Meet the Taste Cheshire Team #Blog

Stephen Wundke
8th August 2018

We thought the many of you who read our blogs, refer to our site and interact with us at festivals, markets and on-line might like to know who you are talking to, what they do, where they have come from and most importantly what they look like. Putting a face to a name and a voice makes things seem – well, more real. So we have had some pictures taken recently and put a little biog with each one.

Stephen Wundke – Founder and CEO of Taste Cheshire.

I have done more things than most, mostly because I am older. Made more mistakes than most and genuinely spent a lot of time doing the things I enjoy. From the time that I was a professional cricketer back in the 80’s (that’s how old I am – google, Wundke – that catch) I made a rule that I would never do anything for work that I didn’t love, that way it wouldn’t be work and whilst that has had its up and downs I have always enjoyed getting up in the morning. That included, designing, building and marketing golf courses (Canyamel, La Duquesa, San Roque, Pryors Hayes, Sutton Hall). Owning restaurants and clubs, (Paparazzi, The Morris Dancer, Club Globe, The Globe, The Boat Inn). Marketing Betting companies, commentating at Chester and Bangor on Dee racecourses, creating Taste Cheshire, Marketing the city of Chester as their City Manager and creating Food Festivals and farmers markets. My pet loves are racing and food and drink and I am lucky to be married to the UK’s best home Chef. A great time is when we holiday with our dogs, as a family somewhere here in the UK and currently we are in love with the North Wales Coast. My food choices are eclectic. South East Asian, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean feature regularly but so does a great Rib Eye Steak with fabulous salads. My pet hates are chefs who simply cant be bothered putting all the ingredients on the plate that it says on the menu and my love is discovering a new combination of flavours that just work. Food is so exciting in that way. We have a great team of people who all love our industry and love making a difference for our many members and I just want us to keep providing people who produce food with a route to market and keep providing people who love food with a great way to find out about how special Cheshire food and drink really is. Its a great life.

Briony Wilson

I am the General Manager for Taste Cheshire and in charge of the events that we run. I started with the company whilst on a placement from University of Huddersfield where I studied Events management; and they haven’t been able to get rid of me since. I have now been with the company for 4 years, and over my time have dabbled in pretty much everything we do, from social media to events, and my current role is my favourite because I get to do a little bit of everything I enjoy. I am pretty much the voice at the end of the phone or email for any enquires and the lucky one who gets to go out and meet all our members at events and sign ups.

I am originally from Kendal in the Lake District, so whilst not Cheshire born and bred, I still love the fact that I get to represent the great food and drink that the North West has to offer. For fun I love to go back to Lakes and go walking with friends, I am also a frequent visitor to Chester Races and spend most of my time eating and drinking around the city.

As hard as it is to choose, Gin and Ginger Ale is probably my drink of choice, but you can’t go wrong with a glass of fizz or most cocktails. Personally, I wouldn’t class myself as a picky eater and I love to try lots of different foods, but you can never go wrong with a good burger and skin on fries or any type of seafood. However, my biggest dislike is brunch, for someone that doesn’t enjoy eggs or avocado, brunch is just an occasion I struggle with.

Emma Shawcross

I’m Emma, the Taste Cheshire Development Chef. I create biweekly recipes for the website; all my recipes are original and things I love to cook. I also attend events regularly teaching children how to cook and help many chefs as a home economist whilst they are on stage at major events around the area. I have worked in many different kitchens in my time as a chef including the Michelin starred Chester Grosvenor.

I love all things food and drink, so this really is the ideal role for me, when I’m not in the kitchen I love spending time with my twin sons, we love to get up to mischief in and outside of the kitchen. Even in my spare time food is a massive part of my life and a current project of mine is training for the Chocolate Olympics, patisserie and anything sweet has always been one of my strengths.

Which is probably why it is my favourite thing to eat, that or Cake, you can’t beat a slice of cake and a cup of Tea. It has to be Earle Grey, and even though it might be wrong, it has to be with milk. One of my biggest frustrations however, has to be that there simply is not enough time in the day to do everything that I want to get involved with, come on world, its time to create a 30-hour day!

Tegan Kenyon

I’m Tegan, the Marketing and Events Coordinator at Taste Cheshire; I started here on placement from the University of Chester in May and have stayed since. I’m about to go into my third year studying Marketing and Business management but am continuing to work at Taste Cheshire throughout. I’ve got a keen interest in marketing, so it’s been ace learning more about social media marketing, which is what I mostly do here.

When I’m not in the office, I’m usually in Manchester, which is where I’m from. I’m a fan of going out, whether that’s for a meal with friends or shopping. Other than that, I play lacrosse at university, which is rather fun. If I had to pick a favourite meal would probably be steak of some sort, whether it’s with vegetables, salad or chips – I’m a fan of it. As for my favourite drink, I’d either have to opt for a still cloudy lemonade or cranberry juice. If I had to pick something I dislike, it would probably be public transport, hence why I’m now learning to drive.

Gaile Wundke – Chef Ambassador

A dream job for me because it entails being involved in the thing I love most – that being food. I just love cooking, cooking programmes, cooking magazines, books and recipes. It is my huge passion and I am fotunate to be able to indulge that passion in what we do at Taste Cheshire. I cook meals almost every night of the week, when we are not our doing restaurant reviews, with an aim to discovering new flavours, new ideas and tastes. Its rare that a recipe remains the same as I start with. I am constantly tweaking and tasting to develop the flavours more and more. Just great food fun. I was pleased recently to win the pilot programme of Yes Chef and to work with Nigel Haworth during the show, a lovely and talented man. This was a real buzz. Thankfully nobody saw the programme as it was the pilot but that will do for me.

Doing our reviews is also great fun and nothing pleases me more than when we find somewhere that is doing outstanding food and I am able to write about it and share it with our many followers. It’s the best part of the job. My food loves are, new tastes and making good recipes even better and my food hates are lazy people who simply cant be bothered treating great produce with the respect it deserves as well as people who waste food. My two dogs are a huge love and get me out and about. Recently I discovered bike riding and try to do 10 miles every day as well as a good walk with the dogs. That normally means I can eat some great food and stay in shape. I really only exercise to eat. Being with my family, writing about food for Taste Cheshire makes me very happy as does my other full time job of looking after our 16 year old son Jake – and his father!!