Tag Archives: lockdown

Oh Dear! Lucky Lisa’s locked in my kind of paradise

In March 2020, just before the world as we know it went from under us and was replaced by nothing but our own four walls, we were delighted to be invited behind the scenes of Glasgow’s Dear Green Coffee Roasters. We knew we were in for a treat, a tour of the roastery, a curated coffee class just for our fresh faced trainees but I think the unexpected gift was to hear the story of a fabulous female entrepreneur, Lisa Lawson.

HI! Hospitality Trainees recent visit to Dear Green HQ

Grab a cuppa, and take a minute to watch her message from the eerily quiet roastery to the hospitality trainees https://youtu.be/my35oEW-7LU

I had heard of Dear Green, tried their coffee at the last Glasgow Coffee festival and even have one of their Keep Cups knocking about somewhere, but until our visit had never appreciated how the business started and just how much of a heart it has, it’s safe to safe I am now a BIG fan and even started my own monthly coffee subscription which has given me another reason to be cheerful in the morning lockdown routine.

It was really quite inspiring for me and the young people to hear how Lisa started roasting coffee using her last savings to buy her first roaster and within a matter of years was being flown out across the world to the coffee farms to inspect the conditions of the workers, ensuring they were being looked after and benefiting from their supply partnership. I felt like I was with her for a second when she described the magical experiences she had, hearing the soulful singing of the Ethiopian women in the plantation, happy in their work providing for their families. I sense she feels very proud knowing the more she expands her business the more work, income and stability she is providing for other women, children and families around the world.

Lisa on a visit to meet women coffee producers

Her approach to ethical business makes her a good person, but this teamed with her strong work ethic and respect for others in her team has clearly been a key factor in her success to date. Her business has grown organically, Dear Green has a strong following of indy cafes, bars and restaurants and now a roaring trade from lockdown coffee addicts who are ordering beans online in an attempt to become a pro stay-at-home barista. It’s nice to see so many people are valuing her approach to sourcing coffee transparently, and paying her own staff a fair wage, seeing Lisa’s business growth has given me a little more faith that our buying habits are changing for the better and we’re not just happy to settle for the cheapest of products at all costs.

  • The extremely cool team at Dear Green

I MISS COFFEE. I have it every day and yet I feel like I am missing it. The ritual of grabbing a coffee I suppose. Nothing will beat the smell of freshly ground coffee in the morning, the hiss of the milk wand and the chitter chatter of people from all walks of life milling about a coffee shop. I know we all cannot wait to get back to enjoying basic freedoms like a morning coffee..with PEOPLE! Although I do wonder how we are all going to have a brew with a face mask on?

SO…for now all we can do is put the kettle on and enjoy some peace, this is probably the only time in your lifetime that you will have to be so relaxed and de-stressed with little pressure to do anything, so before the world awakens again try to savour this special quiet time, if you can.

Stay Home, Stay Safe, Drink Coffee

Steph

Steak pie & chocolate brownies

Lockdown has given us the chance to catch up with lots of our awesome chef ambassadors in their downtime and hear what they’ve been up to when not busy in the kitchen.

We thought it might be nice to share a few of their words of support as we know it can be such a hard time just now, especially for our young trainees who have only really just embarked on their career but have suddenly found themselves out of work all too soon. Believe it or not, chefs feel a bit lost too, they’re not used to not working and find it hard to sit still without something to do!

First up we heard from Stephen Hampson, of the Sodexo Sports & Leisure team. Stephen has been the Sous chef at Hampden Park for 4 years now, he has been supporting the Hi! employability programmes for the last couple of years, providing fun cooking challenges to trainees, chances to learn during work experience in the stadium kitchens and supporting many of you to gain employment with Sodexo, in particular during the 2018 European Championships which was an amazing opportunity to be a part of.

Stephen training young people of the Hi! Champions Academy we did with charity Achieve More Scotland in 2018

To keep your mind off what’s happening Stephen’s keen to share the message that things will pick up again, kitchens will be busier than ever so please try to enjoy this time off while you can, learn some new recipes and keep busy!

Stephen has shared his chocolate brownie recipe here with us, we cant wait to try it! Why not send us your pictures if you manage to have a go? Stephen would love to see them!

CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

There’s hundreds of different chocolate brownie recipes, here’s a great website I’ve been using during lockdown: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/chocolate_brownies

The ingredients Stephen used were:

  • 185g unsalted butter
  • 185g dark chocolate
  • 85g plain flour
  • 40g cocoa powder
  • 50g white chocolate
  • 50g milk chocolate
  • 3 large eggs
  • 275g golden caster sugar
Stephen’s keeping busy in lockdown making chocolate brownies

Thanks for reading, and remember when you start working again you will look back on this time and wish you had spent more time relaxing, learning new things or catching up on boxsets, so be kind to yourself and enjoy a little me time!

Safe at home, not stuck at home

Steph