Iqbal Wahhab

Case Study

How would you like to be described?

On Twitter I describe myself as a “Restaurateur with social meddling tendencies” on LinkedIn as a “Busy body”.  Somewhere between the two.

How would you describe what you do?

I am about to start work on some new restaurants with impact and purpose bedded into their core – two family brasseries and hangouts where there will be delicious food and drink sourced locally wherever possible and ethically always plus a couple of others. That’s coming together now and hope to get started on them in the coming months. I also chair an inquiry into ethnic disproportionality in the criminal justice system.

What is your greatest achievement?

It sounds really corny but my greatest achievement is yet to come. I’m really proud I created two of London’s most iconic restaurants in The Cinnamon Club and Roast but the next ones are going to be super-special in a very different way. 

What was the cause or ’trigger for this journey of making the world a better place through being useful and kind? And how old were you? When did you realise you could make a difference?

It came to me quite late in my business career. In 2008, I was invited onto the board of one of the Prince of Wales’s charities and in that capacity led a Seeing is Believing tour for business leaders to look at what we could do to tackle the rising numbers of young people offending and re-offending. At Roast, a restaurant in Borough Market, we started hiring ex-offenders first because I thought that it was the right thing to do but when we found that people were coming to dine with us precisely because we did that it switched on a light that doing good is good for business.

Was it something your parents are/would have been proud of and encouraged?

Given my earlier years’ activities (see below), they were relieved and proud when I chose to drive purpose into my business and undertake public service roles. Mum, who recently passed away, used to and Dad still does keep around him copies of magazines and books that have written articles about me. My 93-year-old Dad has dementia but still manages to tell the carers who visit him daily that his youngest son is the High Sheriff of Greater London (a post that has just completed) and that I have an OBE!

What were you doing at 16?

16 was the year that changed the course of my life. At the comprehensive school in south London which I started at I set up a highly lucrative gang where members would steal porn magazines from shops, I would give them 10 pence for each (this was 1974) and sold them in school for 30 pence. We did a roaring trade and diversified and at the age of 13 I bought myself a suit from Selfridges. Perhaps unsurprisingly the lure of money meant we ignored our studies and all failed our O Levels. My parents, who were as liberal as they come, said that they had turned a blind eye to my other activities but as academics themselves, they suggested I re-take the exams to see if I was any good at studies, so I did. I got them, went to university and did the stuff I’ve managed to do.

Unfortunately, the rest of the gang received no such nudge. One ended up being killed, another committed suicide, no doubt others went to prison or at best led meaningless lives.

What advice would you give to other young people?

Don’t let other people tell you you’re not able to fulfill your dreams. I remember applying to a college to do A levels and when I went for the interview, they handed me my file and to wait to be called. Naturally, I opened the file and read my school’s careers officer’s report on me. “He’s come to you about A levels but frankly he won’t pass his O levels. He’s trouble. I wouldn’t waste time with him.” It’s etched in my memory. It was neither useful or kind.

What has been the most difficult challenge on the way and how did you overcome it?

Usually when someone starts a restaurant, they’ve got under their belt years of experience working as a chef or manager before taking plunge and open a small place and slowly scale up if they’re any good at it. In 2001 I opened London’s biggest and fanciest Indian restaurant, The Cinnamon Club, never having worked a single day in one. The BBC made a documentary watching me take on this huge challenge. Virtually everything that could have gone wrong with setting it up did – running out money, builders walking off, the building subsiding when we put tonnes of extraction equipment on to the roof. Everyone, even some of my investors, told me it was going to be impossible to overcome so many of the obstacles that presented themselves and I should abandon it. But each day I plucked up more courage, more determination to see it through. It became the world’s most successful Indian restaurant at the time when we finally did it.

What do you think are the changes we need to see in the world and how can being U&K help solve those things?

To be useful and kind is now the spirit of our times. As communities, we will come together more closely bonded with a rewired moral outlook to our role in the world and the people around us. Less and less will we have to ring the bell for better, more decent behaviour. If anything, we will be called out if we don’t exhibit it.

How are you useful and kind to yourself - what helps and hinders?

I don’t really think about that to be honest. I don’t pray, meditate or do yoga. I see acts of kindness to others as making me feel good and that’s all I need.

How are you both useful and kind to others (the easy ones and those who are more difficult to be U&K to)?

I mentor many people, largely from under-privileged backgrounds, often who have ended up in prison and want to turn their lives around. I’m also going to start mentoring an armed forces veteran who wants to set up her own business.

What is your biggest challenge in the future?

Like for the rest of us, it’s so difficult to plan right now. I’m grateful I have no restaurants at present so unlike my industry colleagues, I can wait a while to see how we choose to conduct our lives from now on and adapt accordingly, though perhaps taking more of a leadership role in re-defining the relationship between a business and the community around it.