Tag Archives: background

The Privileged Are Always One-Step Ahead, Right? By Josh Edwards

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We have been reminded in the press recently, that the privately educated and the rich seem to get a better deal than the rest of us – but why is this?  Perhaps it is to do with the social network they are able to build. The cliché, ‘it’s not what you know but who you know’ certainly has some truth to it.

Let me give you an example. Pretend for a moment that Beatrice’s father Edward has just floated his new tech company on the NASDAQ, and made a fortune. Beatrice bumps up from a comprehensive to a private school in Windsor, where she is surrounded by oil magnate heirs and the like. Overnight she has entered a network of potential contacts. Opportunities will arise, and it is probable that Beatrice will be in a better position than the rest of us.

We cannot blame the elite and the privileged for accessing the doors that are open to them for surely we all would, in a similar position. For the majority of us, however, who are on the other side of that white picket fence, how can we compete?

For me it was about using the opportunities that arose around me. For the people who know me, the past three years of my life has been a mixture of both University and Starbucks.

 

 While working for Starbucks I soon realised that customers from a multitude of backgrounds come into the store, in search of their caffeine fix. It became apparent to me that I could kill two birds with one stone, I could both work and network at the same time.

While some customers would rather order their coffee with a minimal amount of personal interaction, others would engage in conversation.

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I made an effort to remember names and in time found some to be genuinely interested in my plans, even offering me opportunities to enhance my C.V and further my career. Through networking with customers, I have been offered a number of open doors, including the opportunity to write for Frost, – the online magazine you are reading now – and I have become involved with the charity Words for the Wounded (W4W), and now help look after publicity and all social media.

 

 I have been able to talk about my work with Frost and W4W during a recent interview and it has definitely enhanced my application – and given me something different to talk about, not to mention improving my skill base and my understanding of how different organisations work.

So if you are in a similar position and work in an environment where you meet a variety of people,  have an open mind. I have found generosity from customers in spades. Are the rich and privileged one step ahead? Probably, but it doesn’t mean the rest of us are too far behind.

 

 

 

Culinary Creativity with Chocolate

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Toot Sweets Tempers Festive Flavour Fusions

Julia Wenlock from Shropshire was studying Television and Radio Production when a part-time job in Manchester at Belgium chocolatiers, Godiva, changed her direction and she found her love of all things chocolate. This was in 2002 and now eleven years later she is creating, making and selling her own uniquely stunning chocolate range. Her retail base is the Market Hall in Shrewsbury, Shropshire – which is filled with interesting producers, cafés and other quirky retailers. Having built a loyal customer base in her home town and across the county she has launched her chocolates online and is starting to develop opportunities beyond the county border…

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Festive Fusions – ginger wine, chestnut and cranberries

For Christmas 2013 Toot Sweets is launching some of its most creative combinations so far. Julia has considered festive flavours and how they may work effectively in her chocolates. This has resulted in a Chestnut and Truffle Oil Caramel, Ginger Wine Truffle and something a little more ‘off the wall’ but it definitely works – an Umami Mushroom Truffle! These add to her chocolate bars, including flavour packed candied orange peel and chilli flakes or cranberry and pistachio. She also tempers familiar festive shapes and wreaths – these come in both small sizes and a large version, to hang decoratively on doors, with colourful edible arrangements. The Christmas collection is being launched ahead of Chocolate Week (7th September) at Brompton Cookery School, Shropshire which is run by TV-chef, Marcus Bean.

Moving On Up – retail background

Julia’s journey to retailing and making her own chocolates was helped greatly by the time at Godiva and Selfridges, Manchester, within the Grocery and Confectionery departments. Julia was selected for a place on the ‘Moving On Up Programme’, only five were chosen from regional stores and this gave her an opportunity to be trained as a future department manager. In 2007 her mother passed away and she thought that this was time to do something for herself back in Shrewsbury and her first experimentations with chocolate began. She started out selling other people’s chocolates but soon decided that the only way to really control the ingredients and quality, along with guaranteeing originality – was to sell only her own creations.

Award Winning – from great taste to international recognition

The first awards that Julia entered were in 2010 when she was successful in the Great Taste Awards for both her White Shropshire Lavender Truffle and her Dark Butterscotch. This was followed in 2011 by success with her Dark Shropshire Lavender Truffle. In 2012 Julia won the BBC Producers Bursary Award at the Winter BBC Good Food Show and she is returning in November as BBC Good Food Champion. Earlier in 2013, she entered the Academy of Chocolate Awards and achieved Silver for her Salted Caramel Truffle and this was followed in April by a nomination from the European semi-finals of the International Chocolate Awards – leading to a place in the finals, held during Chocolate Week this October.

Ingredients, techniques and imagination – only the best

Julia believes strongly that the best ingredients result in the best end product for her customer. She uses only three types of chocolate. Amedei – which is created by the Italian family business with Criollo and Trinitario cocoa beans, Marou – single origin chocolate from Vietnam and also Original Beans finest chocolate – for every Original Beans bar bought a tree is planted to replace this by the farmers in the rainforests. Julia most frequently hand-tempers her chocolate but also has a small tempering machine. Her creations are made using as many local ingredients as possible such as lavender from the Shropshire Lavender Farm and honey from the county’s youngest bee keeper, Tom Oliver. The centres are always made first and left to cool through the day or overnight and then shapes are hand-rolled or piped before being dipped or enrobed in chocolate and then decorated. Julia enjoys demonstrating her skills and regularly carries out workshops at shows and events.

Julia commented; “I know people often say this but I was genuinely inspired by my mother. Cooking and experimentation with exotic and new flavours was part of my childhood. I try to do this with Toot Sweets chocolates – making sure that the final combinations really work. Some make customers think for a second – particularly the mushroom one! I try to be innovative but also include some classics that everyone loves – they hopefully taste better because of the way that I make them and the ingredients that I use.”

 

Adam Deacon Profile | Film

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In the film Payback Season, actor, director, writer and BAFTA-Orange Rising Star award winner Adam Deacon plays the lead role of Jerome Davies, a young man who has risen above his harsh beginnings of life on a council estate to achieve celebrity status as a premier league footballer.

Adam describes the role: “Jerome is living the high life, he’s got the lovely car, the penthouse flat, but fundamentally his family are still living on a council estate, and he has to go back there. I think Jerome’s dilemma is trying to balance his old life with the new life. Old friends start appearing and before you know it he’s involved in extortion. Jerome has tried to leave that life behind him. For me, it was really nice to play a ‘normal’ character; I wouldn’t call Jerome humble, but he’s just trying to do his thing. I also enjoyed playing a character who spoke proper English,” he laughs. “I am not playing the typical ‘d’you get me Blud’ thing, we were actually asked to tone it down.”

“I think it’s a great story as well, you don’t often get to hear about what happens to people on the other side, and I am sure this sort of thing goes on…it’s a great part to play especially after Anuvahood. It’s also nice to get a romantic role, in some of my films I get a girl, it all goes wrong and I’m gone, so it was really good to have a proper romance for once, and Nichola is a lovely girl as well,” he says.

“I definitely believe it’s a story that needs to be told; I am strong believer in films having a proper story, it’s no good just having a kid running round with guns and knives, we have to start thinking out of the box”

Deacon is currently writing another comedy film. “I made a lot of films last year for other people, and this year I have kind of got my heart set on an Adam Deacon film,” he laughs. “These are exciting times.”

Deacon has come a long way from his Stoke Newington School where he was deemed “a joker”, his natural antipathy to academia exacerbated by the “madness” at home. At 12, noticing his enjoyment of music and drama classes, his head of year suggested he apply for the weekly after-school course at the nearby Anna Scher School. He took a Saturday job to pay for a preparatory summer school and was immediately fast-tracked on to the course by Scher herself, who he portrays as a cross between a mentor and a fairy godmother.

“She’d get the rowdiest London street kids – who were in trouble with the police and stuff – and get them to read scripts properly,” he says. “There were kids there with jobs on EastEnders but she never let anyone act starry, or do stuff for money: she wouldn’t let kids do adverts before they were 16, in case they didn’t know what they were selling. I owe everything to that woman. If that opportunity hadn’t been there for me at a young age, I might have ended up inside,” he says ruefully.

Deacon, from Hackney, East London, began acting at the age of 12. His early career included work with Y Touring Theatre Company, with which he appeared in a number of tours including Cracked by Nicola Baldwin.

Deacon made his name as the lead in Noel Clarke’s Adulthood and co-starred in West 10 LDN, a Kidulthood-like TV program made by Noel Clarke. He has also starred as ‘Bones’ in an MTV show called Dubplate Drama. His next role was in 4.3.2.1, a heist movie, released in June 2010 which also starred Tamsin Egerton, Emma Roberts and Noel Clarke, who directed the film.

Recently Adam co-wrote, co-directed and played the lead role in Anuvahood, which was released on March 18, 2011. The film is described as, ‘A pulls-no-punches, coming-of-age story centering on one directionless hopeless shotter, who finds his true worth in the face of urban adversity.’

Adam has featured in various music videos including; Bashy’s “Who wants to be a Millionaire” and Chipmunk’s Chip Diddy Chip. He is also a musician and musical performer most noted for his two tracks on the soundtrack to Adulthood. The tracks are: ‘Adamhood’ and ‘On It 08’.

His television roles include The Boarding School Bomber and more recently The Royal Bodyguard starring David Jason.