Speaker 4

I think you'd be a naturally more talented eater. I think you can learn, particularly through childhood, to really appreciate taste and to learn what good is. Cooking is kind of a skill, but there has to be something really wrong with you if you can't learn how to do it. How to put a pan or how to put salt on something and put it in the pan. It's quite mechanical and basic. But learning what the difference is between good and not good or between great and okay, I think that's not genetic, it's learned. It's a learnt

Speaker 1

thing. I think it's

Speaker 4

a learnt thing. Because there are people who

Speaker 1

claim that anyone can sing or anyone can play an instrument. And I'm sitting here as living proof that that's not true. Do you think anyone can do it? I'm

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode
“I opened Bocca so that I could eat that food in London. And I think that was what was the killer move. Because I was opening a restaurant for myself, and you can do that well. You can't really successfully imagine what other people want. It's a disservice to them.” — Jacob Kenedy, The Go To Food Podcast

Kenedy on why he opened Bocca di Lupo. He says London's Italian restaurants at the time either adapted the food for English tastes or served French-style plates with an Italian accent, and nobody cooked the regional trattoria food he kept flying to Italy for.

The Go To Food Podcast · 2026-10-05 Permalink → Listen →
The Go To Food Podcast Around 21:04 into the episode
Speaker 4

Yeah, I'd reached a point in my career where I felt I wanted to do something of my own. Victor was not in the sector, he was an accountant, but we decided to do something together. And I explored a few concepts. The first idea, which I still kind of wish I'd done, was a really dirty, nasty taqueria, all kind of, you know, heads and lips and tongues and sweet bread. Yeah, that's been good. And that would have been good. And I had an idea of doing something which is a bit kind of farm to table, taking a garden space somewhere outside of London and a restaurant in the centre. But they were kind of concepts. And then at some point, I think towards the end of that year, I was getting on a plane to go to Italy because we were living there, but still came back a couple of times for family stuff. And I got really excited to get on the plane. And I recognised that I always got really excited to get on the plane to go to Italy. And the reason was for a style of cooking that we didn't get here then. The kind of very honest and very regional trattoria level or home level cooking that you find in Italy. And there was nowhere doing that. At the time, there were restaurants that were.

Speaker 1

What was the landscape? Because obviously River Cafe was there.

Speaker 4

So River Cafe was there, and that was the closest to that level of cooking. But they were very much rooted in Tuscany. But that was the closest. Other than that, it was mostly local neighbourhood, Italian-run Italian joints, where sometimes the food was very good, but it was all not dumbed down, but adapted for the English palate. Like Chinese restaurants used to be as well. Not quite Italian. Italian-ish. And then at the other end, there were places which were finer dining. And they, some of them were quite good. Azafferano was great at the time, but they all would do meat and a jus on a plate with some vaguely Italian vegetables and putting together a plate that was really a French or British plate with an Italian accent. And there wasn't anywhere, I think, cooking food like you get it in Italy. And I opened Boca so that I could eat that food in London. And I think that was what was the killer move. Because I was opening a restaurant for myself, and you can do that well. You can't really successfully imagine what other people want. It's a disservice to them.

Speaker 3

When you were in Italy, what were the sort of stand-out restaurant standard dishes which blew your mind? I mean, this isn't that that long ago. But I mean, the discoverability where you're like, fuck me.

Speaker 4

I'm older than I look.

Speaker 3

Gorgeous now.

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

Collections They Appear In

Food & Beverage