HUNGRY.

Max Halley built one of London’s most cult-loved sandwich shops by ignoring almost every piece of conventional restaurant wisdom.

In this brilliantly unfiltered conversation, Max joins Dan Pope to unpack how Max’s Sandwich Shop went from an empty Finsbury Park restaurant doing a handful of covers to a genuine London institution — without chasing hype, Michelin stars or customer suggestions.

They get into why restaurant hype can be dangerous, the surprising philosophy behind achievable goals, why Max thinks sourdough is terrible for sandwiches, what Rick Rubin can teach hospitality about creativity, and the tiny behavioural tweaks that can completely change a business.

Plus: New Orleans inspiration, pork pie mayonnaise, the science of the perfect sandwich, why vegetarian dishes shouldn’t be labelled with a “V”, and Max’s wonderfully simple rules for deciding what belongs between two slices of bread.

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ON THE MENU:
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00:00 INtro
01:28 Building an Empty Sandwich Shop
08:58 Why Customer Advice Can Kill Your Business
17:34 Is Restaurant Hype Actually Dangerous?
20:10 Why Achievable Goals Make You Happier
29:45 Why Max Never Wanted Michelin Stars
39:50 The Secret Philosophy Behind Max’s Sandwiches
49:00 Why Sourdough Is Terrible for Sandwiches
59:30 What Actually Makes the Perfect Bread?
01:09:35 The New Orleans Sandwich Epiphany
01:18:10 What Rick Rubin Gets Right About Creativity
01:24:40 Why The Audience Comes Last
01:31:30 Max’s Two Rules for New Ingredients
01:34:25 The Michelin-Star Pork Pie Mayonnaise
01:40:20 Tiny Changes That Transform Restaurants
01:47:10 Why Max Hides the Vegetarian Option
01:54:50 What Taco Bell Gets Wrong
02:04:00 The Science of Crunch
02:13:30 Why Anything Can Become a Sandwich

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♨️Still bloody HUNGRY? Course ya are. Each week I spend 15 hours writing my newsletter. It’ll take you 5 mins to read. Full of wisdom from the biggest names in food and drink. Subscribe here - https://hungryfeast.beehiiv.com/🍲 

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🤝 Let's Connect! 
►Let’s link-up here ​ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-pope/) 
►Stalk me here ​ (https://www.instagram.com/_hungry.pod/) 

This episode was edited by: G.Thomas Craig (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gthomascraig/) 

Ayra is your external front of house. An artificially intelligent communications manager that lives on your website and across your social channels, chatting and responding to customers 24/7 with warmth and personality.

She's trained on your business and built to act. Taking the reservation, holding the card, sending the reminder, recovering the lost booking. Instantly and autonomously.
click the link to learn more.

📙Download HUNGRY Big Banging Reading list here
🧾 HUNGRY survey would be so grateful if you may please fill out  

Most restaurants treat drinks as an afterthought.
Santiago Lastra doesn’t.

In this clip, the Michelin-starred chef behind KOL explains how learning about wine, mezcal, cocktails, bitterness, aroma, and balance fundamentally changed the way he cooks food — and why some alcohol feels clean while other drinks leave you angry, anxious, or wrecked the next day.

From mezcal’s natural production to why heating food kills aroma, this is a masterclass in flavour thinking, not recipes.

 Full episode here! 👉🏻 https://youtu.be/f-pMQy1n0So

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🍸 ON THE MENU
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😡 Why vodka makes you feel bad (and mezcal doesn’t)
🍋 How bartenders think about flavour differently to chefs
👃 Aroma vs taste — and why most chefs get it wrong
🔥 Why heating food destroys flavour
🧪 What cocktails taught Santiago about sauces and condiments
🌍 How low-intervention wine changed KOL’s philosophy

How do you build a food and drink brand somebody actually wants to buy?

In this Hungry Podcast “Megatron” episode, Dan Pope brings together four masterclasses on all things EXIT with Adam Balon, David Milner, Barney Mauleverer and Giles Brook.

They unpack what really makes a business attractive to buyers: genuine product superiority, strong margins, the right team, international potential and a clear path to future growth.

From Innocent’s near-death experience and Fuel10K’s exit journey to walking away from 2,000 Walmart stores, they reveal the decisions, mistakes and negotiations that can make or break an exit.

Plus: how to reverse-engineer your ideal buyer, create competitive tension, survive due diligence, understand valuation — and why your exit will probably take twice as long as you think.

Essential listening for any founder who wants to build, scale and eventually sell a brand.

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ON THE MENU:
Worked for 2m 14s

[00:00:00] Intro [00:02:10] The Exit Timeline Founders Get Wrong [00:06:45] Reverse Engineer Your Buyer Before You Sell [00:10:40] Why Multinationals Pay More for Brands [00:13:23] Adam Balon: Different AND Better Wins [00:19:54] David Milner’s Four Exit-Ready Building Blocks [00:26:42] Why Your First Team Won’t Scale [00:29:37] The Gross Margin Rule Founders Ignore [00:35:16] Innocent’s 2008 Near-Death Experience [00:43:34] The Three-Thing Focus Rule [00:50:00] Why One Brand Beats a House of Brands [00:55:44] The Retail Listing That Can Sink You [01:01:41] Fuel10K’s Exit Nearly Collapsed [01:08:30] What Due Diligence Actually Uncovers [01:13:34] How to Create Buyer Competition [01:18:59] Start Selling 18 Months Before Exit [01:22:05] The Negotiation Rule That Saves Your Margin [01:29:25] See Your Business Through Buyer Eyes [01:34:45] Why Innocent Struggled in France [01:42:40] Why Brands Get Stuck at £5M [01:49:15] Fuel10K Walked Away From 2,000 Walmart Stores [01:54:19] From Breadline to Nasdaq [01:58:21] How Buyers Actually Value Your Business [02:02:28] The Darkest Day After Vita Coco

♨️Still bloody HUNGRY? Course ya are. Each week I spend 15 hours writing my newsletter. It’ll take you 5 mins to read. Full of wisdom from the biggest names in food and drink. Subscribe here - https://hungryfeast.beehiiv.com/🍲 

============================================== 

🤝 Let's Connect! 
►Let’s link-up here ​ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-pope/) 
►Stalk me here ​ (https://www.instagram.com/_hungry.pod/) 

This episode was edited by: G.Thomas Craig (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gthomascraig/) 

For this archive replay, we’re going back to one of my favourite conversations with Will and Jack, founders of Fallow — breaking down how they think about food, marketing, teams, energy, pricing, social media and the relentless work behind building restaurants people actually want to visit.

The world has changed. The way you build a restaurant has changed too. This conversation shows you how.

Yes, they’re incredible chefs — serving 10/10 banging food. But they’re also GENIUS marketeers who ripped up the restaurant rule book, zigged when everyone else zagged, and built Fallow, FOWL and ROE into three of the most exciting restaurants in the UK.

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♨️Still bloody HUNGRY? Course ya are. Each week I spend 15 hours writing my newsletter. It’ll take you 5 mins to read. Full of wisdom from the biggest names in food and drink. Subscribe here - https://hungryfeast.beehiiv.com/🍲 

============================================== 

🤝 Let's Connect! 
►Let’s link-up here ​ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-pope/) 
►Stalk me here ​ (https://www.instagram.com/_hungry.pod/) 

This episode was edited by: G.Thomas Craig (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gthomascraig/) 

📙Download HUNGRY Big Banging Reading list here 
🧾 HUNGRY survey would be so grateful if you may please fill out 

Mahesh Raikar wants to build the “Indian McDonald’s.”

The founder of SKVP joins Dan Pope to unpack how he’s turning Indian street food into a scalable quick-service restaurant brand — without stripping away the authenticity that made the food special in the first place.

Mahesh breaks down the systems behind SKVP’s 23 sites, why a seemingly huge menu can still deliver food in around seven minutes, and how the business thinks about everything from store-level EBITDA and bottlenecks to central kitchens, location strategy and its hero product: the vada pav. They also explore SKVP’s ambition to reach 44 UK sites by March 2028 and eventually take the brand global, why Mahesh believes Indian food still has a huge untapped QSR opportunity, and the lessons he’s learned from McDonald’s, Burger King, Nando’s and other global restaurant brands.Plus: Mahesh’s journey from starting as a porter at Compass, the reality of managing stress as an entrepreneur, Bollywood and Indian culture as brand-building tools, and why SKVP is investing relentlessly in making its core product “the best in the world.”

ON THE MENU:

00:00:00 Intro
00:05:00 The Indian Burger That Could Go Global
00:11:00 Why Indian Food Needs a Western Lens
00:15:05 SKVP’s Plan for 44 UK Sites
00:18:25 How SKVP Serves Food in Seven Minutes
00:23:25 The Systems Making Indian Food Scalable
00:29:10 The Bottlenecks That Hold Businesses Back
00:34:10 Building Today for 100 Restaurants Tomorrow
00:43:00 The Numbers Restaurant Founders Must Understand
00:51:00 From Porter to Building SKVP
00:54:00 Why Authenticity Is SKVP’s Advantage
01:00:50 Every Great Brand Needs a Hero Product
01:07:10 Could Franchising Take SKVP Global?
01:10:10 What Will Actually Limit SKVP’s Growth?
01:18:40 The Hardship That Shaped Mahesh Raikar
01:24:50 Why Founders Need Macro Patience
01:30:20 Entrepreneurship Is Really Stress Management
01:40:00 Building the Best Vada Pav in the World
01:47:55 How Bollywood Builds Indian Soft Power
01:53:45 Can Delivery Help Build the Indian McDonald’s?

 ============================================== 

♨️Still bloody HUNGRY? Course ya are. Each week I spend 15 hours writing my newsletter. It’ll take you 5 mins to read. Full of wisdom from the biggest names in food and drink. Subscribe here - https://hungryfeast.beehiiv.com/🍲 

============================================== 

🤝 Let's Connect! 
►Let’s link-up here ​ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-pope/) 
►Stalk me here ​ (https://www.instagram.com/_hungry.pod/) 

This episode was edited by: G.Thomas Craig (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gthomascraig/) 

📙Download HUNGRY Big Banging Reading list here 
🧾 HUNGRY survey would be so grateful if you may please fill out 

♨️Still bloody HUNGRY? Course ya are. Each week I spend 15 hours writing my newsletter. It’ll take you 5 mins to read. Full of wisdom from the biggest names in food and drink. Subscribe here - https://hungryfeast.beehiiv.com/🍲 

============================================== 

🤝 Let's Connect! 
►Let’s link-up here ​ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-pope/) 
►Stalk me here ​ (https://www.instagram.com/_hungry.pod/) 

This episode was edited by: G.Thomas Craig (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gthomascraig/) 

Riordan Maynard’s story is almost impossible to believe. He left school at 16, learned the art of selling at Foxtons and co-founded Touchbase, a mobile-phone business that grew to around 200 million. Then ego, reckless expansion, the financial crisis and a refusal to accept failure brought everything crashing down.

What followed was six years inside the American prison system, separation from his wife and five children, brutal violence and a complete mental collapse within his first six weeks.

In this extraordinarily raw conversation with Dan Pope, Riordan explains how believing he was “Midas” turned ambition into self-destruction, why hopelessness crushes the human spirit and how he rebuilt his mind by focusing only on what he could control.

He also shares hard-earned lessons on sales, differentiation, value, resilience and closing deals. Brutally honest, darkly funny and unexpectedly practical, this is a conversation about extraordinary success, catastrophic failure and rebuilding yourself after losing almost everything.

Ayra is your external front of house. An artificially intelligent communications manager that lives on your website and across your social channels, chatting and responding to customers 24/7 with warmth and personality.

She's trained on your business and built to act. Taking the reservation, holding the card, sending the reminder, recovering the lost booking. Instantly and autonomously.
click the link to learn more.

📙Download HUNGRY Big Banging Reading list here
🧾 HUNGRY survey would be so grateful if you may please fill out  

00:00:00 Intro
00:05:15 How a Wapping Flat Became a £200M Business
00:11:25 The IRS Arrives With Guns
00:17:15 How Fear of Failure Sent Him to Prison
00:21:10 The Best Business Advice He Ignored
00:24:50 His Last In-N-Out Before Prison
00:28:30 California’s “Best” Prison Was Still Hell
00:34:05 What Prison Reveals About Human Hierarchy
00:37:20 The Gang Leader Who Allegedly Killed Six
00:41:05 How He Negotiated With Prison Gangs
00:45:10 A Normal Day Inside Federal Prison
00:48:15 Two Years Locked Down During Covid
00:52:20 Why Mackerel Became Prison Currency
00:55:20 Murder, Sex and the “Boom Boom Room”
01:01:08 How Prison Destroyed His Mental Health
01:06:44 The Question That Stops a Doom Loop
01:10:10 Two Questions That Interrupt Anxiety
01:15:10 How to Build a Compelling Future
01:19:10 Grant Cardone Versus Achievable Goals
01:22:25 Why Purpose Requires Obsession
01:26:10 The Beliefs That Made Him Feel Like Scum
01:29:20 Learning to Love What You Hate
01:33:20 Why Willpower Always Fails Eventually
01:37:25 How to Destroy Limiting Beliefs
01:42:10 The Brain Training Most People Skip
01:45:35 Affirmations That Actually Reprogram Your Mind
01:50:25 The Switch Exercise That Rewrites Beliefs
01:56:40 The Sales Masterclass Begins
02:02:15 Stop Selling Benefits. Sell Outcomes
02:07:20 How to Close a Million-Pound Deal
02:10:40 The Craziest Deal He Ever Won
02:14:05 Why “No” Means You Started Wrong
02:19:05 The Prison Books That Changed Everything

 ============================================== 

♨️Still bloody HUNGRY? Course ya are. Each week I spend 15 hours writing my newsletter. It’ll take you 5 mins to read. Full of wisdom from the biggest names in food and drink. Subscribe here - https://hungryfeast.beehiiv.com/🍲 

============================================== 

🤝 Let's Connect! 
►Let’s link-up here ​ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-pope/) 
►Stalk me here ​ (https://www.instagram.com/_hungry.pod/) 

This episode was edited by: G.Thomas Craig (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gthomascraig/)