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The Pasta Evangelists Co-Founder Who Built a £36 Million Business Without Building a Name for Himself

Chris Rennoldson spent twelve years in corporate development in the City, much of it around the London Stock Exchange, before deciding to leave finance altogether. Rather than move into another strategy role at a bank, he took time out and enrolled full-time at Leith's Cookery School, a London culinary school often compared to Cordon Bleu, treating the nine-month course less as a career change and more as a personal MBA. The experience convinced him he had no interest in becoming a working chef in his forties with a young family to support. What it did clarify was a different ambition: combining his commercial background with his interest in food.

After a stretch developing his own ideas without traction, and a period contracting for a business catering service, Rennoldson was introduced to Alessandro, who had an idea for a pasta delivery business. The two hit it off, and within days they were preparing pasta meals together out of a site in Leytonstone. Eight and a half years later, that partnership has grown into Pasta Evangelists, a business with 50 restaurants and takeaway kitchens, roughly 400 employees, and a run rate Rennoldson has put at around £36 million. The company was sold to Barilla, which Rennoldson describes as the world's biggest pasta company, four years ago, a deal that removed the pressure of ongoing investor funding rounds from how the business is run.