The inspiration behind ChicP is my passion to change attitudes to the way we approach cooking and waste. Food waste is part of modern life, but it need not be this way. ChicP’s ethos is to be part of the drive to encourage people to think differently about the way they eat.
Over the last seven years, I’ve cooked for families in the UK and all over Europe.
While working for catering and events companies, I would witness the colossal volumes of food wasted. This combined with my love for healthy food, using local ingredients and creating new dishes from the food we already have in our homes, gave me the clear vision for ChicP.
Who is your biggest inspiration?
Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall. Developing what he’s done with Riverford Cottage, using local and fresh food at all times, fantastic programmes and cookery books and campaigning for sustainability in so many ways. We should all listen! … and start bringing our own coffee cups with us everywhere.
What has been your biggest struggle and how have you overcome it?
Shelf life, always a struggle. It means that I’m under pressure to always sell my products because if they don’t get sold one week, they don’t carry on into the next week, they are wasted instead – which is obviously what I try to prevent as much as I can. I have over come this by working with my manufacturers to find the best way of packaging and producing the products to get the most life out of them as possible.
What top 3 tips would you give a new business?
- Make sure you have a strong USP and Story – It’s very competitive out there so without this, it will be difficult to get off the ground.
- Make sure that you try not to target a saturated area if possible, it will only make it more difficult.
- Have passion – enough passion for knowing that in a years time you’re not going to be bored of telling the same story over and over again!
