5 minutes with Milly Bagot, ByRuby

What would you be doing if you weren’t in the food industry?

If it had to be anything, I think it would be working for a start-up or something outside of the city.

What was your first job?

Milly was a headhunter for a start-up firm. Ruby has been cooking and working in restaurants from as soon as it was legal to do so.

What inspires you?

Family is big for both of us, (including Ruby’s mini dachshund Rolo!). They are both our biggest supporters as well as our biggest critics.

What’s the worst job you’ve done?

We’ve both done our fair share of pot washing and waitressing to earn a bit of pocket money back in the day, which wasn’t exactly inspiring work!

What’s your favourite part of the job?

We love coming up with new recipes and testing it on the family – we always know that we will get an honest answer! We also love hearing feedback from happy customers.

And your least favourite?

Things going wrong that are outside of your control. It’s part of every job, but it is always a shame when people end up unhappy or disappointed.

How about the food industry?

You can never please everybody, and that is just something that you have to accept early on. Having said that, it is also part of what we love about the food industry – it would be boring if we all liked the same thing.

Tea or coffee?

Coffee at work, tea and biscuits at home with friends and the family!

What would be your last supper?

Something classic like a chicken pie with really good quality meat – it is just really comforting and moreish, like a big hug in a meal.

What’s your motto?

As cheesy as it sounds, something we both really believe is that life is too short to diet! Eat well, listen to your body, and don’t beat yourself up if you have that glass of wine too many or that extra chocolate brownie.

Weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?

I will eat anything within reason. I think the worst and weirdest thing was a andouillette sausage on a French exchange – it was a step too far even for me.

Favourite book?

This changes regularly but A Modern Way To Eat by Anna Jones is my favourite cookbook at the moment. Fiction is very tricky but I will have to go for a classic: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

Sweet or savoury?

Funnily enough we both love sweet things, but if it came down to it, savoury would always come out on top – there is just so much more scope for playing with flavours and the colours are usually a lot more vibrant.