THOMS

THOM’s already has staff catering, intimate weddings, film set catering, supper clubs, canapes, lunch events, and countless dinners under its belt, and longs to work, with you, to make a meal that suits your occasion.

So here’s a little of my story and how i ended up here,

It’s Hannah to most,

Thom’s is merely a nickname of which i’m fond.

Cookery is my calm, The kitchen is my hideaway, I’m happiest with a box of odds and ends and a feeling of where it might end up.

I started early in the kitchen, stood on the brown plastic step, up against the counter buttering sliced sandwich loaves for my mother. My family don’t agree on much, but our love of food is a certain and this constant celebration has shaped my life. I can feel my Nan through my fingertips when i make welsh cakes, as much as cookery is my job it’s emotional and it’s dear to me.

Ask any pal of mine and you’ll find out that i’ve turned up with anything from a grapefruit olive oil drizzle, to a tub of leftover slow bbqd brisket, as opposed to flowers, often the calling point for kitchen dilemmas/inspiration, always keen to cook dinner for a pal, and most likely to coerce you into going out for dinner only to talk more about food over the meal in hand.

My working story...

I’ve worked in a variety of different ways, many ramshackle and self taught and street side.

I'm always following my heart and taking jobs that teach me how to cook something new.

I currently work at Riley's Fish Shack, a beachside wood-fired/charcoal powered restaurant set up in a fishing container on King Edwards Beach in Tynemouth, fish doesnt get fresher than that. You'll find me making breakfast and baking bread in the wood fire a couple of days of the week.

I have recently just relocated to the North East Coast with my little family, having spent the last 8 years South London based, thrived and absorbed in all that the vibrant food scene has to offer. From the North African cafes past Silk Road and the Camberwell Arms to the lanes of Brixton village. Peckham's Khans bargains and its spice library have a firm place in my heart and my kitchen.

A passion for kitchen skills and knowledge has always driven me.

I've even spent my weekends as a new mother working in William Rose, an upmarket East Dulwich butchers, serving everything from a pound of sausages to a rib of beef,  eager to learn more, and gee’d on by the juxtaposition and testosterone of such a job in the sensitive days of early motherhood,

I set up my own independent catering company early in 2013. This saw me take on a large variety of interesting catering jobs such as a beachside wedding in whitstable and film crew catering in clerkenwell, and many outside catering events alongside.

After a small while i acquired a good reputation and was invited to run a kitchen in south london’s Bermondsey providing a group of 40+ charity workers with a health conscious daily lunch service. It taught me about  efficiently and creatively working on my own to provide a daily changing menu. When i left for maternity (about a week before my daughter was due) it then taught me about managing my staff, retaining quality of produce, and balancing a 4 week old, thanks dad for holding her while i chopped radishes.

My stint as a chef in a resaturant from 2010 saw me spend a good three years in a hot small corridor of a kitchen learning my trade at 67 Restaurant @South London Gallery in south London. British European cuisine when it was bang on trend, menu changing daily all good fresh food.

With only ever two of you on hand to do breakfast lunch and dinner all at the same time, it makes a challenge it is impossible not to learn from, these were the best of days at the height of its success. Often shipped off on canape and outside catering jobs, i learnt the most and the best of what i know. I went on to do the baking shift for them up until end 2014.

I also supported Head chef Nick in his other endevours such as supperclubs with VAGABUNDO @ Ali baba juice bar.

This role took me from my previous job as cook with two lovely ladies who shaped the working ways i’d aspire to, our days were spent making fresh healthy salads and hot lunches.

Alongisde that i worked summers in street food vans (@Chocstar) for the superstar Petra who went on to set up Londons finest street food community KERB.

And my early twenties saw me bar manage, and my teens saw me wash in a pub kitchen.

I think its safe to say my years have been coloured by different food related work and other such experience.

I spend the last six months helping down at the Ouseburn Farm, where the produce avaiable to the kitchen is as fresh and local as it gets,

Campus for Mums

In addition to this work, in 2015 I graduated from Google's prestigious Campus for Mums program. The 12 week course offers a very select group of entepreneurial mothers the opportunity to expand their potential and their own companies, teaching you all there is to know about the start up world, and other essential techniques to successful business.