Jobs

Abena Ansu- Mobile Cook Manager, Hertfordshire Catering

Can cook, will travel – that’s Abena Ansu.

As a mobile cook with Hertfordshire Catering’s school meals service Abena comes to the rescue and helps out when school kitchens are short-staffed because of illness or vacancies.

“I love cooking,” she says. “Just put me in a kitchen and, as long as everything I need is there, I can just get on with it.”

Abena already had a wealth of experience under her belt when she moved to Knebworth a year ago and started looking for work in the area. She had mainly done hotel and catering work since coming to this country from Ghana ten years ago, has also worked for Luton’s school meals service and has NVQ levels 1 and 2 certificates.

So Abena applied for work with Hertfordshire Catering as a General Catering Assistant in a nearby school. She didn’t get that job but, on learning of her experience, Hertfordshire Catering offered her a post as a Mobile Cook Manager.

Since then, after the necessary training, Abena has been covering for sickness and staff vacancies in primary school kitchens across the Stevenage area to help ensure that pupils get their school meals on time.

“I really enjoy it - and I still like cooking for myself at home,” she said.

For Abena, the added bonus of working for the school meals service is that she has her weekends free. “In most hotel and catering jobs you have to work at weekends and I do like having Saturdays and Sundays for myself,” she said.