LESLEY   WARD                 English  Cheese

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Ward Training  GU6 8QP        Tel: 01483 275851 Email: lesleyward@foopdproducer.co.uk

 

 

 

Lesley is the founder of the award winning delicatessen Horsham Cheese Shop that traded in Horsham, West Sussex from 1981 - 2007. Under Lesley’s ownership, Horsham Cheese Shop was twice winner of the ‘Retail Cheese Awards’ sponsored by The Grocer and Dairy Crest. In addition it won many other awards and was well known and respected within the industry. It was a fine example of how an independent food shop can attract a wide customer base through focusing on what really matters: taste & quality. Local foods always played an important part in the success of the business, as did own-produced products like the famous Horsham Cheese Shop cheese straws, several thousand of which were sold each week. 

After selling the shop in October 2000 Lesley set up a commercial advisory service, putting her many years of experience at the disposal of both established practitioners and newcomers in the fine food industry. For more information on this service please see the  foodproducer.co.uk  producer site

Training:
Lesley was awarded an MSc in Teaching & Learning from Surrey University in 2006.

•	As a registered trainer with the Royal Society For Public Health Lesley teaches the Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering to food handlers in South East England. In addition to staff in food businesses, she has successfully taught this course to many different groups including: church groups, nursery nurses, young mothers, house parents and school helpers.
•	Individuals can attend her one day courses at Cranleigh Arts Centre, Cranleigh, Surrey (one held each month)
•	Groups can book her for an in-house course.

Lesley is currently presenting a series of one day cheese master classes for chefs throughout South-East England.

Consultancy:
Lesley has acted as a judge at cheese and fine food events. She holds certificates in Cheesemaking and Cheese grading from Reaseheath College. She was made a Companion of the Guilde des Fromagers, Confrerie de Saint-Uguzon, France in 1982.

She has been invited to present tutorials covering cheeses of the South East at various food shows/events including The English Wine Festival, Henrietta Green’s Food Show, Celebrate the Taste, CLA Game Fair and trade events such as The British Cheese Festival, The Speciality Fine Food Fair and the Restaurant Show at Olympia. She finds that there is great enthusiasm for fine flavoured, hand made British cheese.

Anyone considering opening a Cheese shop or Delicatessen will find her help and expertise invaluable.

Larger organizations can benefit from her expertise and training skills regarding the attraction and retention of customers to their cheese counters. Many big businesses do not successfully maximize this area of their retail outlets.

Quote from South East Food Matters concerning a bespoke course created by Lesley:

"Lesley Ward, who is an experienced trainer and a respected authority on cheese, helped to train the staff in all aspects of food hygiene, sourcing, display and safe handling. At the end of the training the staff were confident to advise customers on such things as catering for parties and putting a cheeseboard together."

Nigel Chandler, Garson’s farm shop manager, says sales of cheese have increased by about a third in the six months since the revamp and are growing all the time.
“We would definitely recommend the training to anyone with a cheese business,” said Nigel. “To learn from someone with that pedigree is a great opportunity.”