Russell Norman was an acclaimed restaurateur. Over 20 years he worked in many of London's landmark restaurants as a waiter, bartender, maître d', general manager and operations director. In 2009 he founded an independent restaurant company with his best friend and went on to open many restaurants in central London including Polpo, Spuntino and Brutto. His book POLPO: A Venetian Cookbook (of Sorts) and was voted Waterstones Book of the Year 2012. In 2014 he presented The Restaurant Man, a six-part prime-time documentary for BBC2, and his second book SPUNTINO: Comfort Food, New York Style was published in September 2015. Russell died in 2023.

polpo.co.uk / @Polpo
spuntino.co.uk / @Spuntino