Our Story

Hi Nomads,

I am Will and proudly the founder of ‘The Nomads Kitchen’. I would describe myself as a happy go lucky kind of guy and I grew up in a small town in Somerset. Growing up in Somerset was great but I always had this urge to see more of the world, which is when I was fortunately offered the opportunity to study and play soccer in the USA. Although Somerset will always be home, I have absolutely loved the adventure of seeing new places, trying new experiences, new cultures and basically taking myself out of my comfort zone. It has become a big passion of mine alongside my new found love for food – where it hasn’t always been that way...

In 2017, I found myself in a lively hostel in Colombia, deep in the heart of South America. My adventurous side had taken me to this enchanting place, and it was here that the story of "The Nomads Kitchen" began.

I had been exploring South America for around about 6 months, and during my travels, I'd made some unforgettable friends - Luke, a carefree Australian in his early 20s with long, sun-bleached hair; Lou, a petite, 30-year-old brunette with striking blue eyes; and Jorge, a curly-haired Spaniard whose age was as mysterious as his spirit. It was an unexpected fateful reunion at the hostel, and I remembered I uttered a foolish promise.

As we caught up, I found myself in the hot seat, as they remembered what that promise was. I would cook dinner for the gang next time we saw each other; they had all cooked for me prior. For everyone reading this, please know that I am a pretty ordinary cook. When I say ordinary, I mean beans on toast, oven pizzas and pasta and sauce are the kind of Michelin star experiences I am normally provide.

However; me being me, I had been talking up my new improved cooking skills due to my previous job. Prior to bumping into the gang, I had been working for a travel company called San Blas Adventures which is a tour guiding company that takes travellers across picturesque deserted islands. Palm trees, hammocks and a volleyball court were the only amenities these islands had, surround by the beautiful ocean and barely ever a cloud in the sky. As a tour guide, one of our jobs was to cook all meals for the guests, using only the ingredients we brought from the mainland prior to setting off. All I remember from these cooking experiences is the compliments of how good the food was on these trips. Just fresh ingredients and spices was the key for 4 days of amazing food with minimal resources. From someone who was very ordinary at cooking, to compliments across the board, of course I was bigging up my culinary skills haha.

So, never one to back down from a challenge and to certainly not break a promise, I decided to embark on a little adventure of my own, and go for a shop in middle of Medellin with not a lick of Spanish to my name. Easy right. The one rule I was going to stick with was fresh ingredients and good spices which done me good on the islands; if it isn’t broken don’t fix it.

So off I set through the vibrant city of Medellin, with lots of local vendors on pretty much every street corner, this should be a doddle. A Nasi goreng was my meal of choice after a first scout, freshly cooked rice, lots of veggies, chicken, egg and some great spices.  After sourcing the fresh ingredients rather rapidly, I set out for the spices, BUT, this was proving trickier than I anticipated.

As a slightly stubborn man, I wasn’t letting a little setback ruin this meal. I set out to locate the spices that would add the much-needed flavour to my dish. However, my search led me down black holes where there was literally nothing for me to buy for my meal. I know it’s hard to believe right, but there was literally nothing except oversized quantities of 1kg. The stubbornness overtook and I decided that I wasn’t buying 1kg of different spices for one meal.

As I got closer to the hostel, my hopes dwindled, as there was still nothing in appropriate volumes. It looked like we were heading for another ordinary meal. Even a desperate scavenger hunt within the hostel's nooks and crannies proved futile. Gordon Ramsey was doomed to serve plain rice, veggies and chicken to the gang.

I had to face hard facts that I am no Gordon Ramsey and I couldn't deliver the mouth-watering meal I'd boasted about. I needed the use of spices. The gang didn't let me forget it with their playful teasing.

As a keen lover of business for many years now, studying the subject at university, all the way back to the days where my mate and I used to sell sweets at school to make an extra few quid for the weekend, I have always wanted a reason to start my own business.

Over the next few days, I decided to look all over the web to see if there were any product solutions out there to help. Again, there was nothing to be seen. I couldn’t quite believe there wasn’t anything out there. I didn’t like the new feedback of my cooking to be ordinary; I wanted it to be extraordinary (like on the tours). It was then that I made a bold decision - I would create the solution myself. I started to create the kit to help me cook like a pro on my travels.

Over the course of six months, I dove headfirst into research, planning, sketching, and designing. The dream of a portable kitchen for nomads like me began to take shape. I sought guidance in the look of the kit from my father, who had experience in designing helicopters, and together we crafted three prototypes. The result of our hard work and dedication was "The Nomads Kitchen."

Turning ordinary into extraordinary. From this teasing critique moment of one uncomfortable situation, we have managed to create a solution. From this creation we have been able to expand and come up with other cooking, eating and drinking accessories that we think are beneficial to the beautiful camping, adventurous travelling community. We plan to keep expanding on new products as well as improving on our existing ones.

So next time you’re going away and know you’re going to cook. Turn ordinary, into extraordinary!!

The Nomads Kitchen Team