My food & drink job: Jenna Morice, marketing officer, Guild of Fine Food

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Jenna Morice_Guild of Fine Food

Name: Jenna Morice

Age: 28

Job title: Marketing officer

Company & location: Guild of Fine Food, London and Gillingham, Dorset

Education: Business and marketing apprenticeship with the Elmhurst Foundation at Bath College

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Like a lot of people, I changed my mind a lot, and often – there was always some grand new idea. When I was very young, I had my sights set on a career on the stage. As a teenager I pivoted completely and thought I could try my hand as a professional translator.

Why did you decide to go for a career in food & drink? I’ve pretty much always worked in the food and drink industry in some shape or form. I took on my first ‘proper’ job while I was still in school, as part of the production team at an organic dairy in Somerset and absolutely loved it. I was lucky enough to be exposed to many different departments within the business, but the one thing I enjoyed more than anything else was representing the dairy at markets and product tastings.

Being trusted to share the story behind a small family business creating products I genuinely believed in was a real privilege. From there, I had a stint where I specialised in cheese, championing various farmhouse makers, before joining the Guild of Fine Food and supporting food and drink producers of all kinds and from hundreds of countries.

Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): Essentially I am a brand ambassador, making sure that people know about each of the Guild’s activities and hear the amazing stories behind our award-winners. I look after a lot of our print and digital communications, work closely with the ops team and sales.

In reality, it’s rarely that simple and I am in charge of bringing together a lot of moving parts to make sure our outward messaging is on point and consistent.

“To hear about old family recipes, glorious single-ingredient products and innovative takes on traditional classics means I’m always looking to try new and exciting foods”

What does a typical day look like for you? I’m part of a very small and well-coordinated team. Whilst we all have our everyday roles, there’s a lot of mucking in across the business, especially during award season. On most days you’ll find me promoting the Guild and our awards but also helping our members to promote themselves. However, you’re just as likely to find me helping organise a cheese training session or wielding a three-star product in one of our judging rooms. It certainly keeps me on my toes.

Tell us how you went about applying for your job: I previously worked for companies who were members of the Guild of Fine Food, so I had some prior knowledge of the company. I also knew that job openings do not come up very often, so I was absolutely thrilled when I came across the marketing position on the website.

I had a chemistry meeting via Zoom, which was then followed by an in-person interview with two of the company directors in Dorset. The next step was a final interview with the associate MD (now my line manager) in which I had to present some prepared campaign tasks.

What’s the best part about working for a food & drink company? At the Guild of Fine Food we are exposed to some of the best food and drink in the world. Our producers range from one-man bands to multimillion-pound companies and everything in between. To hear about old family recipes, glorious single-ingredient products and innovative takes on traditional classics means I’m always looking to try new and exciting foods.

My friends and family don’t mind hearing my suggestions either, and I like to think that I have expanded a few palates and broadened a few horizons along the way.

And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? That we sit around tasting food and drink all day! At the Guild we have a panel of specially selected judges with highly trained palates who decide what is or isn’t worthy of one of our awards. We leave it all to the professionals (unfortunately!). But that’s not to say that we don’t get to try some exciting things along the way.

What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? Go for it! It’s an ever-evolving, diverse industry, with so much to offer. There’s a huge amount of innovation and passion, I genuinely feel it’s one of the most exciting industries to work in. There are also opportunities across so many different disciplines, almost anyone can find something that they truly enjoy.

Don’t be afraid to reach out to the brands you love. Expressing a sincere interest can help to get your foot through the door. One more thing, don’t wait for your ‘ideal’ job to be advertised. Just get stuck in where you can, you never know there might be something you’d not even thought of that turns out to be what you really want to do.

What’s your ultimate career dream? There’s no ‘role goal’ as such. What I am already doing and hope to continue for many years to come is expanding my knowledge and experience in the independent sector. It is a dream come true to be in a position where I get to champion the passionate people making and selling genuinely delicious, well-produced food and drink that really excite and inspire me.