A PORTISHEAD mum has fulfilled a lifelong ambition to launch her own catering business.
From the age of 11 Jayne Leaker, now 43, wanted to be a chef. As a teenager she loved experimenting with flavours and flew through an OND in catering and hospitality when she left school at 16. However, her dad was not so keen and he insisted ‘women don’t become chefs’.
Jayne said: “Things were very different in the 70s and with my dad insisting that becoming a chef was not the right path I allowed myself to be coerced into a finance career.”
Jayne never once lost her passion for food and nutrition and after having her two sons, her fitness regime to get back into shape led her to an interest in personal training.
She added: “I didn’t want to return to work in finance so I combined my interest in fitness and nutrition, qualified as a personal trainer and set up my own gym.”
Jayne loved running her own business but still yearned to cook and present delicious looking and tasting food to people and regular dinner parties were just not enough for her.
As a result, once she had sold the gym, she gained all her food and hygiene and health and safety certificates and has this month launched CrocPot Catering.
She has a purpose-built commercial kitchen at her Portishead home and has already started creating buffets and meals for a wide range of occasions. Some of her first engagements have included a vintage tea party, business conferences, christenings and a wake.
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