“Nellie Nichols is a passionate crusader for the cause of good, natural, preservative free food. At Pret she kept us on the seat of our pants. New ideas, new recipes, funny one-off suppliers of weird and wonderful ingredients”
JULIAN METCALFE, Founder, Pret a Manger


“We have worked with Nellie for more than ten years successfully developing products for many of the major retail and foodservice groups. Her quest for seeking the very best products for every project is uncompromising. Her depth of knowledge is superb.”
DAVID PARK, Managing Director, Benson Park


“Never fails to astound with her unique talent”
KAREN STACEY, Sales & Marketing Director, Key Catering


“Working with Nellie is truly inspirational and aspirational but most of all always a pleasure”
BEN WARNER, Co Founder, Benugo
 

“Nellie’s specialist expertise has been extremely valuable on various projects for my Clients. To get the kind of strategic insight she has provided from her first hand experience would have taken my Clients extensive time and money to gather from market research or target focus groups”
LISA CHAFEL, Managing Director, Food Stuff PR

“Working with Nellie has always been an inspiration and an education. We have reviewed restaurants and judged food competitions together and I have always come away from those experiences a wiser man”
MATTHEW MOGGRIDGE, Editor and Publisher, Foodservice Forum

“I have worked with Nellie for some sixteen years and have always been impressed by the detail and passion she takes to create food as it should be designed, by someone who truly cares about what we eat”
TIM MACK, New Business Development Director, English Provender


“Not content with delivering the concept, the menu or the budget, Nellie also considers the manufacturing practicalities. A true professional with first class experience and a vast knowledge”
DAVID GUY, Commercial Director, Superior Food


“Nellie teaches you that there is no room for compromise or complacency….that you should always strive to push the boundaries one step further than the customer would expect”
MARK ARNOLD, Procurement and Development Manager, Brambles


“You know when you’ve been Nellied”
ALASTAIR BENSON, Operations Director, Benson Park


“Guaranteed to keep you on your toes”
RICH EDNEY, Development Chef, Pret a Manger


“Nellie is at the leading edge of food innovation. She combines talent with practical skills and a real understanding of what is required to prepare food efficiently and consistently on either a large or small scale. She has a great strength in her ability to source. She seeks out and nurtures exciting new and original sources of ingredient supply which can deliver a real point of difference for a company”
ANNE TRUELOVE

“She combines a love of food with an in-depth appreciation of the practical constraints of large scale production. Her knack of combining ingredients into factory friendly products is the key to her success, as well as being a contributor to the success of the companies she has worked with”.
PETER BARTLETT, Director, Advanced Food Technology

“When you need an uncompromising approach to product quality mixed with creativity that is instinctively attuned to consumers needs, Nellie is a powerful combination for any business where either organic growth or creating uniqueness are the key to success”
MIKE FAERS, Group NPD and Innovations Director, Daniels


“A great asset to any business”
OLIVER LEATHAM, Development Director, Leathams Plc


“Nellie is a real professional and the one to trust and depend on at all times”
SIMON HARGRAVES, Commercial Director, Pret a Manger        


“One of the delights of working with Nellie is that with her experience and finely honed taste buds, she brings a certainty and decisiveness to what can be a rather protracted process. We have worked together over several years, during which time she has challenged my business to produce the freshest products we have ever made, and probably one of the fastest launches too. Demanding of course, but always charming”.
GRAHAM STOODLEY, Managing Director, Huge Sauce Ltd


“She comes up with vibrant development that others are unable to match”
DEREK LEWIS, Sales Manager, Tomen Foods Ltd   


“In an era when committee design is becoming the norm, Nellie Nichols remains the one true sandwich ‘superstar’. Over the years her name has become synonymous with a search for quality ingredients, design flair and mature judgement when it comes to the sandwich environment”
SIMON AMBROSE, Editor, Sandwich and Snack News


“A natural creative talent. Through her energetic passion and knowledge of the food industry she always surpasses expectations and constantly delivers pleasing results”
RUSSELL MADDOCK, Managing Director, Maison Blanc


“The evangelist for really delicious contemporary food. She is simply not content with average and will always challenge the norm”.
REBECCA FOSTER, NPD Manager, Superior Food


“Prepare to be challenged ! Nellie will seek to deliver the best product and your customer will benefit from the wealth of her knowledge that she invests”
STEVE GREENHALGH, Managing Director, Kates Cakes


“She strives to achieve the best – driving her suppliers to produce food as it should be – uncomplicated, fresh and real. She has helped teach me that compromise should be the last resort not the easiest route”
JONNIE ARCHER, Head of Sales, H&B Foods


“Working with someone as passionate about food as Nellie is not only highly informative but also entertaining. A true professional and a pleasure to work with”
JOAN PRENTICE, Commercial Director, The Edinburgh Smoked Salmon Company


“There are absolutely no sacred cows in Nellie’s book, she challenges everything: sometimes its painful, but I have no doubt that we are making better, more exciting products as a result”
TONY TURNER, Director, Kingston Foods

“You know what you’re getting with Nellie – full on direct and honest input which is backed by years of experience”
ROB HOARE, Commercial Director, Greencore

“Nellie is demanding to work with, but she knows exactly what she wants. She is particularly attentive to detail, and she has the knowledge to correct and adjust. She is appreciative of good work, which makes one strive to product the best for her. On top of this, she is great to work with.”
ROGER STOWELL, Photographer

“Nellie has a charming assertiveness that gets the job done. She strives for nothing short of perfection and will not let anyone stand in her way of achieving it. I used to be scared of Nellie, but now I respect her brutal honesty. She’s only trying to make the world a tastier place and I for one am happy to jump on that bandwagon any day.”
SUSAN WATSON, Sales and Marketing Manager, Charcuterie Continental Ltd

“Nellie brought her wealth of foodservice, product development and commercial expertise to the Delifrance International Sandwich Challenge when she led our British judging panel and represented the UK on the panel of experts for our grand final in Paris. Without doubt she was a knowledgeable, decisive and formidable asset to our 2007 competition.”
IAN DOBBIE, Managing Director, Delifrance UK Ltd

“Over the past nine months working with Nellie has been an exciting, challenging rollercoaster ride which has led to a range of new exciting and unique products for Beacon Foods. It’s a journey we intend to continue.”
EDWARD GOUGH, Director, Beacon Foods

“Nellie is always a joy to work with. She finds a great balance between thought provoking discussion and practical application. Having worked with her in both large and small businesses it is obvious she has huge breadth and depth of experience.”
ANDREW SHANAHAN, Managing Director, Lovejuice

“Nellie knows food and the industry and has a strong feel for what will work. She is clear thinking and forthright and combines good ideas with an uncomplicated energetic and effective approach to making them happen.
She provided some much needed structure to de-clutter some of our thinking on innovation and has some great training tools to give people a better understanding of how to develop great products which integrate strong creative ideas with commercial considerations so you get something that makes money in the marketplace.”
LOCHLAIN FEELEY, Managing Director, Uniq Prepared Foods, Northampton

“After many years of admiring Nellie’s skills and passion as a supplier to Pret it was a very easy decision to utilise her skills to help us implement a new way of looking at NPD to deliver truly innovative products.
As always Nellie delivered with her straightforward, no nonsense approach, impressed all with her knowledge and inspired others to think differently and seek ideas in unusual places.”
TONY BROWN, Commercial Director, Bakehouse

(P.S. Some of you may have moved on to fresher pastures, but when we worked together this is where you were at that time)