Russell Norman is an award-winning restaurateur, writer and broadcaster, and the founder of the POLPO restaurant group. Norman's book POLPO - A Venetian Cookbook (of Sorts) was published by Bloomsbury and won Waterstones Book of the Year 2012. In 2014 he presented The Restaurant Man, a six-part prime-time documentary for BBC2, and his second book SPUNTINO - Comfort Food (New York Style) won the 2016 Guild of Food Writers Award for best food and travel book. He is a contributing editor for Esquire magazine and writes a monthly column as 'The Accidental Cook'. He opened his fully booked Trattoria Brutto in 2021 to universal acclaim and a long waiting list.