Written on 24-Apr-2019
Jess joined the CJUK brigade in April and has been doing a fantastic job at a gastro pub group in Lancashire ever since.
We caught up with her for a quick Q&A after she popped into the office to introduce herself and ‘wowed’ us with some of her stories…
“Initially I didn’t think of hospitality as a career, however, I fell in love with my (Chef) job during my time at university and continued after I left.”
I’ve been a Chef for 18 years this Summer. I started quite young after getting caught smoking just before the Summer holidays when I was 14 and the only way I could get out of being grounded was to help my mum’s friend at her catering business… that’s when I first discovered my love for food!
I was also a vegetarian at the time and only ate rubbish food so this helped me to learn how to make a nice dinner.
Initially I didn’t think of hospitality as a career, just something to do whilst I was studying music production at Leeds college of music and then Leeds Metropolitan University.
However, I fell in love with the job during my time at uni and continued after I left.
Scotch Egg with Black Pudding
I have a rescued ex-racing greyhound called Biffo who takes up a lot of my time outside of the kitchen. I still volunteer at the local greyhound rescue, Makants, taking the ex-racing greyhounds out for their daily walks.
Whenever I have a free weekend I try to get involved in fundraising activities too.
I can’t say I have noticed anything that has separated me from the men in the industry. The only noticeable difference is that men don’t usually involve me in their ‘risky’ banter as I guess they don’t want it to be misinterpreted…
When a service goes well and all the food goes out quickly and right and all the customers are happy. That’s the best feeling!
In the early days I once had a waitress bring back a lasagne from a customer as they said it was too hot *eyeroll*…
When they asked me what to do I told them to tell the customer to ‘effing blow on it!”
Thank you for joining our brigade Jess and for doing a fantastic job!
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