Melting away - Vacherin boss's beach job

It seems Mark Philpott, managing director of City caterer Vacherin, was by necessity a bit of a jammy dodger in his youth.

Although he's now running a high-end caterer feeding hedge fund, PR and marketing types in the capital it wasn't always this way.

Arriving as a fresh faced 21 year old in the big smoke, Philpott saw an advert for work in the south of France and jumped at the opportunity: Namely selling ice-creams on the beaches of Saint-Tropez and Cannes based at the prestigious Carlton hotel.

Full of dreams of becoming a film-star Philpott arrived in a gloriously hot south of France only to find out that he'd be camping in a field near the hotel and selling doughnuts!

Needless to say demand for doughnuts in the sweltering heat wasn't high and Philpott encountered rival gangs on the beeches that - no doubt on a sugar fuelled high - chased him from their patch. 

Yes, it was either a hasty retreat or the risk of getting Krispy Kremed.