Pieminister™

Jon Simon

Having an entrepreneurial streak from an early age (trialling out various business plans in the playground and from his bedroom as a kid), Jon wrote his first proper business plan after graduating from Nottingham Trent University. Through a lucky (if somewhat bizarre) twist of fate, Jon managed to finance his idea by winning a national game show, and opened a pub in Stockwell, London, aged just 24.

Jon managed to take the pub from ‘rough local boozer’ state to become a popular South London drinking and eating destination in part because of the brilliant menu devised by his resident chef, Tristan Hogg. Jon grew the business to include a second pub then sold it all in 2002, as the seeds of an idea about pies was growing…

pieminister was set up the next year with Tristan. Since then Jon's job has mainly focussed on customers, dealing directly with feedback and any issues they may have. He deals with all areas of retail within the business and is also the man behind the irreverant branding and marketing style pieminister has become well known for.

Jon is a keen ambassador for young entrepreneurs and has helped and advised many start up companies in and around Bristol as well as acting as a business mentor for the Princes Trust and a volunteered as a Judge on the panel of the PITCH to become ‘Britain’s best business’. He is an enthusiastic entrepreneur and is constantly on the look out for interesting opportunities and business ideas to develop.

Jon lives in Bristol with his wife and two young children. He loves working on pieminister, is a keen cook, enjoys going to festivals, snowboarding, films, trying to keep fit and travelling to exciting places.

Tristan Hogg

Tristan - the cook in the relationship – has never been someone who sticks unquestioningly to the rules. Like many of the best entrepreneurs, Tristan left school early to carve his own path.

Moving quickly from washing dishes to becoming apprentice chef at a country house hotel in Cheshire, Tristan jumped at the chance of moving to London to set up the kitchen at Jon’s newly opened bar.

Headhunted a few years later to work on music tours, Tristan became ‘a chef to the stars’ cooking for giants such as The Rolling Stones, Pet Shop Boys and Robbie Williams. A while after this Tristan moved to Australia to sunbathe, surf and learn the antipodean art of cooking. It was here, on Bondi Beach that Tristan dreamt up the pieminister name (he was eating a pie at the time).

Tristan’s main focus at pieminister is, of course, the food. Running the kitchen, overseeing sourcing and choice of suppliers, managing the wholesale section of the business and coming up with new ideas for recipes.

Tristan is also an investor and director of the award winning Indian restaurant chain ‘Thali café’. He lives in Bristol, loves working at pieminister, surfing, eating, giving relationship advice, going on adventures and of course adores cooking.