Tom Palmer is the founder of Yep Kitchen, the Sichuan chilli oil taking the deli scene by storm now in over 180 stores across the UK from Cornwall to Scotland with more on the horizon.

Founded in 2022, after a decade of living in China, Tom decided to swap textbooks for taste buds, leaving his career in education to turn his passion into a business. On a mission to bring the bold, rich flavours of China's Southwest to the UK through a range of easy-to-use and crave worthy condiments from their signature Sichuan Chilli Crisp and Garlic Chilli Oil to Hunan Salted Chillies.

However, while foodies like Tom now love authentic Chinese flavours, there's a big gap between what most of the UK thinks about Chinese food (chicken balls, prawn toast, crispy chilli beef, chow mein) - sorry big John. And that's exactly the misperceptions of China, it's people and their food that Tom's trying to address with his sauces and brand. Bosh!

In this episode we check-in on how Yep Kitchen is doing, hear more about his adventures in China and how the business plans to scale in 2025 and beyond.