My approach and background
An integrative philosophical and theoretical grounding and a nature-based approach to developmental practice.
A bit about me and how I came to be here
I started cooking at fourteen. I've been doing it ever since — and the work has taken me further than I expected.
Thirty years. Four continents. Kitchens in Hong Kong and East Africa, open fires in the Black Forest, a social enterprise in Sheffield, a university lecture hall, forests in the Schwarzwald at dawn. The settings have changed. The question hasn't: what does it take to pay proper attention — to food, to nature, to people, to how organisations actually work?
Food
I started in professional kitchens at fourteen and have been cooking ever since — in restaurants, farm kitchens, conservation camps, conference centres, private houses. The geography has ranged from Hong Kong to Tanzania to the southern Black Forest. What travel does to a cook isn't just new ingredients; it's new ways of seeing. Food becomes a lens.
My cooking is ingredient-led and rooted in real connections: Zanzibari, Mediterranean, Levantine, East African. Foraged where possible — not as a gesture, but because wild garlic, morels, nettles, and sorrel carry a quality of vitality that you can taste. Flavour first, always.
The social enterprise
The period that changed everything was founding the Fusion Organic Café in Sheffield — a multi-award-winning social enterprise, and one of the hardest things I've ever done. The café was part of a Steiner educational charity, and it pulled together every thread: food, people, ethics, organisational development, the question of what it actually means to lead with integrity.
It was also where my university journey started. I went into that work with nothing past my GCSEs and came out of it straight onto a master's degree. The café was a cauldron of development — for the people we trained, for the organisation around it, and for me. That's not metaphor. That's what was happening in those kitchens.
"Melvin runs a superb café/restaurant — the Fusion Café — with a fantastic organic menu. Book early to avoid disappointment." — David, Freeman College, Ruskin Mill Educational Trust
Education and Facilitation
From Fusion I went to Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food — delivering cookery workshops to the public, and then training trainers nationally. What that work taught me is that the hardest thing isn't technique; it's helping people regain confidence in their own judgement. That applies in a kitchen and it applies in an organisation.
I spent eight years as an Associate Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University — teaching Leadership, Organisational Behaviour, HRM, and Hospitality across undergraduate, postgraduate, and MBA programmes. The thing I was always most interested in was the gap between what organisations say they value and what they actually do. That gap is where the real work is.
"Melvin is an inspirational and enthusiastic entrepreneur... What I like most about Melvin is that he has taken his passion for food and for helping others, and in the true sense of entrepreneurship, has used these factors as motivation towards success." — James Coope, Sheffield Hallam University
Inquiry and Organisation Development
My MSc dissertation was a phenomenological inquiry into integrity as a source of personal power in leadership. The research examined Rudolf Steiner's approach through an OD lens — not as ideology, but as methodology. I was raised in a Steiner/Anthroposophical context and had spent years in productive disagreement with it before finding a way to use what was actually useful. The core insight I came away with: integrity isn't a principle you hold. It's what you operate from when everything else is stripped away.
That inquiry — into how people and organisations see clearly, think well, and act with coherence — is what runs through the consulting and facilitation work. My approach is non-directive. The role is to inform, reflect, and facilitate, not to command or prescribe. I have a particular interest in regenerative organisational cultures and the kind of leadership that knows how to get out of its own way.
"Melvin is a talented and ethical individual who brings a clarity and professionalism to his work that is rarely encountered. He views challenging experiences positively and is a successful entrepreneur. Melvin is also a talented chef and manager." — Elizabeth Lye, Retired Senior Lecturer and Writer
Now
I'm based in the southern Black Forest, working with Hofgut LEO — a regenerative cooperative conference centre and one of the more genuinely unusual organisations I've encountered. The work there brings everything together: private chef and event catering, kitchen mentoring, wild food workshops, and organisational development consulting. The setting earns it — this is a place where foraging, cooking, and how an organisation runs its own life are all part of the same conversation.
The foraging workshops, Pit Roast experiences, and facilitation work I offer through this site are extensions of the same practice. Different contexts. The same quality of attention.
In my free time, I love nothing more than foraging the hills by day and conducting alchemical processes with ingredients by night — as well as engaging with philosophies and theories around how we as humans think, feel and behave. Musings and conversations that fields, rivers, forests, and nature-inspired food can really inspire and enliven.
