A business cooked up during the Covid lockdown is celebrating five successful years.
Gareth Metcalf has sausage rolls to thank for starting his own company Food Twisters at the age of 22.
The lockdown happened while Mr Metcalf was starting to write his dissertation to complete his professional culinary management degree at the University of Derby.
He said: “We had 48 hours to get me packed up from uni and get myself back home, otherwise I wouldn’t have got back home until the first lockdown ended.
“When lockdown eased and people were able to go back to work, my industry was still shut because of restrictions so I didn’t know what to do.
“I could work with my dad at his metal fabrication business and get some money to live off, but that is not what I wanted to do.”
Mr Metcalf, who developed his love for cooking and baking from the age of seven while working in the kitchen with his grandma and mum, had a peculiar start into self-employment and it began with preparing food for a family picnic when the lifting of restrictions allowed.
Among the goodies he prepared were sausage rolls.
The chef said: “They went down nicely and I made a little box for my Auntie Karen because she couldn’t be there. She then asked me if I could do some for Father’s Day for my uncle. I was like, ‘yeah fine’.
“She paid for that and it literally spiralled from there.”
Initially with a customer base of family and friends, Mr Metcalf’s business grew to being a regular at Middleton Farmer’s Market since its inception, and later being asked by an insurance company to supply gift boxes to reward its customers.
So far, 100 clients have received a reward from the chef’s kitchen.
Mr Metcalf said: “At the age of 22 I wasn’t expecting to start my own business so soon.
“I always knew I wanted to do this and I knew at some point in my life I was going to do it, but I was expecting to do it so soon. I think covid just expedited the planning”
The determination for a career in the food industry began while still at Teesdale School’s Sixth Form, when Mr Metcalf attended night classes at Bishop Auckland college to get a level two in food preparation.
He said: “I made sure every choice I made at school, going to college and university or even part-time jobs, it always had a connection to the food industry.”
His menu now boasts an impressive range which includes breads, biscuits, cold desserts, pastries, cupcakes, pies, pizza, tray bakes, scones, cheesecakes, puddings, quiches and, of course, sausage rolls.
The 26-year-old said: “To this day they are still on my menu and I refuse to take it off because that is where I started.
“If I take them off I am committing treason against the first product that got me to where I am.”
