Taking the plunge

Having always been shut down when wanting to express myself, being told ‘no-one wants to hear you’,it had always been more comfortable for me to hide in the background, except when I could lose myself in music and sing. Give me some music and ask me to sing, then I’m in another world, oblivious to anyone or anything, and people asked me to sing at their weddings and other occasions.

Then came the time when it was too dangerous for me to stay in the kitchen. Remember the onion incident? If you haven’t read that blog, you can find it here Working in hospitality with food allergies – Food Allergy Friends

I had to do something. Hospitality had been my life since the age of 16. 

Hospitality needed help, it still does, but at that time a new law was in the offing. FIR1169/2011 came into our world with a hefty thud in December of 2014. There was uproar from many chefs, which led to a petition against the new law led by 100 of the UK’s top chefs against it. Their argument was that it would ‘stifle their creativity’, and they did not want ‘to give away our recipes’. If only they really understood!

Cooking is an art and a science.

What those chefs didn’t seem to understand, was that they would have to be more creative. When you need to remove an ingredient, it has to be replaced with something else, you can’t just leave an ingredient out and hope for the best!

Here was an opportunity for significant leaps in the production of allergy friendly dishes. Yes, there would be a lot of trial and error, and failures, and wasted ingredients, but here was the dawn of innovative food development! A real chance to make lives better for millions of people, yet there was a lot of kick-back and resistance.

There came the myths about allergies and allergens.

Questions about how serious allergies are, and denial of the facts.

The thought of speaking in front of people terrified me.

Then it dawned on me, I was in the perfect position to be able to share my knowledge and experience. It was time to discover how to do this. What did I need to do? Who was going to listen to me, a country girl with no experience in teaching or speaking in public?

Now I would had to get past the nerves, and lack of confidence, and get up there to talk to people, and I did it! It wasn’t as bad as I thought, and people keep saying ‘You’re a good trainer’, and, ‘Stella is such a good communicator’. I have been able to accept that I am good at what I do. 

Research was needed!

I discovered that I would need to update all my certificates in food safety, take the highest qualification I could afford, do a qualification in education and training, and for added bonus, one in auditing skills. All this was going to cost. Then I found out that in theory, I was only one step away from being an Environmental Health Officer. The reality was very different though, because I had never been to university, never mind got a Degree in Environmental Science.

So there I was, University was not on my agenda. In my mind I was too old for that, never mind that we couldn’t finance it. I wanted to get out there as quickly as possible, the industry needs to know about allergen management right this minute!

I booked my place on four courses and spent a few months studying, in class, at home, and taking exams. By October 2018, I had become qualified to deliver training and carry out audits. Then I got cold feet. The nerves hit, and I lost confidence in myself. I could see the competition, and had no idea how to start a business. I thought I needed thousands of pounds behind me, so I just started freelancing for the company who had trained me, to squirrel away some funds.

After a few months shadowing other trainers, and delivering a few modules, my confidence grew, and I started to deliver training courses on my own.

The fact that the vast majority of my candidates passed courses with distinction boosted me even more.

By 2021 I was ready to register as a Highfield training centre. That took a lot of working out, what with policies to write and forms to complete, then there was registration as a limited company. What was I letting myself in for? This was real! If I got this wrong, I would be ‘up the creek without a paddle’, as My Mum used to say.

Thus Food Allergy Friends Limited was born.

As I write, I think about all the courses I’ve delivered thus far, and the learners of varying abilities and levels of interest, the number of miles travelled, the nights in hotels, being alone when suffering an oesophageal spasm and calling 111 at 2am, then getting up to carry on with day 2 of a Level 3 course. The number of times I have been offered food by the venue, and having to watch everyone else eat whilst I have my prescription nutrition drink and an apple.

There have been challenges along the way and there will be more coming, of that there is no doubt.

Why do I continue to put myself through this?

There are two reasons.

1. My love for the hospitality industry.
2. The desire to see everyone included in the most basic of human need and social activities, that is breaking bread together. 

More about these another time.