Should Southmead Hospital Junior Doctors be asked to think back to how well they were supported both by their employer and by the General Public during the Covid-19 pandemic, I doubt very much whether they could forget the glorious sight of the silver Jolly Hog silver Air Stream parked in the carpark with music playing, staff queuing around the block and the smell of bacon wafting towards you. Max, Josh, Olly and the rest of the Jolly Hog team served an astonishing 20,000 free baps to Southmead Hospital staff - including both meat and vegan food. Not only that, they were genuinely interested to hear how your day was going and even supplied free baked goods lovingly baked by their families (because who doesn't need a pudding for their 10am bacon roll?).
One memorable JH moment for me personally was going outside at the end of a week of night shifts on Friday morning with the rest of the medical night Junior Doctors to see if the Jolly Hog had opened...we were in luck! They presented one of my colleagues with a cupcake with a candle in it and sang Happy Birthday to her before handing over our sausage sandwiches. It really made our week and put a huge smile on our faces after a block of busy 13-hour+ shifts.
Given the huge impact which The Jolly Hog has had on Junior Doctor & wider NBT staff wellbeing, it seemed only right that we should talk to The Jolly Hog to find out more about how they started up their own business and what prompted them to come to Southmead to support all of us in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
1. How did you go about setting up your own business?
"My brothers Olly (eldest brother), Josh (youngest brother) and I basically love food and always enjoyed making good food together like sausages and bacon. Olly sustained an injury whilst playing rugby for Harlequins and was out of play for a year. His wife bought him a sausage making machine...it started off as a bit of fun and then our friend, who was a butcher, offered up some space in his freezer. We set up a stall in the Harlequins car park 11 years ago and used to sell sausage baps in the carpark on match days. I was working in shipping at the time and Josh was making furniture. We just thought that since it had all been really well-received that we should take the risk...I quit my stable job to basically go make sausages with my brothers."
2. What prompted you to come to Southmead Hospital to providing amazing food for NHS staff?
'We have a lifelong attachment to the hospital...our children have been born there and family members have been treated there so it felt like the natural thing to do. Due to Covid, a lot of business had shut down and most of our work became office-based so it was great to get out and on the grill. We really looked forward to the days which we spent at Southmead. It was really well received and good fun."
3. What’s your favourite recipe or Jolly Hog product?
'It's hard to beat the runny Jolly Hog Scotch Egg! It's now in Sainsbury's and also a crowd favourite at Pigsty (our restaurant). 5p of every Scotch Egg sold goes to Southmead Hospital Charity too."
5. Any advice for Junior Doctors or others wanting to set up their own business?
"Starting any business you've got to have a passion. There are going to be dark times so you need to love it to get you through. Now we've grown in so many directions and are selling products in supermarkets as well as running the Pigsty restaurant in Bristol. For us it started with a passion for food."
6. Any highlights/memorable moments from your time on site at Southmead Hospital?
"One obvious one would be 'One of the highlights had to be the 2 metre social distanced baguette which we served up as bap number 20,000. Our mates from Hobbs House bakery came down to celebrate and provided the 2m baguette. They were fantastic and provided 12,000 rolls in total. Another highlight was on week 1 of our time at Southmead. We were making an effort to speak to as many staff as possible. We spoke to a guy from the hospital cleaning team - he explained that they'd been really busy due to cleaning all of the Covid wards. When we offered him a free bacon roll he just seemed so shocked and you could tell that he obviously really appreciated it. He was one of thousands of people in the hospital and across the country just doing their job. This was one of the moments which made us think that we just needed to keep coming back to Southmead."
7. Anything else?
'We want to continue doing stuff for Southmead Hospital. Obviously things will probably start to get busy again but we'd love to come back and you'll probably see us coming down soon to hand out our Scotch Eggs!'
Find out more on the JH website: https://thejollyhog.com/
Written by Dr Alice James, 2020
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