'We want to make St. Pancras not just a hotel, but a destination'

Hi Nicholas, welcome to Checking In and thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you so much for having me.

I'm really excited to experience this and go through some questions and answers as we go along.

Yeah, it's a pleasure to have you.

So I thought to get us started, could you first tell us a bit of an overview of your career history and what drew you towards hospitality initially?

I think from my upbringing and having a really close family that we'd have those big dinners and all the family together.

So there would be about 10, 15 people at Christmas, Easter and that sort of thing around the table.

And so that sort of started sort of that journey of myself along the way.

And then I think at age of 13, my father said to me, I shouldn't be in the house so much, so go and get yourself a job.

So I was working in a local pub and sort of just experiencing pot wash and then doing a bit of starters and that sort of thing.

And then one day, it was a Friday evening, watching a BBC program on Albert and Michel Roux, doing something so simple as a fried egg.

And you saw them take so much care of heating the pan, get it to the right temperature, crack an egg.

And then what they did was fold the white into a little square and flip the egg over and then put it on a plate and a little garnish and then served it.

And I was just blown away.

I'm like, I want to be a chef.

It's great.

I want to be a chef.

So literally from then on, I sort of went to college and really worked hard and did all my qualifications, 706.1, 706.2. That was back in the day.

And thought, right, I'm going to be a chef.

So really that was where I sort of got a feel for hospitality.

And then I must thank the lady who was running the pub, who was also a lecturer at college, and said...

I went to college, did all of these things.

And then she turned around and said, you shouldn't be in the kitchen.

I said, what do you mean?

I've just done two years of college.