Leander brings typical Germanic accuracy and asceticism to the edit suite, where he carves out masterpieces in a cave of tranquility, owing in no small part to his essential oil diffuser. Working up from edit assisting in Berlin, he came to London for the cheap rent and capitalised on his time by studying film and running a record label. Among his hobbies, he lists ‘leaving long pauses before answering questions’ as his favourite. And, thanks to our director Pedroe, Leander now has his first nickname: Leands.

Becks hails from sunny Yorkshire, where tea is king. She combined her English Lit degree with salsa dancing and hanging out with famous footballers. Occasionally simultaneously. After an illustrious stretch at Disney, working her way up to Creative Lead, Becks bounced through the doors at The Kitchen, bright eyed and bushy tailed. When she isn’t nailing productions, talking incredibly loudly or knocking things over, Becks is an intrepid traveller, a lover of dogs (and people) and an unstoppable titan on the netball court.

Within a day of Bea arriving at The Kitchen, a question quickly arose: how did we ever get this far without her? Besides her degree in Marketing & Market research, she keeps our shoots shooting, our productions producing and our office official. Bea move to London two years ago from her native Malaga and doesn’t miss it one bit. Not the food and certainly not the weather. And if she did, she certainly wouldn’t mention it.

San studied Graphic Design and Fine Art in Taiwan and started her creative career in 2012 at a branding agency in Taipei. Since then, she’s been curating galleries and working cross-discipline for a range of brands. Disciplines which include but are not limited to: branding, packaging, illustration, painting and fixing our very stylish but temperamental drinking fountain. And to think, she only came to London to see the telephone boxes and sit on the top deck of a bus.

After a youth spent delivering boats through the North Sea, being the Duke of Westminster’s post boy and managing arts venues across London, Michael decided to follow his dreams into film. He’s written and directed multi award-winning short comedies, 1st assistant-directed on hundreds of projects and co-produced feature-length docs for Nina Conti (one of which won a Grierson and got him nominated for a BAFTA).

Michael now uses writing, producing and directing commercials as an excuse for bossing people about whenever possible.

Lisa joins us from a 15 year tour of duty at Channel 5 where she built and managed the Commercials and Sponsorship department. Producing up to 200 TVCs and sponsorships per year, she’s perfectly suited to the Recipe Way Of Doing Things ™. Working as a producer in shopping TV crystallised her expertise in Cubic Zirconia and she’s even assumed the role of TV presenter when duty called. She was once recognised in Asda as the OK! Magazine girl and aims to share at least 16 Instagram posts per day, despite her fear of lifts.

Dom started his career at an early age, working in animation with the likes of Spitting Image, before getting into advertising proper – forming his own production company, unforming it and then moving on to launch Channel 5 as one of the early key stakeholders. He spent many years as a freelance director, agency creative, writer and general creative gun for hire. When not thinking up ideas and solutions to creative conundrums, he works on his boat and can often be found creating rum cocktails while floating through the weekend.

Since graduating from the University of London in Software Engineering, Awais aka Liam (Gallagher), has done big things. A huge fan of web dev and mobile applications it’s Liam’s implementation of new technologies for big brands that make his ingredients irresistible.

Never seen without his oversized Beats headphones Liam is the undisputed ping pong powerhouse of  The Kitchen. Along with coding and ping pong, cricket is his other love and Jim wasted no time in recruiting his metronomic yet lethal medium pace for the local team.

Anni grew up in Stafford, but she didn’t let that stop her gaining a degree in biology from Leeds University. Anni knew she was destined for a life in media when she donned blue eye-shadow for a magazine shoot at the age of 16 and first discovered her inner-Pat Butcher. Previous experience includes gardening for Stafford County Council, which she describes more carefully these days. (Hoeing on roundabouts raised concerns.) She’s a phenomenal junior production manager, despite being vexed by the sideways nature of crabs.

They don’t come much more charming than Weymo, an actual, real-life Cockney, born within earshot of the bells of Bow. A graduate of Marketing & Advertising from the University of the Arts London, K-Wey worked at Sky for 9 years across TV, digital and sponsorship and has brought her wealth of experience to Recipe as Production Account Manager. She is literally addicted to footwear and clothing and ASOS are considering launching a black card just for her use. Weymo is perpetually either on her way to or coming back from Ibiza.

A genuine, bona fide native of Luton (famed for its rich heritage in hat-making), Paul is a guru of animation and has spent his career thus far working for various agencies as an animator as well as editor. He is a disciple of the holy trinity of film-watching, comic-reading and game-playing, but beyond this, he is licensed to put tattoos on other human beings and plays guitar in a hardcore punk band.

Despite being raised, some might say the right way, in North London, Jo is now a diehard South Londoner. After quitting work to explore South America and studying law part-time, Jo was fast-tracked into project management via the tried and trusted method of having ‘a chat outside a pub’. Fresh off a 3 year stretch at a UX agency, Jo is now our Digital Producer. Taking a holistic approach to wellbeing, Jo swears by the tenets of punk shows, pints, regular holidays and smiling at dogs.

Shilps joins the GFX squad as our Head of Design. Her superpowers include branding, design, illustration, cookery and after parties. Having run the gauntlet of the design industry in New Delhi, Shilps brought her talents to the UK working across brands in sports, FMCG, fashion and the auto industry; from Nike to Avis. Shilpa spends her free time creating art on canvas as well as in The Kitchen and, as an actual inhabitant of Soho, lives only seconds away from the office. But somehow, the commute is still susceptible to delays…

Harvey, codename: The Hurricane, has spent last 7 years freelancing as an illustrator/designer, having graduated from that illustrious house of illustration – Camberwell College of Arts. He fills his spare time drawing fantasy comics and ‘wasted’ his youth playing video games instead of developing social skills, although we now realise that’s what builds the foundation for a career in the creative industry. He loves board games and building mechanical keyboards.

Before founding The Kitchen back in 2004 with Ed, Jim started life as an actor at the BBC. Working for Thames Water, IMG, Ion Group and more, he started his first business at 19.

Jim’s overseen the growth of the company to an effective, full-service agency, working with some of the world’s most influential brands. Jim is a family man and Chiswickian with a love of cricket, golf and horticulture. On the weekends, he’ll normally be found in W4: on the pitch, golf course or entertaining his kids at the allotment

Davis’ early years were spent in the Latvian countryside, milking various farmyard animals, but curiosity drew him to the big smoke. He started out teaching, but the classroom was no more for Davis than the farmyard.

Then he found his passion: web development. Seven years of constant dedication made Davis a vital addition to the Kitchen. When not surgically attached to a computer, you might find him perfecting some outlandish moves in his bid to dance his way around Europe. He’s a keen cyclist, pedestrian and funder of Kickstarter projects.

Ted was fresh out of uni when he teamed up with his best pal Jim to form The Kitchen. A degree in binary code meant that, in the early days, Ted handled everything technical. It was his logical thinking that turned him into a great COO.

Ted’s probably the only director of an advertising agency who’s played professional football and appeared on Teletext final score, even if he did go off injured after 60 seconds. He’ll now be found most Saturdays running around a pitch or perfecting his drive.

A proud Essex native, Kim joined the team in 2010, semi-fresh out of uni. Following her success as part of the rookie award-winning writing team for online series Freak, Kim decided to try something new, and pestered The Kitchen for a job.

With her beautiful auburn hair and sharp satirical wit Kimmy finally left the shores of Essex and now lives in West London. When not wearing her Wayfarers or formulating cutting one liners, Kim spends her time baking, and attempting to sew without stabbing herself. She’s also been known to knock out a tune or two when occasion demands.

Dan was forging a successful career in TV at Channel 4, Sky and “the Beeb”, producing promos, news, documentary, sport and comedy when old friends Jim and Ed came knocking with the proposal of The Kitchen. He packed his bags and hasn’t looked back since.

Dan can be found at Stamford Bridge watching his beloved Chelsea, on the golf course or occasionally a football pitch, competing desperately for amateur sporting honors. Married to a delightful girl who plies her trade at a “rival” Ad Agency, the competitiveness continues at home.

Ice’s name is the linguistic equivalent of a mullet: business up front, party at the back and cool all over. Born in Phuket, Thailand she was ready for life on the white sands and crystal waters of Falmouth, Cornwall, graduating in Graphic Design. Coming to us directly from a branding agency, Ice is now a key member of the team. She spent her school holidays working a job that involved sticking labels on to products. We’re not sure if that was the branding agency she mentioned.

Pete, aka Pedroe, joins The Kitchen as a production manager, bringing with him all the experience of working on the front lines as a camera technician for Arri. Keen-eyed viewers will notice that he sports the same surname as our illustrious planning director, Dom Roe.

Charming, affable, accommodating, gregarious, it turns out that Pete is everything that Dom isn’t. So much the better for The Kitchen. When he isn’t reminding us what a Roe is capable of, he writes, produces and directs music videos and short films.

Ben hails from Wales and graduated as a Graphic Designer in Sheffield. He then came to his senses and ventured south, moving to London to join The Kitchen via stints at boutique media and design agencies. He classifies himself as a liker of pistachio ice cream but a hater of celery. He has been spotted in the wild mooching around food markets but can more commonly be observed hydrating himself in or around craft breweries (while sporting their merch). He can successfully ride a fixie and recently discovered latent cricketing ability.

Creative Producer Aimee joins Recipe as an alumnus of Nickelodeon among other luminary agencies. But why dwell on the small stuff? Here’s a woman whose career started in an ice cream van, bounded through wallaby surrogacy and took a turn into life as a spark. (Aimee once lit The Pigeon Detectives who, it turns out, are a band and not a BBC2 nature strand). And all this in between scavenger hunts, baking competitions and a chess trophy. Accomplished doesn’t cover it.

Matt joined the team in 2008; poached from an incredibly lucrative and highly successful career in short and feature film, BBC drama and corporate and commercial production. A career highlight for our bearded and bespectacled head of production was a BAFTA nomination for his short film “My darling wife”. A devout Devonian, he stakes a claim to the ‘original’ pasty, not the cheap Cornish counterfeits. In another hotly contested assertion, Matt also insists that it’s cream first, then jam if you want to make a proper cream tea. The debate continues.

Having studied physics at the University of Salerno, Doriana realised that quantum theory and thermodynamics weren’t quite the challenge she needed, so she filled the gaps between sub-atomic particles with web development.

Following a path of ones and zeroes from Italy to London, she’s wound up at The Kitchen, bringing her amazing science-brain to the WebDev team and we’re delighted.

Lashing himself to the side of a coracle, James fled the rain soaked, windswept shores of Cork is adjusting well to the milder climes of South East England. After two years in film facilities, followed by a two-year stint in post-production, he joined team The Kitchen.

Aside from an encyclopaedic knowledge of production, he’s an expert in Irish charm. He’s also learning to speak slower so people can understand some of what he says. It’s a work in progress. He loves chips, ice cream and his cat. She is called Cat.

Mark was introduced to editing the same way as many of the industry’s greats – changing camera angles on his Die Hard DVD’s. After graduating from the London College of Music, Mark formed a mastering company leading to him creating music videos, which reignited the passion that Hans Gruber had stoked in him so many years earlier. Mark edited freelance for 3 years before going pro in 2014. His work as a designer’s fashion assistant imbued Mark with truly inimitable style, cutting looks together as only an editor can.

Jelly is a dyed-in-the-wool Londoner, growing up opposite centre-court and dreaming of one day starring on Made In Chelsea. Having written her dissertation on lad’s mags, started her own production company and worked at Turner producing promos for Cartoon Network and Boomerang, Jelly was perfectly poised to join the ranks at Recipe. An ‘activity junkie’, she loves festivals, food and sun-worshipping. And if there’s a festival in the calendar that she isn’t attending (unlikely) she designs and makes clothing for them. Fun fact: Simon Cowell set up Jelly’s parents.