Jill Weatherburn

Growing up in the North East of England, I was introduced to traditional home cooking at an early age. With a life-long interest in food, my passion for cooking has led me into a career as a Home Economist. After studying at Sheffield Hallam University, I secured a job as a home economist with Rank, Hovis, McDougal where I developed my skills working on cookery demonstrations, recipe creation and food styling. I have continued to develop skills and expertise in the food industry spanning a career of over 30 years. Based in the North East, I offer a comprehensive freelance home economist and food styling service across the UK, covering a range of projects for customers including; performing live cookery demonstrations, creating and writing recipes and supporting well known TV chefs at food festivals and on TV shows. I also work as a food stylist and my work comprises of a wide range of services. These include styling for recipe leaflets, cookbooks, supermarket packaging, brochures and editorial images.

Special subjects

Food Waste Reduction: I recently created recipes and managed photography for the national food waste campaign ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ to encourage people to reduce waste and make the most of their leftovers. The focus of the Love Food Hate Waste campaign was to encourage and enable people from all walks of life to reduce their food waste. To do this, I explained how to make the most of leftovers developing 24 unique recipes, including desserts, snacks and nibbles, low cost family meals, student meals and meals for small households. I headed up the project, developing the recipes which were used in the campaign. As well as encouraging people to make use of leftovers, and reduce food waste, the recipes also needed to reflect The Eatwell Guide and reflect a healthy lifestyle. The recipes were rigorously tested and nutritionally analysed to ensure that they fulfilled all of the necessary criteria of the project. I continue to have an interest in food waste reduction and I am involved in local schemes to reduce food waste.

Regular work

Recipe Writing: Recipe writing is one of my specialities, helping major manufacturers and established food producers to create unique and memorable dishes and I have produced recipes for a range of customers. My current clients include; Quorn foods, The Vegetarian Society, Whitby Seafoods, The Cooperative, Aldi and Hello Fresh. Other work: I support a number of well know TV chefs on location and also work backstage on James Martin's Saturday show preparing ingredients for cookery segments on the show. Cookery Demonstrations: Sharing recipes and cookery techniques is one of my passions and one of my specialties is facilitating cookery demonstrations to a wide range of audiences. Something I take great pride in is promoting local produce at food festivals across the country. I also perform cookery demonstrations regularly for a number of well know brands including Quorn, Neff, Bosch, Siemens, the Cooperative Foods.

Advisory boards / Awards

I am a member of the Institute of Home Economics

Jill Weatherburn

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