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Wednesday 4 November 2009

Looking for work in the food industry - a short journey

In my efforts to find work in the food industry I walked around an area near to Nottingham called West Bridgford this morning and picked up a surprising amount of leads and information.

I took my camera and photographed all the food places I thought that I might be interested in working for. Those included some continental style café restaurants and a few delis like No8 (a nice venue covered in a previous blog post). Marks & Spencer have also got a Simply Food branch there on Albert Road and I quizzed one of the staff about recruitment. Sadly I had just missed one phase of their recent recruitment but was advised to keep my eye on the M&S website.


I had a quick coffee in No8 and then went down to another shopping street slightly off West Bridgford town centre. I had been informed that there was a fishmonger’s there (not so many left on our high streets these days). Mr Mordue the fishmonger is about to retire and the shop has been bought by another gent who showed me a magazine called Nottingham Flavours. It looked interesting and on a quick glance through I thought that it might get me some more leads to possible work. I’m going to phone them later and see if I can get hold of a copy of the magazine for myself. www.nottinghamshireflavours.co.uk




I called into the Tall Frog Deli and picked up a very nice warm vegetable samosa to eat on the way home and as I strolled in the sunshine I caught sight of a fashion house called Signature -Steakhouse and Designer Boutique –Where Food and Fashion Meet at 100 Melton Road West Bridgford NG2 6ET.


Signature

Intrigued as to how that might work I crossed the busy road and ended up chatting to the warm and friendly owner, a gentleman called Ash Massadeh. He and his wife have previously successfully run the fashion side of their business at another venue in West Bridgford and have moved to the larger property to expand into the restaurant business too. Over a coffee he explained that they are excited about the restaurant starting business and have a great following of fashion clients who are keen to book for the restaurant. However, British Gas are causing them frustration and delay because they don’t currently have an active supply of gas to cook with! I thanked him for the coffee and wished them luck with the steakhouse.


4 comments:

Helen said...

We were declaring yesterday, over an unseasonal pumpkin pie, and a box of Mr Kiplings mince pies that currently, there are so many hospitality / food industry jobs available here in Australia. From a variety of chef / apprentice chef positions to the deli counters in supermarkets, as well as baristas required in sandwich bars ...
Sorry that won't help you. I hope you find employment soon!

Ken Devine said...

I hope you do too Phil.
I enjoyed reading about WB...a place I regularly visit. I learned something.

Unknown said...

Hope you manage to find something soon.
We must do lunch sometime.

French Fancy... said...

I can't think of anything nicer than going into a cafe selling tasty dishes and seeing your smiling face behind the counter. I mean, think of all your butchery experience going to waste.

Occasionally I yearn for a part time job over here but all that is available for people who are not fluent in French (and I'm good but not that good) is working in the salmon factory. It's not come to that yet but I'm not ruling it out. :) At least I'd learn lots of street language - and stink of fish!