Meet the man behind Nomad, the travelling showcase of collectable design

0:11Hello and welcome to the Entrepreneurs on Monocle Radio, the show all about inspiring people, innovative companies and fresh ideas in global business. Coming up today, we meet the duo behind a hospitality venture that reimagines a familiar staple with a thoughtful modern twist. Essentially, yes, there has been a movement of healthy food and people are becoming much more health conscious, but I don't think they're asking themselves quite fully yet, why am I actually eating what I'm eating? And later, we'll hear from a Canadian-Italian architect and curator whose nomadic showcase brings collectible design to remarkable places.

0:47The location is always the starting point and we need it to be an interesting destination also for our global community. This is The Entrepreneurs with me, Tom Edwards.

1:08You're listening to The Entrepreneurs. Amma Anatta is a new culinary concept founded by Simone Hundleshoier with strategic support from friend of the show, Harry Hundle, the founder of the eponymous wealth management firm. Simone and Hari are also former spouses who now intriguingly work together as business partners on the venture. They stop by Midori House to talk about the origins of the brand and what it's really like building a business with family. I began by asking Simone about the meaning of the name, Ama and Atta. Ama stands for mother, and it's a celebration of the mother role, how she nourishes and nurtures family, society.

1:46And she does that through the use of Atta, which is representative of flower. And so Atta is also, however, a way of how we're introducing the Ayurvedic health principles into our vision of nourishing society and actually nourishing them through the use of food and the Prata, which is our hero at Ama and Atta. Tell me about the Prata then, the hero. Yeah, the prata is actually a layer of dough, which is a stuffed flatbread almost. At Amanata, we're actually reimagining it and we are putting in very modern and Western ingredients such as beetroot and or we're actually using it as well as our staple for our rolls, our breakfast rolls, where we have reinvented the avocado on toast, for instance, as a avocado roll.

2:30So we're using it in very different and imaginary ways, actually, and also in a very health-conscious manner to make sure that we're introducing higher protein elements into it. Yeah, I mean, maybe I can just step in on the Prota. The Prota has, I think, real historic significance, actually, in the Indian subcontinent. The Prota actually goes back to the 12th century and then became particularly popular in terms of the Prota we are bringing now to London and the West. This is a North Indian type prorta and there are different prortas by region. The North Indian prorta goes back to the 16th century and actually was a time of nobility and royalty.

3:11And there was competitions amongst chefs to produce the most elaborate, interesting prorta. If there was a modern take, it's almost it's it's not pizza like the Italian way, because actually typically today it's eaten for breakfast and lunch. That is a very popular way of consuming this. It sits on the street, but it sits in fancy restaurants. And you have family owned businesses in Delhi, and particularly the old part of Delhi, which are still serving this over, you know, after 120, 125 years. They've not stopped serving this. So we want to bring that here because we feel that's been lost in the Indian menu.

3:50Of course, we understand the cultural significance of Indian food. But actually, I don't think it's always transposed in the right way. and we think, you know, if you look at sort of Indian populations which have immigrated around the world, whenever we've spoken to those individuals, this is a food that really resonates and they want. So we're looking forward to bringing it. Simone, what strikes me as interesting about your remarks and what Harry's added there is that this is one of those classic examples of something where there's an amazing rich heritage, not hundreds, thousands of years almost, and yet ripe for a little bit of respectful innovation but fresh thinking nonetheless.

4:25Tell me a little bit about how Amaranata fuses those things, the heritage products, something that people understand it already, but adds this newness and this freshness. How are you doing it? Yeah, absolutely. So we're working with a team of food consultants that actually help us from a technical perspective to really elevate the product and make it applicable to, you know, what the health conscious consumer actually is looking for. But more than that, we, of course, also want to stay true to the authenticity of the product. So one example that I gave earlier was the avocado toast reimagined in our spelled heavy protein flour roll.

5:01And or we have a beautiful turmeric egg roll, which is equally representative of where we're using the prata but rolling it. And in the most traditional sense, so whilst Harry would have experienced that as a breakfast experience in the mornings, you have normally your stuffed prata. It could be with aloo, which is potato, which of course is the heavy staple. So you might be familiar with a sark paneer. The sark paneer in a traditional Indian restaurant is essentially your spinach and paneer cheese. And we've reimagined our prata where we're actually taking the spinach and blending it into the dough.

5:35So it actually becomes a green colour. But then the paneer is stuffed inside. And it's a beautiful fusion of what we just described. Actually, it's also beautifully, visually beautifully appealing. But also for the taste buds, it really just explodes in your mouth. Harry, it's funny. people may recall particularly if they've heard our previous conversations an interest you know whether it's with an investing hat or just because of your personal passions in exactly these kinds of areas these interesting intersections right innovation allied to tradition an established set of values but with an opportunity to be creative but then also these other value adds that underpin it yeah wellness healthier eating more purposeful and intentional behaviors yeah That's why this is a no-brainer for you, right?

6:22That's why you're passionate about it, why this makes sense with your Hundle hat on as an enterprise and as an endeavour to undertake. Talk to me a bit about that rationale, that side of things. Yeah. So for those who haven't heard the prior podcast and don't know about Handel, you know, we are a wealth manager who brings a family office approach to sort of the ultra high and high net worth space. And, you know, part of that is understanding how you can bring interesting direct investments into a broader portfolio, size appropriately, don't risk the house on it, but have a growth capital part of an overall portfolio.

7:00in that sort of experience over the last eight years you know i've seen a lot of direct investments we've invested in those many have worked and some haven't but seeing these entrepreneurs and these ideas i think we've got a very good eye about what works and what doesn't work and actually as we sort of enter this next phase of hundle i think as you see as monocle appreciates we just don't want to be a financial services firm i think we have to connect more emotionally with our clients and again, play true to our values. And actually our value is we really like design. We appreciate the importance of a good lifestyle.

7:40That lifestyle needs to be sustainable. Health is a very important part of that. How are you living your life? And I think what I've decided certainly over the last 12, 18 months is if we're going to do interesting direct investments, well, we're going to search out for those opportunities. Are there areas that we can invest, which really do promote those type of values and ideals. And actually, we're looking at other things. But this is one thing, actually, again, with my entrepreneurial hat, I see an opportunity and we've kind of taken our entrepreneurial experience and developed it as a concept and now want to support it.

8:16But we think there's a broader audience outside Hundo to do this. So let me ask you, Harry mentioned switching hats there. Yeah. Chef's hats. I don't know. I wear in finance, whatever they fancy. You've got a number of hats. Yourself, a long and storied career, of course, in finance. You've got these fascinations with health and well-being. I think you're in the midst still of different kind of training to add more strings to your bow. Which hat do you wear? Or is actually the skill of making a go of this that you have to switch them around, not just day to day, but almost kind of probably hour to hour?

8:46Oh, absolutely. And, you know, it's a wonderful fusion, actually, of the experiences that I've sort of gathered over the last 20, 25 years. As you said correctly, I guess one of my biggest hats that I've worn over these last 25 years was actually a finance hat. So I was in private wealth management, working for a large American organization, and I just left in April. What's really beautiful about that journey, I would say, and the skill set that I've acquired is, as Harry said, I sat on the other side where I was advising investors and actually selling these direct equity opportunities. And now I'm on the other end where I'm actually trying to rationalize, of course, also the financial viability from an investment perspective, which is hugely exciting.

9:25And it teaches me so much about using that skill set in reverse, almost, right, which is wonderful. But then, of course, you're right at the soul, you know, level, I'm much more holistically inclined. So recently, as you said, I acquired a diploma as a holistic healing practitioner. And that very much brings me into the holistic health, the lifestyle, of course the mental health but also physical health and at the moment i'm currently training to become a ayurvedic lifestyle and nutritionist ayurveda is something that's it's it's not a trend because people ask me what is ayurveda and it's not a trend it's not a diet but it's a lifestyle and it's a way of living so it's a very balanced approach to you know nourishing and nurturing ourselves and i think that's exactly what am i not wants to do and share with you know society because essentially, yes, there has been a movement of healthy food and people are becoming much more health conscious.

10:21But I don't think they're asking themselves quite fully yet, why am I actually eating what I'm eating? I've got to ask you this. I often talk to family teams of entrepreneurs. And I say, you know, what's the altruism? What is it? Don't work with children. Don't work with animals. Don't work with family. You guys obviously don't listen. What's the reason why that thinking is flawed at this moment? Why is it a good idea to work with family? Well, I think you hit the nail on the spot. Because essentially, Harry and I, we're actually here, I would almost want to say, as our mature higher selves, if that makes sense.

10:54Because we actually separated. And with that, Amenata was born from the separation. So it's actually quite a timely, relevant question in that way. And I feel that it's actually an extension to our family. It's our family's legacy. And I think it also proves to ourselves, our children, and also our investors. hopefully that actually you can overcome those personal limitations because Harry and I we've spent the last 20 years together and we've been through many ups and downs that have strengthened us but at the same time you know it also exposed our vulnerabilities and I think we've come to a point where those have become a strength and I'm very excited about what Amma and Atta is offering us to elongate that relationship which we you know we will share our life together going forward we have a family but at the same time those roles also change and with that we evolve i'm really pleased to see how we were both able to embody that well it's really beautiful way you talk about it it puts me in mind of that i can't remember the name of it you know that japanese practice of repairing a vessel that's broken and actually in the fixing you can highlight and actually become stronger, it becomes more beautiful.

12:08I mean, that's something really amazing. And again, it sounds maybe a little kind of abstract, but that's really important, isn't it, in terms of momentum, the same kind of values we're talking about, Harry, intentionality, purpose, and actually delivering on that and not just talking a good game. Yeah, and I think there's this sense of this unconditional, there's an unconditional love that one gets from their mother that's a core part of that dynamic. And actually, I think, you know, in our situation, I think that's what we have. We've gone, you know, we made an active choice to be more unconditional.

12:38And I think, you know, that's really important. And a family business can, to your point earlier, become very destructive, right? It's much easier because you bring your family home and you bring your business home and those things, whereas, you know, those things can intermix. I think we're doing this the right way. And, you know, it's funny, investors have asked us, well, what about, you know, if something doesn't work out as husband and wife? Well, we're like, well, that's already happened, guys. We've already gone through that. So actually, the fact that we're doing this now, despite that, should give people confidence, right?

13:09And I think that also sets us up very well for the challenges of business, because at the end, it's never a straight line. And you have to be able to overcome, I think, points of difference and different perspectives and challenges. Yeah, a vanishingly small number of entrepreneurs that I speak to on this program say, yeah, you know what? Actually, it was all very straightforward and easy. It all came together recently. Let's quickly kind of go out into the world. We've sort of alluded to the journey this business is going to go on, where it will be, where it will look to grow. Just tell us a little bit about that in terms of where, I don't know, listeners might be like, hey, look, I'm ready.

13:46I'm ready. I'm hungry. I'm ready to eat. Where do people need to go? What do they need to watch out for? Yes, absolutely. So, first of all, we are increasingly sharing our vision on social media just to sort of, you know, keep just sending the energy out there. But of course, we are very actively looking in central London at the moment to find our first site. It's very competitive. I'm literally walking the streets of London daily. And I work very closely with a couple of real estate agents. But essentially, it's anywhere in London where you have high footfalls. So the time-pressed office goers.

14:21The tourists. The tourists, precisely residents as well, of course. I think five to look, we view it as certainly probably five key locations around zone one. But the beauty of this, I think we have the ability to extend. I think we can go beyond certainly sort of southeast and London. There is absolutely a national opportunity here. So, you know, we think this becomes a national UK business. And that would be Manchester. That could be Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Birmingham. I mean, we really do believe all those parts of the UK will connect to this. So our hope is we have sort of 10 sites in the next, I would say, three to four years.

15:00And then we expand to more like 20 over the next five years. And I think that stops the UK. And I think, again, we'll learn, you know, we'll either be sort of, we'll be more humble about that expansion through the experience of doing it. So we're definitely going to take feedback from sort of the first one and the two sites we have. But if it works like we think, then I think there's absolutely nothing to stop us going to the Middle East, Dubai, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi. We think we can go to North America, both Canada and the United States. It's very interesting sort of Indian populations who have emigrated there.

15:35But actually, you know, we can see the likes of Dishoom and others moving into the US. Again, I think Indian food outside India is best in the UK. So that's an export for us. I think we have a capability there, which I think the world appreciates and we need to take it. So I think we have big visions. I think we just have to start humbly and maybe around Marlebone. In the next, I would say, three to six months, you will see the first Amma and Atta. That was Simone Hundleshoier and Harry Hundle, the duo behind Amma and Atta. And if, like me, that has already stoked your appetites, then keep an eye and an ear for news of their plans in 2026.

16:23You're listening to The Entrepreneurs. For the recent Monocle Weekender Abu Dhabi event, I headed to the capital of the UAE, along with Andrew Tuck and a team of colleagues to host a select group of Monocle subscribers and friends for a three-day experience of tours, tastings and special access across the city. While we were there, our team was also fortunate enough to meet some most excellent entrepreneurs, including Nicolas Bellevance Lecomte, the founding director of Nomad, the travelling showcase of collectible design. Now, I had the very good fortune to visit Nomad on my trip in its rather unexpected location, the decommissioned Terminal 1 of the city's sensational old airport, a modernist marvel designed by Paul Andreu.

17:07I sat down with Nicolas to find out more about the story of Nomad and how and why it touched down in Abu Dhabi for the first time. When I decided to come to the Middle East, I was to do some extensive research. It's been a few years. I was in back and forth with negotiations, hunting for different locations and different countries in the region, honestly. And my attention landed somehow here in Abu Dhabi because of, like, the high cultural moment there is, but not only for this, also for like all the new residents who came here after COVID and this really interesting new population that you have also but combined with what they started to build 20 years ago you know especially here in Sagitt Island and all of the New Zealand museum halls and all of this you know and I had a very first meeting with DCT which is the Department of Culture and Tourism to explain to them what was the concept of Nomad and that I didn't want to be in the fairground or in any, let's say, generic building and new constructions or a tent.

18:20I really wanted to explore the modern heritage. And before the meeting, I went on their website because they have a proper dedicated web page with modern heritage, you know, with amazing list of buildings, that were built between the 70s and 80s. So I started to look there for interesting locations and venues with a potential host nomad. And I started meetings with them, and they loved the concept. They're like, oh, we never did such a thing here. And especially about collectible design, we never had a showcase about this. So let's explore this potential collaboration. And then they sent me all over the city, so I discovered the great architecture you have here.

19:01I don't know if you saw the bus station or the Cultural Foundation. So I've been literally going everywhere with them, and it was a great journey. And then it was beautiful places, but I was not yet convinced about the perfect, let's say, configuration to hosts and even nomads. You know about all of the buildings I saw in terms of size, parking, logistics, access. and then Rita Oon, the director, pulled out of her hat somehow, like the airport, one of the last meetings we had before the summer, and she said, well, Nicolas, we have the airport, also the former Terminal 1, that could be potentially an interesting venue for you, maybe.

19:48And I looked at her like, yes, Rita, please take me to the airport right away. And it was like that, a lightning strike. So from that moment then of inspiration and this powerful collaboration that you developed with your friends at DCT, how do you sort of hit the gas? Because it's an astonishingly short turnaround. If you've been up there as I have, you feel like this must have been years in the gestation, but it's not. It's kind of weeks. How did you do that? Well, we didn't sleep much in the past two months. Looking fresh anyway. So basically, yeah, by the time, obviously, we organized and structured our collaboration, the way we wanted to move forward.

20:33It was then a summer holiday. We started effectively to work on the project instead of the 1st of September. So can you imagine in two months and a half to have everything done? It was a marathon like it was never before. But I had the chance to have BCA team here, which I trusted because we did an event last year during Art Dubai with them. That went super well in a pop-up in the villa. And I was like, OK, with the right team, if we put the right efforts, let's make it happen. And it worked, you know. It was a lot of work, but I must say the result is here, as you have seen. and as you stroll through the what do you call what do you call them at the fair that you are still or the the show yeah i mean let's say we can call like a boutique fair somehow it's like because we don't want to be too big you know it's always the size matters you know it has to be some what somehow it's sort of human scale we never go over 50 exhibitors or 40 to 50 to keep it like fresh somehow so it's really obviously it's a trade fair that sort of salon where you go to acquire heart, design, and beautiful objects, high jewelry somehow.

21:46But yeah, it's fair at the end, yeah. I like the Salon. That's very elegant. I mean, that's the sort of francophone in you, Nicola. But as you stroll through, and I can't even do it justice in words, certainly the hub of that main terminal with this astonishing kind of tiled roof. People who have previously traveled through Abu Dhabi will, I'm sure, remember it from passing through the airport. What courses through your veins, Nicola? Is it, are you proud? Are you kind of amazed? You must see friends and make new ones. Can you explain how you feel when you stroll through it? Well, this is a great example of how architecture can generate an incredible reaction on people somehow, through memory and through also physical interaction of the space because the airport was designed by Paul Andreux, the French architect who is also the one who did Charles de Gaulle in Paris, you know.

22:39And the impact of this terminal that was operated for over 40 years, where millions of passengers went through, is incredible because it's memories for a lot of people. and I had a lot of people coming that made me like, oh, I have goosebumps to be able to come back to this building and to see incredible works of collectible design and art and jewelry that you brought here in this format is incredible. And to rediscover the airport in this manner is stunning. That was like the feedback I keep receiving and people I don't know are stopping me that say when I walk in the airport. A colleague said to me, it was actually actually standing over there, he was talking about how it was completely emotionally almost overwhelming to tap into that nostalgia, I guess.

23:32But then fuse it with cutting edge craftspeople. It's a really difficult trick to pull off. I think Nomad is uniquely well positioned to do it because of the founding values, right? Which is this idea that you're going to pop up in other places. You're going to be in Samarit, I think. and then in the Hamptons also in 26. How do you, obviously there's specific opportunities like here in Amtel, but how do you choose? Because people must be constantly hammering on your door. Let's say, come to see us, come to see us. Well, the location is always the starting point because we need a strong location to be able to, but also it's so many factors.

24:14We need a low-quality community to engage with And we need it to be an interesting destination also for our global community to come out there to support. And what is a minimum of also hospitality structures somehow, you know. But let's say the location, as I said before, is the most important thing. Whether it's a monastery in Capri where we went or a patrician house or a venetian palazzo or the former villa of Karl Lagerfeld in Monaco. It has to be a stunning experience. And I think here it's a concept which is quite new for the region. And that's why people get so excited, I think. They walk in and say, oh, how did you think of doing something in airports?

24:59Like they are amazed by the idea because I think obviously here, the new architecture that is coming out for them, there's so much looking forward to what's next and future and building, building, building. but maybe now it's interesting that they looked back at the past as well and embrace also memories that by the way for them it was so emotional also to be at the terminal because they're like oh we forgot maybe it's also nice to look back at the past and why i have so many emotions coming out of the architecture somehow so that's exactly what we've been doing for the past 15th edition at nomad you know there's like sort of dialogue between architecture memory and also the future and presenting also new contemporary works, but historic and all of this together.

25:46Has it worked better even than you hoped, Nicola? If we go right back to the beginning, because you said, I think the work that Nomad does is at this super interesting intersection of these different disciplines and ideas and almost philosophers. It's quite hard to express. Presumably it's very difficult to actually do, and yet the visitors love it, people love it. I guess the countries, the cities where you pop up, they love it. brands and partners also love it. Has that surprised you that people have bought into the concept so enthusiastically? Definitely. I was not expecting for the first year such a success.

26:26We've been used to build up destinations. It's always a work of two, three years to get a certain maturity of the project. And the results here in Abu Dhabi are incredible. from year zero. Even the very first day it went viral on social media and I think we reached the right circles of collectors and many people traveled from everywhere to come to visit us. And I think it's great because I feel here we reached a sort of incredible balance of what the concept of nomad is. And I think it was clear and immediate to everyone. I think obviously the airport helps to excel like at the maximum what nomad is as a concept well tell me i agree it feels like a kind of high watermark so you're bringing pressure on yourself huh how do you surpass this well where do you go next do you like that kind of pressure self-inflicted pressure how are you going to kind of surprise people next because that is going to take some beating i know i know But I think we have a very strong program for next year.

27:35And now we decided to work more in four years phases for every destination. So we will be back at the airport for the next few years. So this will be incredible because we'll be able to even build around the narrative of the airport even more. Our partnership with ATHAT will be brought even next level. If you saw the crew walking around as a performance and so on, I asked for next year that we should dock aircrafts, you know, around the terminal and to ask architects or artists to do concepts inside these aircrafts, you know. So I think sky's the limit. We can do incredible things there. But also, obviously, to find a location as good as this terminal will be quite challenging.

28:23But I think there are different narratives in what we can bring also into Hamptons. We'll get the water mill centre of Bob Wilson for the very first time. Nothing like this has been done in the area, let's say, close to New York at this level and scale. So I think this would be also something very special and also really unique for the memory of Bob. Because for us, we started a conversation with him before he left us last summer. And let's say it's really important for us to continue this project, this memory for the next few years and to develop something incredible. So the Amptons, there's such an incredible park and history of this building in a way.