Philip Weldon: my £4m cheesecake recipe

Philip Weldon always wanted to do 'something big' with cooking. So he took his aunt's cheesecake recipe and built a £4m business around it.

To this day Philip Weldon's aunt is still bemused that he managed to create a company from her cheesecake recipe. Yet the founder of the English Cheesecake Company, now 50, always knew "he would do something big with cooking".

Weldon's first foray into the culinary world was as a 17-year-old school leaver at McDonald's. He soon became manager of what was one of only five McDonald's stores in Britain before deciding to quit the fast-food chain. "I was 19 and spending most of my nights working I couldn't do that for the rest of my life."

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
James McKeigue

James graduated from Keele University with a BA (Hons) in English literature and history, and has a certificate in journalism from the NCTJ. James has worked as a freelance journalist in various Latin American countries.He also had a spell at ITV, as welll as wring for Television Business International and covering the European equity markets for the Forbes.com London bureau. James has travelled extensively in emerging markets, reporting for international energy magazines such as Oil and Gas Investor, and institutional publications such as the Commonwealth Business Environment Report. He is currently the managing editor of LatAm INVESTOR, the UK's only Latin American finance magazine.