THE GALLERY CAFE
Exciting news from the Ilminster Arts Centre. Having reopened at the beginning of September with volunteers manning our café, we’ve been on a quest to find the right person to take on this wonderful venue as a business.
We’re delighted to announce that from 1st October, the incredible Sue Foreman will be taking over the reins at our café. Sue , a local ‘gal’, comes to the IAC with a wealth of experience and a bundle of enthusiasm. She started working in her parents hotel at the tender age of 12, cooking breakfasts for their guests and quickly realised her dream was to work in hospitality. She’s worked in pubs and cafes, run her own successful catering company as well as sharing her knowledge by lecturing in professional cookery & front of house at Yeovil College. We thought it was time to get to know Sue a little better so we posed a few questions to her this morning:
Q: Who inspired you to learn to cook?
“My Mum of course! Back in the 70s she used to do amazing spreads for her dinner parties – she really went to town. They were always themed with props and decorations to add drama, my favourite memory was her seafood feast, she even made a mermaid centre piece! My mum was a brilliant scratch cook, she taught me all the basics as a young child, by the age of 12 I was cooking breakfasts for guests in her hotel!”
Q: What's your signature dish?
“Seriously, I doesn’t have one! I’ve always worked to be an all rounder, taking inspiration from global cultures as well as British greats. I do have a favourite influence though, I’ve a passion for all things middle eastern – I love making flat breads, traditional kebabs and it offers great flavours for vegan and veggie salad dishes too. I’m equally happy to turn my hand to any kind of cuisine, but right now if you made me cook? It’d probably be Spicy Coconut Rice”.
Q: You've run your own catering company, what's the most exciting event you've catered for?
Without doubt it was for ValleyFest in Chew Valley, up near Bristol back in 2019. The festival ran for 10 days and I was brought in to cater for all their volunteers. We started on day one with 40, but by day 4 we had 500 covers for breakfast lunch and dinner, but I was offering a different menu every single day and they just kept coming back! I was so chuffed to be told ‘Your cakes in the afternoon are the best we’ve ever had and the highlight of our volunteering’”.
Q: Can you tell us any of your plans for the Arts Centre menus? What can we look forward to?
I’m passionate about offering daily specials, different every day. I want to make the most of seasonal produce and a wide range of cuisines too. Of course everything will be locally sourced, everything will be fresh and I’ll be making it all myself. I will always have at least one vegan and gluten free option available, I can guarantee a selection of fresh salads daily often with my homemade mozzarella, along with a soup option, but there will be some exciting new dishes coming your way! I’ll also be doing all the baking, savoury and sweet, I love making Florentines but my favourite bake is cheese straws. There will be plenty to choose from! I hope to be opening for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea shortly too so watch this space…..”
Q: Will you be running a Christmas special, what will it be and when will it start?
“Absolutely, yes! It’ll start on Tuesday 1st December, you can expect a mix of traditional festive treats with a few twists too. I’ll be sure to share the menu with you in November.”
Q: And a final big questions - will you still be making the famous cheese scones?
“OF course! They’re phenominal, award winning I’d say! I’m very privileged to have been given the original recipe and have been learning from the master herself, Chris Ackerman”.
The Arts Centre would also like to just give a big thank you to all those volunteers who’ve helped man our café through September and to all those visitors who’ve been patient with them whilst we’ve been waiting for Sue to arrive.
We hope to see you all very soon so you can experience Sue’s fabulous cooking first hand.
