Name: Holly Brown
Age: 25
Job title: Sous chef
Company & location: Dovebrook Kitchen, Blockley in the Cotswolds
Education: GCSE at Windsor Girls School
Why did you decide to go for a career in food? When I was 15, I started working as a waitress in a hotel restaurant that was aiming to get a Michelin star. After several months of learning a new menu each week and seeing the chefs creating amazing flavours with different produce, I decided I wanted to learn more. I was offered a trial shift, and soon became a trainee chef, although I was mostly just making sandwiches for a while!
Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): Dovebrook Kitchen makes high-end frozen plant-based meals and desserts. We are predominantly direct to consumer, though expanding into retail and foodservice. I create meals alongside our head chef Ben Arthurs, with a focus on pastry, and I also help with product development, social media and marketing.
What does a typical day look like for you? My day starts with bringing in deliveries from our wonderful local farms and suppliers, before starting the day’s batch of dishes. When the meals are finished and chilling, I help pick and pack orders to be shipped out later in the day, and usually finish off creating content for Instagram, Facebook or our website. We’re always developing new meals and desserts, so if I’m not in the office during the afternoon, I’ll be creating test batches of these new recipes, or refining ideas we’re already working on.
Tell us how you went about applying for your job: I first heard about Dovebrook when the company was just starting up. I had been working as a hotel reception manager for several years, but my passion for food meant I missed cooking and creating recipes and knew plant-based cooking was the main gap in my knowledge. I’ve known our head chef Ben for a few years and when I heard Dovebrook was hiring I decided to apply.
There were three parts to the interview. After an initial meeting, I was invited back to one of the teams’ development tasting sessions with our creative director and co-founder Eleanor Weil. At these meetings we experiment with new recipes and they pass through various stages of testing before becoming Dovebrook products. I was invited to this meeting because they wanted to understand how I thought about food and how I communicated my ideas. Finally, I was invited back for a trial shift in the kitchen where I helped prepare one of our bestsellers – the Great Taste Award winning ‘Surplus Vegetable Tagine’, which went very well!
I think the hardest part for me was that I did not have a completely plant-based diet, and I was worried my lack of plant-based cooking knowledge would impact my chances. However, my eagerness to learn, their willingness to teach, my knowledge of pastry and experience with social media and marketing really helped in the end.
“Food is closely linked to emotion, whether it’s a childhood memory or a traditional dish you tried on holiday years ago”
What’s the best part about working for a food company? For me, the most rewarding aspect will always be the love that goes into food. Many chefs I have worked with taught me that food is closely linked to emotion, whether it’s a childhood memory or a traditional dish you tried on holiday years ago. To be able to provide a wonderful experience for our customers is one of the best feelings in the world and we get so much lovely feedback that we know we are making a difference.
At Dovebrook, we also focus very seriously on sustainability – we keep kitchen waste to an absolute minimum (our surplus tagine is a good example of how we repurpose excess vegetables) and we send our meals out with 100% plastic-free packaging. Knowing we are trying as hard as we can to do the right thing is rewarding in itself and we’re always looking for ways to improve. I am always inspired – there really is no limit to what you can create with food.
And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? I think a lot of people picture food and drink manufacturing as a boring job that becomes monotonous, but no two days are ever the same! The seasons bring different produce to work with and with the world always becoming more connected, there are so many different cultures of flavour to discover and taste. Everyone enjoys food and drink, so there is a universal appreciation for it which is so exciting to be a part of.
What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? My piece of advice would be to never stop finding inspiration. Learning recipes is one thing, but the real passion comes from trial and error until you find that perfect combination of ingredients. Make those awful, failed batches that you thought of on a whim, because they eventually lead to the best creations!
What’s your ultimate career dream? Whilst I am still learning so much, one day I would love to open my own bakery or patisserie, creating plant-based desserts and sweets that everyone can enjoy, not just those choosing to follow a vegan lifestyle. I hope to help reduce the misconception that plant-based food is only for a select few, whereas, in fact, it’s there for anyone to enjoy with all the personal health and environmental benefits it can bring.
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