Our brush with Masterchef (or, why we’re cheering for Jonathan)

Around April last year (2009), we received a telephone enquiry from a business consultant in IT. He wanted a quote for rewriting his company website.

His business, IT consultancy, sounded interesting – if you could make your way through the jargon (the design was already set, so we had to work around that). We gave him two options, one to simply re-write his website, another that included what we call a ‘mini-strategy’ – a brand strategic workshop, that allows us to then provide a tagline and more strategic creative direction. Many people don’t understand the importance of this (and don’t want to spend the extra money), so we were surprised when he chose the brand workshop option. To us, a sign that the person (or organisation) takes their marketing, and their company, seriously.

The workshop went well, and we found Jonathan thoughtful, eloquent and genuinely interested in his chosen field of work. We were impressed. Once it ended, we casually asked him a bit more about himself.

Suddenly, this slightly serious young man changed personality. His face lit up. He leaned across the table. His eyes had a glint in them.

“Actually,” he beamed, “my real passion is food.”

He then proceeded to spent the next half an hour enthralling us (no, I’m not being sarcastic – his enthusiasm was mesmerising) with his love of the technicality of cooking: how he worked at no cost at a Gordon Ramsey restaurant in London, just because he wanted the experience, how Heston Blumenthal is his absolutely hero.

He walked away with a spring in his step that he didn’t arrive with. He was serious and enthusiastic about his IT business. However, he clearly adored food.

So, when we discovered that our client, Jonathan Daddia, was a finalist in the 2010 series of Masterchef (we’ve never watched the series before), we weren’t surprised, but we were delighted.

He may not make it to the end. Whatever the result we found him terrific to work with – appreciative, clever and perceptive . He praised the subsequent creative presentation after his workshop, didn’t change a word of the first draft of the copy – and, he paid his invoice the same day in was issued – all a rarity in our industry.

Personally, I found him a very genuine individual – I think people ( TV viewers) are confusing what they call ‘smugness’ with quiet thoughtfulness and a dash of shyness. (This has taught me never to judge anyone simply on their tv ‘persona’ .)

Although we’d love him to win, there was a victory of some sorts the other night – he met (and then cooked for) his hero, Heston Blumenthal. Although I didn’t see the ‘cooking for’ episode (he may have lost his appetite for Heston, you know, never meet your heroes etc.), the night he met him, his face glowed.

Congratulations and good luck Jonathan. Highway 101/Words 101 hope you win. If a new career as a chef beckons, the IT industry would be poorer without you.

Posted by Dana Minter