What’s cooking in mum and daughters’ kitchen?

by Carryn Dewing - Thursday, 8th May 2008 -

Anna Venturi and Letizia Tufari are the mum-and-daughter duo behind Venturi’s Table, a family business serving up a fresh new alternative to teambuilding events in the form of corporate cookery classes.

Venturi and Tufari reckon they’ve got a family business recipe that works but they admit it hasn’t been easy.

Tufari chose to leave her high-flying corporate career to join her mum in running her small business and says there were some tough times in the early days.

“We really clashed in the beginning. I’d be trying to find the best processes, and she’d get bored and want to change things all the time. She’d find me really inflexible and difficult, and I’d find her unpredictable… and difficult.”

But, she says, it’s their similarities that drive the business. “Mum and I are both very focused people. I joined because we both had exactly the same ideas of what we wanted for the company – we still do and that’s what makes us work.

“We’ve actually done personality tests and we scored almost identically, except that I’m more process-driven and she’s much more creative.”

The popularity of Venturi’s Table suggests this is a contrast that works for the pair: Venturi’s Table has hosted teambuilding events for the likes of Microsoft and GlaxoKlineSmith during the last three years and is projecting turnover of £1m next financial year.

“Our clients enjoy the mother and daughter relationship. It brings our culture of people coming together and relaxing around the table – that family feel – to our business,” says Tufari.

When asked who tends to be more dominant in the kitchen, Tufari laughs: “She’ll tell you that I boss her around all the time and she doesn’t boss me around, but she does. We both like to do things our own way – we’re both very stubborn people.”

Venturi adds: “We know our relationship is a very rare recipe, but for us, it is working.”

To read about other families doing business in the kitchen , check out: Just had kids? Best time to start up!

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