Toast - Little Chef

About this episode

<p>Why did the restaurant chain, Little Chef, disappear from our roadsides? </p><p>Sean Farrington discovers what happened to the brand which brought us Jubilee Pancakes, Olympic Breakfasts and free lollies for the kids. </p><p>At its peak, Little Chef had over 400 restaurants on most of our major highways and a turnover well in excess of £100m. </p><p>So, how did such a successful business ultimately end up toast? </p><p>Sean speaks to Fiona Alper who was married to the Little Chef co-founder, Sam Alper; the entrepreneur, Lawrence Wosskow, who once owned Little Chef and Becky Parr-Phillips who started as a waitress but rose through the ranks to become Little Chef's head of operations. </p><p>Alongside them all to analyse Little Chef's fortunes is the self-made millionaire and serial entrepreneur, Sam White. </p><p>This episode was first broadcast in April 2024</p><p>Produced by Jon Douglas. Toast is a BBC Audio North production for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. </p><p>You can email the programme at toast@bbc.co.uk</p><p>Feel free to suggest topics which could be covered in future episodes. </p><p>Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in May. In the new series, Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Toast is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds.</p>