Mary Worthington

Mary Worthington: Regional Customer Chef-Durban

South African by birth and having grown up on a farm with many fond memories of marvelous home cooking and an abundance of fresh produce, Mary feels she has her mother to thank for laying the foundations for a career in food.

Mary completed her National Diploma in Food and Clothing Technology at DUT, having specialized in large scale catering. She did her in-service training at Robertson's Spice, and went on to joining Fedics, a large out source catering company. With them she had the opportunity to work in all sectors of their business, managing retail restaurants, industrial catering outlets, a large private hospital and prestigious corporate catering contracts where she catered for many VP dignitaries and overseas clientele.

Mary then started a small but successful outside catering business and 5 years later  rejoined Fedics as a Projects manager, winning Nedcor's contractor of the year. This was a very prestigious award as it was audited against other catering competitors. Not having started her career off as a chef, she began to realize that cooking was not just a hobby but something she is passionate about.

Mary then moved into her role as Regional Chef for KZN, responsible for setting food standards for the region. She then took up the challenging post as Senior Chef, Toyota SA, overseeing the production of 6000 meals per day to 17 satelite canteens.

Mary is a chef's kind of chef who believes that good food should be tasty, wholesome and healthy, whether it's a snack of a gourmet meal. Mary says "when cooking, the important thing is to have fun and never be afraid to share those most gaurded secrets."  

As a chef in Unilever Food Solutions, Mary looks forward to sharing her experiences with other chefs in the industry.