About Maureen
What made you go into the catering industry
It was my mum that inspired me to cook. I remember as a little girl she was always in the kitchen baking cakes, cooking for seven of us and Dad. From an early age I was interested in catering. I would always bake cakes (Dad loved plain cakes with ice cream) so every Sunday I baked a cake. Sometimes they came out all right but sometimes the cake sank, but I persevered. Sometimes I tried to cook meals for my siblings while Mum and Dad were at work. I always took pride in what I did and loved cooking for them.
When did you start?
In 1991 I started cooking at a local community centre, Palace Youth Centre, supporting Hopper and the Self Build crew, providing them with warm cooked meals while they built Front Line Close, Leeds. I then moved onto cook for Chapeltown Community Centre once a week providing warm lunches for the locals who attended the centre.
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When the centre closed down I started to then cook from home and kept my door open to the local community who needed a home cooked lunch, and built up a clientele. I knew it was time to get a shop when Rio Ferdinand and other footballers wanted to get in on the good food they had heard about. I got 105 Roundhay Road in August 2003.
Would you change your career for anything else?
No, I would not change my career and I have not looked back since. Although it's long days and hours I love and enjoy every minute of it, cooking the food and greeting the customers
A word from Maureen
"I specialise in traditional Caribbean home cooking, and also bake delicious cakes: fruit cake, pineapple cake, chocolate and jam sponge just to name a few.. I know these will tantalise your taste buds…
