Levi Roots’ life changed when he was featured on the hit TV show Dragons’ Den in 2007. Two of the five judges were sufficiently impressed with his presentation that they committed £25,000 each for a return share of 20% of his company. In the space of eight years, he had gone from a sauce entrepreneur to restaurateur when, in December 2015, he realised his dream of opening a Caribbean restaurant. The Levi Roots Caribbean Smokehouse opened its doors to the public in Westfield Stratford City, bringing authentic tastes of the Caribbean to the masses, before closing in 2021.
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LEVI ROOTS COOKBOOKS
The rapid popularity of the sauces saw an expansion of his brand, including a range of other sauces and products, as well as cookery
books:
- Reggae Reggae Cookbook (2008)
- Caribbean Food Made Easy (2009)
- Food For Friends: 100 Simple Dishes for Every Occasion (2010)
- Spice It Up: Fabulocious Recipes to Spice Up Your Life (2011)
- Sweet: Irresistible Desserts and Drinks, Cakes and Bakes (2012)
- Grill it with Levi: 101 Reggae Recipes for Sunshine and Soul (2013)
He also published the business book You Can Get It If You Really Want in 2011 which explores his success and provides tips on how to succeed in business.
LEVI ROOTS WRITER & MUSICIAN
Before becoming this successful culinary entrepreneur, he was, and still it, a successful musician, working with the likes of James Brown, Dennis Brown and Black Uhuru. He was nominated for a MOBO award in 1998 for his ‘Free Your Mind’ album and sang Happy Birthday to Nelson Mandela on his visit to Brixton.
Levi has several strings to his bow with his cooking, writing and singing, and is a popular face on television shows and in cookery segments for newspapers and magazines, as well as becoming an incredibly charismatic and motivational business speaker.
His second cookbook coincided with a BBC2 show Caribbean Food Made Easy (2009) and since then he has appeared on shows including Celebrity Mastermind (2010), Big Brother (2013), The Wheel (2021), Ready Steady Cook (2008), Celebrity Chase (2021) and Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs (2016). He made an acting cameo in the role of Billy Springer in the BBC show Death in Paradise in 2018 and was approached in 2019 about making a film about his life story.
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LEVI ROOTS SPEAKING TOPICS
- Inclusion and Diversity
- Business Success
- Music
- Caribbean Culture
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LEVI ROOTS EDUCATIONAL & CHARITY CAMPAIGNER
He is also a passionate philanthropist, visiting hundreds of schools, universities and prisons in the UK as part of his School of Life Tour and as an ambassador for The Prince’s Trust. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Agricultural University in 2019 and a Chair of St. Paul’s Carnival, Bristol in 2021.
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To check fees and availability for Levi Roots, contact Great Business Speakers on 0044 (0)1753 439289
