When his kimchi fiorentina pizza won a national award, Rich Baker knew he was turning a corner. It was 2023. Baker was 60. He and his wife, Sarah, had made the kimchi themselves and their win put Flat Earth Pizzas, the east London restaurant they had launched the previous year, on the map.
“My life has changed so much,” Baker says. “A lightbulb has lit up inside and given me energy, and that energy has given me something that is quite amazing: a sense of confidence and a sense of fulfilment.”
Three years ago, when they opened, times were hard. “The first year was absolute hell,” says Baker, and he contemplated putting the business into receivership. But this year, it became profitable. “I work in the kitchen every day and create recipes, and it’s a real inspiration to me.
“For 30 years, I thought: ‘I wish I could do my own thing.’ But I never had the strength of character,” he says. “I was too scared. And then we did it.”
Baker left school at 16. He was into heavy metal and had long hair, and his abiding memory of sixth form, in Essex, was of the deputy head saying to him: “What an unpleasant surprise to see you back here.” The next day, Baker left. “And, as you do when you leave with no qualifications, I got a job in a restaurant.”
He liked cooking and enrolled on a national diploma in hospitality operations. Kitchen work, bar work and housekeeping in restaurants and hotels took him through his late teens and early 20s.
“I felt put down at school,” he says. “Not good enough.” But in hospitality: “I found something I really enjoyed. People saw a big change in my personality.”
He had always been shy, but when he worked in a hotel in Bournemouth, his friends visited. They played pool, ate fillet steaks, and were impressed. “Subconsciously, it meant something to me that I had value,” Baker says.
Now, he thinks: “The real value of hospitality is giving people a lovely time and working with lovely people and suppliers. Hospitality is the backbone of our country in a lot of respects.”
Baker worked his way up from kitchen porter to management. For 30 years, he “went from chain to chain” – Grand Metropolitan hotels, Taylor Walker pubs, Frankie & Benny’s, Costa, Garfunkel’s – and for 10 of those years, he was running airport concessions.
“It was draining. Loads of driving, wearing a suit. It took a toll on everything. I just couldn’t cope.” One day, he knocked on his twin brother’s door and said: “I’m going to live with you.” He left the hospitality sector, got divorced and bought a narrowboat. He was in his early 50s.
“The boat was so small, it stripped me of all the things I didn’t need. It was invigorating. You’re in the underbelly of London – you’re in London, but you’re below the surface. People ignore you.”
He moored all over the city, as well as farther afield, in Bishop’s Stortford, not far from where he grew up. “The River Stort is beautiful. You’re in tune with nature.”
He began to think about “putting English ingredients on to pizza”, foraging for nettles, chestnuts, chickweed, elderflowers and berries, initially as toppings for flatbreads. He and Sarah became a couple a year after he moved on to the boat, and they started making their own balsamic vinegar and pickled cherry tomatoes. The boat filled up with Kilner jars. They bought a tiny pizza oven, small-farm English cheeses and heritage grains for the dough, and started a pop-up pizza place in a pub in Hackney, east London, making their way back to the boat each night to light the fire and go to bed at one in the morning.
In 2022, they opened Flat Earth, which has a seasonal menu and uses locally sourced produce. “I thought: ‘Let’s do things, and throw caution to the wind.’
“We wanted to do something great and meaningful and wholesome, and put it on a plate – and for people to understand it, to enjoy it.
“I’m standing up all day, lifting 25kg bags of flour. I’ve got a strong left arm where I’m rolling all these dough balls,” Baker says. “But age shouldn’t hold you back. People in their 60s have so much life experience. I’m learning stuff every day. I’ve got so much more I can do.”
