Yianni Papoutsis

Yianni Papoutsis is the co-founder and former Creative Director of the Meat chain of restaurants. He previously worked at the English National Ballet as a production technician. The business started as one of the first street food trucks in the UK, the Meat Wagon, and after teaming with Scott Collins and opening a pop-up restaurant, they opened thirteen restaurants, including twelve in the UK and one in Singapore which closed. He is now a consultant in the hospitality and entertainment industry.

Biography Papoutsis was born in England, and during his childhood, he split his time between there and Greece. As a teenager he moved to Denmark to find work. Papoutsis worked for the English National Ballet for fifteen years as a production technician. In 2009, he opened a street food van serving gourmet hamburgers called MEATwagon as a hobby. MEATmarket at Covent Garden, Collins and Papoutsis' research trips to the United States for the cookbook were covered by GQ. He has been described as "a pioneer of street food" by Bloomberg Businessweek. He has collaborated with numerous Michelin starred chefs including Fergus Henderson, Nieves Barragan, Michael O'Hare and Sally Abe and with Gresham Blake on men's suits and performance underwear. in January 2015, by Debrett as one of Britain's 500 most influential people and in 2016 he was included in Restaurant magazine's 'Power List' of the 100 most powerful people in the restaurant industry.