Hi, I’m Ella Clark and I’m the new girl at Goodfellows London showroom. I was asked to do a blog to introduce myself, so here it goes…

I was introduced to Goodfellows when I attended my interview at their Showroom on Baker Street. When I walked down the kitchen stairs of Galvin Bistrot de Luxe, I thought ‘what am I doing here?’, but walking through the amazing Copper-clad door into the Showroom, opened my eyes to this amazing space.

It really takes your breath away the first time you walk in. It’s so unexpected. Seeing the amazing products and having the opportunity to possibly work on developing the displays, made me really want to be part of the Goodfellows team. That was before even meeting the team, who have really made me feel so welcome!

I love how every day is different. Such a variety of people come into the showroom, each from different areas of the industry. One day I’m meeting the most-followed chef on Instagram who’s come in for his next selection of plates, and then, a contract caterer comes in who’s got a new project for the HQ of a leading global brand.
The team have to deal with so many different comings and goings; I admire how they cope with everything. Sometimes it can be quite overwhelming when there are three lots of customers in at the same time. I soon realise that everyone knows each other and just general conversations emerge, it’s a very relaxed atmosphere, which I am really enjoying working in.

My background to-date, following gaining my degree in printed textiles, has been spent in designing and making displays for the events industry. To be honest, I was amazed that Goodfellows would want someone like me, who hadn’t worked mainly in the food industry, but they said they really wanted a team of lots of different talents.

I am being trained on all of the products at the moment as well as helping to look after customers when they visit. We have to be on the ball where that’s concerned because Paul and Valda want every customer to feel they are welcome and looked after. They keep telling me ‘this is the hospitality industry!’

Although I’m only in my first couple of weeks, I‘ve already been asked to create some new showroom displays. I have been tasked with coming up with something really inspirational. No pressure there then! I have all these fantastic products to pick from. I now understand how difficult it must be for anyone to choose what they want. But, I have quickly learnt that our job is to help people make the best choice for them. Like me, it’s easy to react to just the look of a particular plate or bowl but then I don’t have to create the food. We need to help people make choices that not only look great but also suit their food and their care regime in the kitchen.

I find I am very quickly becoming a little bit obsessed with this industry. I haven’t started turning plates over in restaurants yet, but they tell me it’s only a matter of time. I certainly do take a lot more notice of how they present their food. I’m all about the aesthetics. Food and drink can be so visually exciting to look at, and the more I eat out, I can see that chefs are continually pushing the boundaries on how they present their food.

It seems to be a very varied job, this week I have already been up North on a food styling photography shoot, which was amazing to see! I am looking forward to continuing to learn and understand this industry – it’s a pretty exciting one to be in.

If you would like to come and see me in the showroom, please get in touch or book an appointment here. I look forward to helping with your concepts and inspiring you with my displays!