Student Story: Meet Maddie Hatton

Maddie Hatton (@blidandhatton) has worked in and around food since her student days, working as a chef, bookseller, private caterer, and teacher. She recently studied Chef Skills, Leiths Online’s 24-week professional course.

How did you get into food?

“I’ve always worked in food. I studied fine art in university and while I was at uni, I worked in restaurants. I started off washing up then worked my way up and became a chef. Also, I grew up in France and I always say that’s where I got my love for food. I then went to work in a shop called Books For Cooks. That’s where it all really kicked off. I was immersed in books and cooking and it was a really foodie environment. Nigella Lawson would come in, and Jamie Oliver, so it was quite an exciting place to be. I was mainly selling books and occasionally I would cook in the café. It really increased my knowledge of food and it confirmed what I wanted to do.”

“I then went to work for Tricia Guild at Designers Guild, as a chef at the in-house café they had in their offices. Food was a really amazing part of the company. Tricia Guild was very passionate that all the staff should eat great food, so we would get really amazing sourdough, Neal’s Yard cheeses, really good coffee. Everything was cooked from scratch.”

You had your own catering business. How did that come about?

“After I got married and left London and had my kids, I had an idea that I wanted to become a caterer but I knew that was a really different kind of cooking to restaurants. I went to work for a local caterer and managed to work that around having very small children. As more and more people asked me to do my own private work, I started to work for myself. After a few years, I started Blid and Hatton with my friend [Helga Blid-Martinsson] in Cobham in Surrey. We called it the food studio. We wanted it to be really creative; we used to have supper clubs every week; we did demos; people would hire it as a private venue; then we would have book launches, where authors would come and talk or sometimes they’d cook. It was amazing. Unfortunately, the landlord wanted the building back so we had to end it which was a shame. We did a lot of good stuff.”

With so much experience in cooking already, what made you study with Leiths Online?

“I spent 18 months working in a cookery school teaching adults and kids classes, so I was interested to see how they teach at Leiths because Leiths is the gold standard. I suppose it was a bit of a confirmation that I was doing it right. I also wanted a challenge. Because I’m not trained – although I don’t doubt my abilities – part of me wanted a challenge to learn some new things. I wouldn’t really have had the time to go and do a course in person so the online Chef Skills fitted in really well.

“I was unsure about how good it would be but it’s so well done. The videos are brilliant and very clear, and you get the mentoring and the group chats. It works really well. It was more challenging than I thought it would be. It pushed me to cook things that I wouldn’t normally cook – you get in a comfort zone and have your own style. Things I might have on a list to do at some point, such as making gluten-free bread. You have to set aside time each week to do it so it’s quite a good discipline. My cooking is more rustic naturally, so I’ve had to be neater and more disciplined.

I also feel really confident that I have it on my C.V. I’ve joined the Guild of Fine food and I’m a Great Taste judge, which was something I’ve always wanted to do. I think [the course] gave me the confidence to apply.”

What other plans do you have?

“I’m trying to decide what to do next. I’d like to teach young adults and am really interested in Leiths Academy. I feel like I’ve got a good knowledge of food and I would like to share that with young people because it’s a skill that’s becoming a bit lost”.

I’m still constantly trying new recipes and I buy books all the time. I love baking bread; I feel like I could keep learning that for the next ten years. I also really like fermenting; that’s a whole world you could keep learning about. You’re always learning about food.”