Alex and his co-founding partner Patricia set up Taste Matters Ltd in 2001, initially renting space in a catering skills centre by the day to produce their range of five 'food-to-go' meals. Six months later they moved to a redundant central kitchen which had previously supplied three shops. In 2004 they moved into their own leased premises, from where they now produce 30 food-to-go products spanning five categories. Their 'Organic Wild Rice and Broccoli Salad' and 'Organic Spanish Chorizo and Spicy Chickpea Salad' are the most recent to win bronzes in the Organic Food Awards in 2006, following previous category winners in both 2004 and 2003.

• Who are your customers and where are they?
  Because we are keen to prove that 'local food for local people' is not just a nice idea but sound in practice, we focus on supplying independent food retailers within the Greater London area. We currently supply about 40 independent stores ranging from dedicated organic food outlets to health food stores, department store food halls, delicatessens and local community stores. More recently we have also been in discussions with local schools.

• Organic principles – why do they matter?
  Without a set of clearly distinguishing criteria, how else do you sort the wheat from the chaff?

• What does the Soil Association mean to you?
  The Soil Association, quite apart from setting the standards and carrying out certification, acts as a unifying body and a voice for like-minded individuals and businesses: a champion of a cause. Nowhere is this more clearly evident than in the spirit of enthusiasm, camaraderie and live debate displayed at their annual conferences.

• How do you plan to progress in the future? What is your vision?
  With rising energy costs, food miles and road pricing climbing up the political agenda, organic food businesses such as ours - with short delivery and supply lines - are well placed to continue serving their local communities, whilst meeting these environmental challenges.
  
  With growing demand for high quality, freshly prepared, organic food-to-go products, we will continue to innovate and develop a broader range of offerings to satisfy our customers.

• If you were starting all over again, what would you do differently?
  Not having direct experience in another business start-up to compare it with, it is difficult to say what we might have done differently. However, in terms of getting the business off the ground, I am convinced that we did the right thing by not resorting to borrowing a lot of money at start-up stage in exchange for most of the company. If you have a clear vision of what you are trying to achieve, and you are happy to grow at a more moderate pace, there are alternative ways and means of getting there.

• What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
  Don't try and run before you can walk. Don't bite off more than you can chew.

• Who or what's your biggest inspiration?
  My partner Patricia who has been instrumental in Taste Matters' development.

• What is the key to your success?
  Keep it simple. Focus on a few core areas of activity. Avoid spreading yourself too thin. Beware of having too many eggs in too few baskets.

• What do you love most about what you do?
  Creating something out of nothing. Transforming ideas into tangibles.

• What keeps you awake at night?
  Poorly conceived and badly thought-out legislation. Unnecessary red tape.

• What single thing would most improve your life?
  A serious commitment, not just a token gesture, by the government of the day to recognise the major contribution that small manufacturing businesses make to the UK economy, and to introduce more measures that stimulate rather than stifle growth.

• What do you find most frustrating about what you do?
  Writing countless appeal letters to Transport for London or Local Authorities illustrating how CCTV cameras cannot substitute humans in adjudicating alleged parking infringements. The only consolation is that we have won most of them.

• Past careers?
  Having previously lived and worked in Italy, Central Europe, and Spain over a 10 year period, developing new products in both the food and non-food sectors, it never ceases to amaze me how critical a role food plays in the culture and psyche of a nation state... we lose that at our peril and should urge our MEPs to do more to safeguard us from excessive EU standardisation, particularly when it comes to food.

• Hobbies?
  Anything that generates a feeling of being at one with the natural elements, but in particular skiing and scuba diving. Nothing comes close to reminding us of our place in this world than rugged mountainous terrain and the secrets of the underwater world. Sadly both these pursuits have had to take a temporary backseat since Taste Matters' inception.

• How can the organic market be improved?
  Ensure that it is constantly redefined to remain relevant and pioneering. Many more people are already buying organic, but the challenge is to ensure that, as the market becomes more mainstream, it doesn't become diluted.

• What other organic ventures do you admire and why?
  Well Hung Meat – great name, great team!

• Supermarkets – good or bad?
  A necessary evil when restricted to large out of town sites; an unacceptable blight on our high streets when allowed to dictate the cost of inner city commercial rents, and to ride roughshod over local planning laws.
  
  In my neighbourhood, we have gone, in less than a year, from one Tesco Metro store to six in just half a square mile. Is it any wonder that the OFT has been nick-named 'the office that favours Tesco'?

• What is the biggest threat to what you do?
  If GM contamination in even the mildest form is allowed in through the back door, this will be the thin end of the wedge. The government of the day, though, appears to care more about keeping the biotech industry on-side, rather than caring for the health of the nation and national food security.

• What's the best thing about organic farms?
  The people with passion and vision that have invested their livelihoods in them.

• What's the best thing about organic food?
  The taste really matters - well I would say that, wouldn't I?

• What is your favourite meal?
  Carpaccio di manzo con rucola e parmiggiano reggiano... preferably consumed in a simple Italian trattoria of course rather than in some makeshift over-priced 'Italian' restaurant over here. Followed by pasta alla mantovana, or tagliatelle al tartufo, accompanied by a fine bottle of Barolo, finished off with a simple affogato. Sex on a plate!

• If I was Prime Minister I would...
  a) restore the balance between the individual and the state.
  b) reverse the sense of disenfranchisement from the political process that so many citizens have come to feel and far worse accept as 'normal'.
  c) rekindle a sense of civic pride and respect for public office which has been badly shaken due to the shenanigans of the current crop of politicos and their henchmen.
  d) redress the ridiculous state of affairs where 'human rights' law often leaves victims of crime worse off than the perpetrators.

• The world would be a better place if...
  The world's media could be persuaded to abandon their ratings system and circulation targets, and focus more on the positive contributions that ordinary men and women make as opposed to the sensationalist tripe and doom-mongering that dominate our screens and broadsheets: some hope!

• I'd like to be remembered for...
  Having co-founded an ethical business that in its own small way contributed to improving the health of the nation.

• When were you happiest?
  How do you define 'happiness'? If you mean 'care-free', then in my 20s. If you mean 'adventure', then in my 30s. If you mean 'achievement', then now in my 40s. Doesn't the definition of 'happiness', like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, constantly change depending on where you happen to be in your life-cycle?
  
  Perhaps 'happiness' is the realisation that it is the simplest things in life that make you the happiest.

• What is your greatest fear?
  We are sleep-walking like zombies into a surveillance society, a police state, sometimes without even realising it, and allowing ourselves to be conned into believing that Nanny State knows what's best for us.

• What is your favourite word?
  'Level' is my favourite word as it is so versatile... it can in its basic unaltered form be a noun, a verb or an adjective. It is also symmetrical in that it reads the same spelt backwards.

• What would be your 'Desert Island' luxury?
  A pen and paper.

• Is the customer always right?
  Not always, but they must always be made to feel that they are.