Name: Jack Simpkin
Age: 25
Job title: Operations manager
Company & location: The Cookaway, Raynes Park – London
Education: University of Birmingham with a BA in French & Spanish
Why did you decide to go for a career in food? I’ll be honest, it was never a deliberate plan! I had sights on a career in journalism, but this turned out to be the right opportunity at the right time (in lockdown) for me. I’ve always been a foodie and caught the startup bug instantly working under our amazing co-founders Sahil and Nidhi.
Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): I currently manage the Cookaway warehouse and the great team that pick and pack our boxes. I oversee the supply chain and all the day-to-day fulfilment strategy, whilst also planning for a much bigger future.
What does a typical day look like for you? The day’s priority is always getting all the boxes out to our couriers safe and well and on time. With that all dealt with, I’m often busy looking ahead to what new cuisines and recipes we may be launching next, whilst researching and implementing all the new developments we deploy in our strategy to future-proof our fulfilment.
“Branding and marketing are of course vital, but when it comes to developing your product, the cost of quality is worth it, that’s what keeps your customers coming back”
Tell us about how you went about applying for your job. The job for me came through a family connection. My mother is a qualified nutritionist and helped the Cookaway in the early days as they began to develop their first recipes. I started off working part-time earning some money to go travelling but turned out Covid hit meaning I could never go and I’ve been at The Cookaway ever since.
What’s the best part about working for a food company? Working with chefs, especially the calibre of chefs we’re gathering at The Cookaway, which includes former MasterChef champions. I was never expecting to be discussing the details of Malaysian flat ricenoodles with Ping Coombes, or the intricacy of different olive oils with Irini Tzortzoglou. I’ve learnt far more than I thought I ever would! Our chefs are of course experts, but also a pleasure to work with when it comes to us launching their menus.
And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? That there’s always lots of waste! I personally can’t stand food waste and from the early days when we were doing a few boxes a day, to the current set-up, we’ve always sourced all our meat, fish and veg on a ‘just-in-time’ strategy, meaning we don’t buy anything we don’t already know that we definitely need for a box that’s going out. Coupling that with some really precise procurement tech, we know to the nearest sprig of thyme exactly what we need day-to-day, and we never order any more than exactly what we need.
What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? Food sells. Who doesn’t love good food? The industry will always be full of opportunity for new trends and brands to take off. Branding and marketing are of course vital, but when it comes to developing your product, the cost of quality is worth it. That’s what keeps your customers coming back.
What’s your ultimate career dream? I would love to move The Cookaway into a huge warehouse off the M40, right next to all the other big guns, but the real dream after that is to take it overseas. I dream of doing three to six-month stints all over the globe, setting up Cookaway operations in all sorts of different countries. It would at least put the languages degree to a bit of use!
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