Pictured with country sports PR guru Claire Zambuni, the Gloucestershire born co-founders of Eat Wild – Will and Calum Thompson – can be credited with shaking up how game is cooked. Stars of Channel 4’s First Time Farmers, the Thompson brothers describe themselves as “observing the traditional ethos of fieldsports while presenting cookery with a modern slant” and their extremely popular Cirencester restaurant as being “the home of sustainably sourced dirty food, made with local game and wild meat”. It is decorated with both graffiti and taxidermy and is said to be rather akin to a “country pile meeting an urban warehouse”.
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Where do you find these all these spoilt, trust-fund kids? Never done a days work in their lives, they need a good three year stint in the Army before they get daddy to fund a play restaurant for them.
I have met Will and Calum and they are so far away from what you described. They actually started with very little help and they’ve worked hard to get where they are. Their food is innovative and yet it is still affordable. Before making such a silly remark, David, do some research and take a look at their website.
Love their attitude. Not at all self-important (David has got it so wrong): Their food is affordable yet great. A double entendre of Jamie Oliver at the start of his career I’d say. Their popcorn pheasant, I’m reliably told, is divine!
They were brought up, ‘hunting & fishing. How did the idea for the restaurant come about?
Calum: We got drunk on a night out in Cirencester and met our now landlord who said he was thinking of setting up a fish and chip shop. He asked if we’d be interested in providing the meat for his fish & chip shop, and I said that we’d be more interested in having our own place.
He said ok, grabbed the keys and we went and looked around the place while we were quite drunk. It all seemed like quite a good idea, so I gave him my number and said we’d talk about it over a coffee when we were sober and it all went from there !!!!
This sounds like a fairy tale, Cinderella perhaps, meeting a fairy godmother, while drunk on a night out, who set her up in a restaurant. not the sort of thing that happens to most boys from the local comprehensive is it?
I enjoyed watching them on the tellybox. Well done chaps!
David: Get a life! These boys are cooking wholesome food in creative ways. They’re not spoilt and they’re not living off anyone but themselves. If I lived nearer I’d go to their restaurant. Hope they open in London (preferably Wimbledon soon).
I doubt they will open one in Wimbledon. It sounds as if a friend, or relative, has promised to get them their own TV series, and both brothers have said that that is their ambition. upper middle class boys like them, all want to be in media, and on ‘television’.
David, you write with green ink, but envy is like that …putting the worst possible and demeaning spin on everything.that is decent and accomplished. It is not nice.
I don’t envy them, here in Chelsea we have hundreds of these ‘trust fund kids’. They lead a very privileged lives, and then are given shops etc, and strings are pulled to get them into television.
I just don’t think we should be publicizing these peoples very shallow lives, when others, just as privileged, do make an effort, joining the services, or doing voluntary overseas aid work, or working in hospitals.
I’m with David on this one. I see that “Claire Zambuni has launched a public-relations and marketing agency – Zambuni Paver – based in central London to cater for the luxury country-lifestyles sector.” The “luxury country-lifestyles” sector, I think, says it all.
Claire represents some great British brands and she does it with aplomb. Long established country businesses like A. Hume (a Scottish tailoring business) are amongst them as well as bigger brands like Orvis.
Good evening David, I hope you have had a lovely weekend. Firstly I would like to thank you for taking the time to read about my brother and I. However as you have stated your opinion, I feel it’s only fair for me to shed some light on the truths. Neither my brother or I are trust fund boys. My father worked labouring for the age of sixteen and retired at sixty. Also neither myself or my brother attended private school. We set Eat Wild up some time ago, we started with a three meter marque and worked incredibly hard from that day to get to where we are. As for the article you quoted bare in mind that not all you read is true. We started our restaurant on a small business loan from HSBC. If there is anything else you wish me to clarify please feel free to email me, our email is listed on our website
Kind regards Calum Thompson
Thank you for sharing your story Calum. It was a pleasure to meet you at Orvis and I thought the trout you prepared was fantastic. I do hope to come to your restaurant one day and I also hope you open in London soon too. Your hard work is obviously paying off and I think your success is much deserved. Well done.
Of all the fish I think trout is the most overrated….all those bones! It’s seems to me to fall into the same bracket as mackerel(who feed around sewage outlet pipes) and that abomination, the kipper.
Having stopped in for a burger and watched Will working his socks off to keep a packed lunchtime crowd happy (turning away 5 sets of customers as they were so busy), I’ve got to say they’re (a) doing something right and (b) doing the hard work themselves.
A rare dialogue on these pages that impressed me, Bully for Callum Armstrong Thompson. You changed my first impression. I wish you success (provided you don’t serve too many bony fish!)
Calum ‘Armstrong’ Thompson, more affectation? The quotes were from an interview ‘you gave’, not invented.
The photo’s of you ‘hunting’, with land rovers, shooting hats, etc are the type of thing I see at ‘Sandringham’, and look nothing like, ‘two working-class boys out shooting’?
All the ‘connections’ you have show a very privileged background. I am sure I will see you later, as TV presenters, not cooks.
David: I think you have made your point (though I am not sure what it is given it does not make sense) so please refrain from further provocative remarks. As I have pointed out and as Mr Thompson has reiterated, these two brothers worked hard to start their business and they should be respected for that.
If that is what we are required to believe, then so be it.
Good afternoon David, I hope this finds you well. As I said plenty of things can be taken out of context and even miss quoted, as for Land Rovers I have never owned or been lent one. The photo you are referring to was actually a photo shoot we did for a country clothing brand. I also fail to see what relevance my attire has to do with my social class. Furthermore the inverted snobbery you demonstrate quite frankly baffles me. I don’t understand why in a modern civilised society you feel the need to put such enfisis on some one’s class or social standing. Personally I am of the thought that all are equall and should be treated as such. As I said neither of us have had particularly privileged backgrounds however I was lucky to have studied at Cirencester Deer Park School (a state school), the contacts we have are from hard work and good social skills. As for TV it is something we were aproched about and didn’t chase. We are both keen cooks as you said. If we do mange by hardwork to become ‘presenters I do hope you will tune in. Oh and as for my name the Armstrong is a middle name, all the males in my family carry it as a mark of respect for a relative lost in the war.
Kind regards Calum Thompson