Vicky Radtke biography
Vicky Radtke was born in 1963 and is married with four children.
During the 1980’s she trained as an architect in Oxford (now Oxford Brookes University) and met husband Dave also an architect, whilst studying for her diploma in Architecture in Brighton.
In 1998 the Radtkes opened the first Tin Drum Café Bar and Restaurant in Brighton. It hit the zeitgeist of the moment being a continental style cafe bar. They went on to open three more successful Tin Drums in popular neighbourhoods of Brighton and Hove. The business has always remained a family enterprise.
The Radtkes now grow all their own vegetables for family and restaurants, rear meat and produce charcuterie on-site. The vehicles – cars and tractor – are run from bio-diesel made at Starnash from spent cooking oil from their restaurants. What they cannot yet produce themselves, they source from local farms and smallholders. The chefs, managers and front of house staff come and work at Starnash on a regular basis, training and thus promoting a true understanding of the food they are cooking and serving.
How I Found the Agency
I was introduced by Gilly Smith, a food writer and published author of books including The Mediterranean Health Diet, biographer of Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver and now lecturer at Sussex University.
