Wilmslow is a thriving family community and every day on every street you can see Mums pounding the pavement with their young charges. Often viewed as 'just mums' many of the local mum community have at one stage held high powered positions in a variety of organisations and fields. Many have also gone on to be highly succesful 'Mumtrepeneurs.'
We want to highlight and celebrate the hard work and high skills of our local Mum community, so welcome to our second Wilmslow Mum Spotlight!
Deanna Thomas
I had tried a few different things before having children – my degree is in copywriting and there was even an attempt to become a singer in the music industry.
This was unfulfilling though and eventually I realised that if I could do anything (which in theory I could) it would be to turn my obsession with food into a career and become a professional chef.
I enrolled at South Trafford College before working for local celebrity chef Andrew Nutter. I then set up my own catering service providing anything from wedding catering to home-cooked curries and fancy birthday cakes.
I needed premises and always wanted to run a deli, so in 2003 I opened North Star Delicatessen, Chorlton. Now I could cook every day, and source some really interesting food products. My boyfriend was the architect who had designed such a beautiful space for me to live my dream, I married him (it would have been rude not to.)
In 2006 our daughter was born and our son followed 22 months later. I then realised that my career choice - working evenings, weekends and public holidays, was maybe not such a good idea. The reason there aren’t many top female chefs isn’t because they’re less talented than men, but because of the huge sacrifices they have to make regarding a work/life balance.
My children obviously came first so I no longer run the deli but still have a lot to do with the marketing and also run a monthly supper club, as well as any larger scale catering events.
Spending years at home cooking nothing more taxing than fish fingers stealthily dented my confidence and I began to worry that I wasn’t being challenged creatively enough. Many people still regarded me as an expert and often asked my opinion on where to eat and what I thought of the latest restaurant.
My sanity was unexpectedly saved by Twitter (@DeannaThomas) and writing my own food blog www.foodographic.co.uk. I started ‘following’ food writers, restaurants, magazines and chefs, before seeing who they were following. Conversations developed regarding shared interests, and soon a network of likeminded online friends emerged.
The next stage was to convert ‘virtual’ contacts into real ones and many of those Twitter food friends are now real friends. How long it would have taken me to build up this network without Twitter? Could I call a publisher and say ‘My name is Deanna, I know a lot about food and I’m quite funny’? Through Twitter and my blog they could now make up their own minds.
All the seemingly random things I had done before having children have now resulted in a rewarding career. My ability to write and an obsession with the food scene have now created wonderful job opportunities.
I still cook for people when asked but mainly work as a freelance social media manager and copywriter specialising in food and drink. Thanks to my I-pad I can have several Twitter conversations at once from multiple accounts and generate copy whilst the children don’t even know mummy is working.
I work for Visit Manchester helping to promote local producers (@GreaterMcrEats) http://www.visitmanchester.com/#/discover/food--drink.aspx.
I am also Cheshire Area coordinator for ‘Foodlink North West’, a lottery funded initiative linking local Cheshire producers with restaurants, events and consumers by offering social media support on Twitter @FoodlinkChesh and through Facebook (Foodlink Northwest).
I’m looking for the best of the region to feature in articles for my website http://www.foodlinkcheshire.org.uk/ so if you know any wonderful Cheshire producers, farmers markets or restaurants that use locally sourced ingredients, I’d love to hear about them deanna.thomas@foodlinkcheshire.org.uk
To read other Wilmslow Mum Spotlight's click here
We want to highlight and celebrate the hard work and high skills of our local Mum community, so welcome to our second Wilmslow Mum Spotlight!
Deanna Thomas
I had tried a few different things before having children – my degree is in copywriting and there was even an attempt to become a singer in the music industry.
This was unfulfilling though and eventually I realised that if I could do anything (which in theory I could) it would be to turn my obsession with food into a career and become a professional chef.
I enrolled at South Trafford College before working for local celebrity chef Andrew Nutter. I then set up my own catering service providing anything from wedding catering to home-cooked curries and fancy birthday cakes.
I needed premises and always wanted to run a deli, so in 2003 I opened North Star Delicatessen, Chorlton. Now I could cook every day, and source some really interesting food products. My boyfriend was the architect who had designed such a beautiful space for me to live my dream, I married him (it would have been rude not to.)
In 2006 our daughter was born and our son followed 22 months later. I then realised that my career choice - working evenings, weekends and public holidays, was maybe not such a good idea. The reason there aren’t many top female chefs isn’t because they’re less talented than men, but because of the huge sacrifices they have to make regarding a work/life balance.
My children obviously came first so I no longer run the deli but still have a lot to do with the marketing and also run a monthly supper club, as well as any larger scale catering events.
Spending years at home cooking nothing more taxing than fish fingers stealthily dented my confidence and I began to worry that I wasn’t being challenged creatively enough. Many people still regarded me as an expert and often asked my opinion on where to eat and what I thought of the latest restaurant.
My sanity was unexpectedly saved by Twitter (@DeannaThomas) and writing my own food blog www.foodographic.co.uk. I started ‘following’ food writers, restaurants, magazines and chefs, before seeing who they were following. Conversations developed regarding shared interests, and soon a network of likeminded online friends emerged.
The next stage was to convert ‘virtual’ contacts into real ones and many of those Twitter food friends are now real friends. How long it would have taken me to build up this network without Twitter? Could I call a publisher and say ‘My name is Deanna, I know a lot about food and I’m quite funny’? Through Twitter and my blog they could now make up their own minds.
All the seemingly random things I had done before having children have now resulted in a rewarding career. My ability to write and an obsession with the food scene have now created wonderful job opportunities.
I still cook for people when asked but mainly work as a freelance social media manager and copywriter specialising in food and drink. Thanks to my I-pad I can have several Twitter conversations at once from multiple accounts and generate copy whilst the children don’t even know mummy is working.
I work for Visit Manchester helping to promote local producers (@GreaterMcrEats) http://www.visitmanchester.com/#/discover/food--drink.aspx.
I am also Cheshire Area coordinator for ‘Foodlink North West’, a lottery funded initiative linking local Cheshire producers with restaurants, events and consumers by offering social media support on Twitter @FoodlinkChesh and through Facebook (Foodlink Northwest).
I’m looking for the best of the region to feature in articles for my website http://www.foodlinkcheshire.org.uk/ so if you know any wonderful Cheshire producers, farmers markets or restaurants that use locally sourced ingredients, I’d love to hear about them deanna.thomas@foodlinkcheshire.org.uk
To read other Wilmslow Mum Spotlight's click here