Can I save the family restaurant?

我能拯救这家家庭餐馆吗?

The Food Chain

2026-06-04

26 分钟
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Running a restaurant is hard. Long hours, tight margins and constant stress. In this week's programme Rumella Dasgupta travels to Edinburgh, Scotland, to meet Lisa He and her mum Sophie. Lisa has just put her life and acting career on hold, to try and help her mum save the family's restaurant, the China Star. A video she made documenting her attempt has gone viral, with more than fifteen million views. But is a viral video going to be enough to turn a failing business into a success? Lisa's got to fix the sprawling menu, digitise the paper ordering system and cut costs. Lisa and Rumella meet restaurant turnaround expert David Hopkins from the Fifteen Group in Canada, who's on hand to give advice and to explain why restaurants are such difficult businesses to run. Meanwhile the Mand family in Sydney Australia know only too well what Lisa and Sophie are going through. Last year, son Bhav documented his fight to save his dad's failing restaurant. So how's it doing now? And, in such a difficult industry, when is the right time to walk away? Rumella hears from Carleigh Bond, who made the tough decision to close her vegan fast-food restaurant Forked Up in October 2025. Producers: Lexy O'Connor and Beatrice Pickup. Sound Engineer: Andrew Mills Image description: Lisa He and mum Sophie in their restaurant, The China Star. Lisa is looking at mum and smiling. (Credit: BBC)
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  • Take one failing family restaurant, one very determined daughter.

  • "My mom's Chinese restaurant is dying and I have three months to save it." I'm Rumela Das Gupta,

  • and you're listening to The Food Chain from the BBC World Service.

  • Today, we're following the story of Lisa and her mum Sophie.

  • Lisa's put her acting career on hold to try and rescue her mum's 30-year-old restaurant in Edinburgh.

  • A video Lisa posted about her attempts to turn the business around has been viewed more than 15 million times.

  • But can she turn clicks into paying customers?

  • "We have no customers coming in and our menu is outdated with over 200 dishes." We'll also hear from a father

  • and son team in Australia who know exactly what Lisa and Sophie are going through.

  • "So they had a lot of debts that they were slowly building up,

  • but they weren't making enough money to get approved for a loan. It felt like we were at rock bottom."

  • And we'll find out what makes owner-operated restaurants such difficult businesses to run.