The Busy Food Company is powered by a small hard working team all aiming to provide the best food and service possible but just who are they?
Ian has been a chef for almost 30 years and has worked in several rosette rated hotels and restaurants, most notably, for over 15 years, at The Inn at Whitewell. Throughout his career he's had the privilege to cook for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh along with a string of other celebrities and dignitaries.
In 2022, Ian decided it was time to take the leap from running his small business part time, on his days off, to making it his full time occupation, so with a heavy heart he left The Inn at Whitewell and opened his own restaurant, The View Bar and Bistro at The Oak Royal Golf Club. From here, he was able to develop and grow The Busy Food Company.
Over the past two years, The Busy Food Company has grown steadily offering a range of services including home delivery of a weekly menu, catering for business meetings and private events and supplying local bars and venues with handmade pies, sausage rolls and scotch eggs.
As a Yorkshireman, Ian has always prided himself of delivering high quality food at the very best price and has used his years of experience to develop relationships with a range of local suppliers. This means the food The Busy Food Company delivers is not only tasty but as fresh as possible and supports many local businesses.
Laura, Ian's wife, grafts away behind the scenes focusing on the 'business' side of things. She created the website, runs the social media and ad campaigns and generally deals with all the paper work. Her previous 20+ year career as a teacher allows her to use her organisation and communication skills to keep the business running smoothly and develop relationships with individual customers and other businesses. You will also often see her working at markets, delivering food and working at various events.
From a very early age both Ian and Laura found themselves developing a love
of food, spending time in the kitchen with parents and grandparents, developing
skills and learning new recipes.
This love of food has followed them both through the years, as have some of
the recipes. Hailing from Yorkshire, Ian prides himself on his Yorkshire
puddings and parkin - recipes passed down through the family. Fluffy, light
Yorkshire puddings and sticky, spiced parkin - two of Yorkshire's most loved
dishes.
Two of the most popular pies created by Ian in the kitchen have origins in
Laura's family. Butter pie was a firm favourite in her house, a dish completely
alien to Ian having its origins in Lancashire. The recipe used to create our
Butter pies is the same one Laura was given by her nana.
What Lancashire based caterers could ignore the county's most famous dish -
Lancashire Hotpot? Ian has taken this traditional Lancashire dish and turned it
into one of our biggest selling pies.
In the kitchen, alongside Ian, is Sam. Sam's been with us from the very start, originally as a member of the kitchen staff doing a little bit of everything. Over the past two years Sam has really developed her skills in the kitchen and is the powerhouse who makes all of the pies. From hand rolling the pastry and topping them off to forming all of our scotch eggs, there's not many dishes that leave our kitchen that Sam hasn't had a hand in creating.
Milly is more often than not the person that people meet the most. From organising staff at events and interacting with guests and customers Milly is a real people person.