If you can’t stand the heat get in the kitchen
Marianna Browning is living proof that the old adage “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen” is not true. After 12 hectic years as an events organiser in the big smoke of London, Marianna decided she couldn’t stand the heat any longer and made the move to Bridport. Far from staying out of the kitchen Marianna set up her business “Scoff” and now provides cakes for all manner of events. Here she tells TOM GLOVER her story.
Having finally had enough of conferences, promotions and product launches Marianna decided to change her lifestyle with a move to the West Dorset coast.
Despite enjoying her time in London it soon became apparent to Marianna that her new lifestyle wouldn’t work with her city career.
“As an events organiser work was very stressful because you have to rely on so many other people to pull everything together,” she said.
“I loved it and I miss it occasionally but I don’t miss the lifestyle. I don’t think you could be that hectic and do that sort of work and still live in Bridport because this place sort of encourages you to chill a little bit.”
In search of a new career that she could fit in around raising her two young girls Marianna decided upon “Scoff”, a business that daughters May and Daisy definitely approve of.
Marianna said: “The best part of my job is the flexibility, I get to be a mum as much as I want to be. It’s massively flexible which is the nirvana of work that everybody strives for.
“The kids are so over excited everyday because there are cakes all over the place, which they are not allowed to eat.
“At the moment the girls just want to eat it, they don’t actually understand the concept of actually making something with ingredients and then getting an end product. It’s more about how much they can get into their mouth.”
Although her girls are much more interested in eating cakes rather than baking them, for the time being, she is very keen that they develop a good foundation in cooking.
“I remember cooking with my mum. She was at home everyday and she cooked and cooked and cooked. That was my memory of her, putting family meals on the table. She didn’t bake a great deal but cooking was huge and we learnt to cook meals for ourselves at a very young age, certainly much younger than health and safety would feel was appropriate,” she joked.
“Whether my girls show an interest or an aptitude I don’t know, but even as a basic skill, cooking is something I think they should have.
“I do think in this day and age being able to make a nutritious meal is one of the basic core skills everybody should have and unfortunately not everybody does have it. At least if my children have it I’ll feel I’ve achieved something.
“I don’t buy any pre packed food. In the main it is things I’ve made from scratch, it’s healthier, it has less salt, less fat, it tastes twice as good and it means they know what real food tastes like. If they’re very good they might get a cupcake when they come home from school.”
Having decided upon her business Marianna soon found her first, and most loyal client, Steve Attrill of The Hive Beach Café in Burton Bradstock.
Eighteen-months down the line Marianna still provides cakes to the café and her popularity has seen her build up a list of private clients.
“The business is developing slowly and we need to keep it under control because I don’t want to put in so much time that I don’t have time for my children,” she said.
“It’s work and a hobby all rolled into one and it is something that when the girls are older I can step up, which I quite intend to do and use the foundation I have got to make a proper business out of it.”
Marianna is currently in the process of moving house from which she hopes to offer cookery courses in the future. When her children are a bit older Marianna hopes to start running small cookery courses offering casual chefs advice on cooking for children, low fat food and food for entertaining among other topics.
At first adapting to country life was a little difficult for Marianna but she is now more than happy to be living life on Bridport time.
“It took some adjustment but in a really nice way. It was a nice lesson to learn that life doesn’t have to be lived at that sort of pace, with your blinkers on. You can actually stop and enjoy it and make a life for yourself and that is what it’s all about,” she said.
“I don’t miss city life at all, I haven’t been back since and I have no intention of going back. I’d rather go to the beach than go to London.
“I’m really glad I had that time because it’s made me appreciate what I have here and I think I might have been restless not knowing what else was available so I think it all happened at the right time.”
A childhood spent cooking with her mum in the kitchen almost definitely laid the foundations for Marianna’s career, but that is a nostalgic memory that she would like to keep in the past.
Her mum still lives in Kent but with a flat in Bridport where she may one day move to cast an eye over her daughter’s work.
“I think she is raising her eyebrows in astonishment that I can make a living out of cooking cakes, she thinks it is just utterly bizarre that it is something that someone can make a living out of and fairly bizarre that I would want to do it,” she said.
“Luckily for me she is not as sprightly as she was 10-years-ago so she won’t be taking over in the kitchen but she might come and knit in the corner and offer me advice.
“I think she’d like to be involved but probably just coming in and having a taste and then taking cakes out to the girls and pretending she made them.”
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