Welcome to the World of Artisan Food



Team Bakers with Emmanuel Hadjiandreou
& Wayne Caddy

What a truly fabulous day. The sun shone and I was reunited with my fellow foodie graduates as well as a chance to meet the new generation of artisan school students that have just embarked on the journey I took just 12 months ago. Each one holding a dear story as to how they arrived at enrolling on this life changing course and starting a diploma in their chosen food discipline, with all of them extremely enthusiastic and raring to bake, make cheese & butcher within the next weeks. My best wishes to you all. I cannot deny it, I did indeed experience a pang of jealousy as I thought of the amazing year that lay ahead for these new peeps, having now left the school behind me to make way for pastures new and a challenging path ahead into artisan food. (somewhere along the way I seem to have lost a stone in weight too!:-)

A welcome address from Alison Swan Parente thanking us for being part of the very first challenging and exciting year of the school was recieved by a front row of beaming students preparing to accept their certificates from a fine example of this country's pioneering artisan cheese maker, Randolph Hodgson of Neal's Yard Dairy. He personally welcomed us into the world of artisan food and stressed the importance of continuing and sharing our new found skills.

Earlier that morning on our travels up to the Welbeck Estate, news of the death of Steve Jobs came over the radio and some poignant quotes that made me think about the decisions I had made only a year ago to leave my job and immerse myself into the world of Artisan food rang true. "Stay hungry....stay foolish"

“You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” (Steve Jobs, 2005)

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” (Steve Jobs, 2005)