The Ultimate Food and Restaurant Business Course (Udemy.com)
For Existing Food & Restaurant Businesses & Start Ups. This course will significantly improve you chance of success.
Created by: Nigel Simon
Last updated September 2022
What you will learn
- 1. The critical importance of cash flow, calculating break even and the 30/30/30 model.
- 2. Why you need a clear concept and USP.
- 3. Why accurate costs & GP’s for all your dishes are essential.
- 4. How POS, reservations systems and other software can make you more money & provide invaluable data.
- 5. Optimal menu design, menu engineering and GP’s both in theory and practice.
- 6. What to consider in choosing a location, what’s in a lease, and preparing a landlord pack.
- 7. The customer and service journey and why it is important to map these.
- 8. The importance of branding & marketing together with social media & websites.
- 9. Why the mantra “Tax Is Not Yours” is essential.
- 10. Start-up costs and overheads including a comprehensive list.
- 11. Sources of funding and their pro’s and con’s.
How it compares
Against the other 1,210 rated Udemy courses in Business on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.3 out of 5higher than 15% of them
- Reviews3,016#230 of 1,211 by number of reviews
- Length4 hourslonger than 63% of them
- Last updatedSeptember 2022earlier than 81% of them
Course Description
The Ultimate Food & Restaurant Business Course is aimed at those new to the hospitality business as well as those already operating restaurants, café & food stalls as well as sector investors. The course covers all the key building blocks for launching and running a successful restaurant business. The course will help you identify gaps in your knowledge and significantly improve your chance of success. Critically for you the course has been built by people who know the restaurant business backwards and have been there, done it and got the t shirt!
The 12 video modules cover areas such as your Big Idea & Story, Marketing, Finance, Site Selection, Recruitment & Retention and IT. The course is accompanied by 69 pages of further advice in the form of downloadable resources which together build into a valuable workbook for you to keep and reference.
Well known successful UK hospitality professionals including Will Beckett of Hawksmoor, Sophie Bathgate of Sophie’s Steakhouse, John Wood from Kitchen Cut & Megan Burroughs from Bourne & Hollingsworth Buildings have kindly donated their wisdom and advice in short inspirational informative videos. Each section closes with the latest advice from Sam Harrison who opened his third restaurant Sam’s Riverside in Hammersmith, London in November 2019. Over £30,000 has been invested in the Course so far and when students complete at least 20% of the Course we provide access to even more video advice, some covering Sam's experience with COVID and lockdown.
Instructor Details
- 4.3 Rating
3,016 Reviews
Nigel Simon
40 years of business experience, the last 14 years working with start-ups and hospitality businesses to help them grow.
An experienced start up investor with multiple investments sitting on the Board of two Companies as a Business Advisor.
A Business Growth advisor for award winning consultancy – Advantage Business Partnerships.
Launch Group Chair & Business Mentor for the Princes Trust Charity.
A range of Advanced Business & Finance courses at London Business School and Insead both leaders in their field of business teaching/MBA’s.
Ten years Marketing & PR experience.
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Reviews
By Norhidayati HM Shah on 8/28/2026
This course is an excellent introduction for those interested in starting a food business. It offers practical information and clear guidance, making the process easier to understand. The course helped me build foundational knowledge and feel confident moving forward. I highly recommend it to anyone new to the food industry seeking a solid starting point.
By Michał Noworolnik on 8/1/2026
Świetny kurs, nie wszystko jeszcze rozumiem z finansowych obliczeń ale mam nadzieję, że będę mógł do tego wrócić :)
By Elie Houbeich on 7/27/2026
some areas cut in the course toward the end could not hear voice but overall great course
By Ogochukwu Ekwueme on 2/19/2026
Quire a rel3vant course. I would feel however more t8me should be given to the financial aspects of the course
By Trust Udhedhe on 2/10/2026
This course is excellent and easy to understand. I’m setting up my restaurant and can’t wait to try the lessons from this course. I’ll come back to share the results.
By Daniel Bukvić on 1/27/2026
Very detailed course. I love the first-person experience videos from people inside the business. I will examine the resources again because some of them are very detailed, so I went through them quickly.
By Sonia Torretta on 1/27/2026
Very interesting even though I am not a restaurant owner but a salaried manager at its first experience as a manager. the lectures are just the right length to be engaging so that attention doe not have time to drop.
By Bryan Peretto on 12/29/2025
Rapid fire basics of many topics. These are good starting points of things you may not have thought of to then do a deep dive on. Also noticing some typos in areas.
By Majd Hassan on 12/21/2025
Very Good Course, I wished they went deeper in some areas like the kitchen and kitchen equipment etc
By Anass Elmandili on 12/3/2025
I think its pretty good. Especially for me having no experience in food industry, however, I'm planning to open a mono product fast food and manage it. Looking for learning more.
By Ahmed Azzam on 11/22/2020
Absolutely!
By Richard Stein on 11/8/2020
Course is informational and easy to understand.
Quality Score
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Overall Score : 86 / 100






