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Giving it all up for food

You're making good money and you're doing a job that makes your family proud - what happens if you decide to quit to start a new career in food?

Ruth Alexander meets three people who gave up well-paid, high-flying careers to start all over again in the world of food.

Nisha Katona left a career as a child protection barrister behind to start Mowgli, a chain of Indian restaurants in the UK, physically building her first restaurants herself.

Judy Joo worked in finance on Wall Street but decided to give it up to go to culinary school. After starting at the bottom in various restaurant kitchens she founded the Korean restaurant chain Seoul Bird, which has outlets in the UK and the US.

Duc Ngo was an engineer who felt he lacked purpose and joy. So he left his job to start a sandwich shop in Helsinki. But it wasn鈥檛 easy. He took to Tiktok to document its rise, fall and rebirth as a bistro, The Alley.

So did they all make the right decision and would they change anything? Ruth finds out...

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Produced by Lexy O'Connor.

Sound Engineer: Annie Gardiner

Image: A smiling woman is behind a cafe door. She is turning the 鈥渃losed鈥 sign to 鈥渙pen鈥. Credit MoMo Productions/Getty images.

Available now

26 minutes

Last on

Sun 15 Mar 2026 18:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Thu 12 Mar 2026 04:32GMT
  • Thu 12 Mar 2026 13:32GMT
  • Thu 12 Mar 2026 18:32GMT
  • Thu 12 Mar 2026 23:32GMT
  • Sun 15 Mar 2026 09:32GMT
  • Sun 15 Mar 2026 18:32GMT

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