"WE LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND"

Woolies' head office isn't just a nerve centre where many of the innovative products you find on shelf are created. It's also where culinary innovation manager Scott Parker and team are running a feeding scheme and training next-gen chefs

- KHANYA MZONGWANA

HE'S A WORLD-RENOWNED CHEF, AUTHOR AND FOOD PRACTITIONER, SO IT'S SAFE TO SAY THAT SCOTT PARKER HAS SELF-ACTUALISED - NOT NECESSARILY IN THE SPIRITUAL SENSE, BUT SOMEWHERE QUITE CLOSE.

"I've been in food for 20 years, I've lived the Michelin life, been lucky enough to have cooked all over the world and achieved many of the things I set out to do. But the work I am doing now gives me the most joy and fulfilment."

From outside, the Woolworths home base on Longmarket Street in Cape Town has an austerity that may have onlookers believing nothing but work goes on there. But, on the fifth floor, the food department is pushing more than just paper. Enter the Culinary Innovation Centre, where some of South Africa's best-loved Woolies snacks, prepared meals and breads are developed, tested and approved. And, as the Woolworths culinary innovation manager, Scott is one of the talented people at the helm of this massive division. After years spent working abroad, Scott was hired as a Woolworths product development manager in the prepared, bakery and frozen foods department. In 2020, the space underwent a massive change, which meant that it would go on to serve a higher purpose. "Covid had hit hard and there was a lot less to do in the kitchen. We weren't really able to work, which is where the opportunity to start a feeding scheme presented itself."

Scott and his team got down to the business of transforming the space - already pretty impressive by global standards into a kitchen that gives back. "Many people lost their income during the pandemic, and we had the resources to produce food on a substantial scale and feed many mouths."