After growing up in a family of seven siblings with constant cooking all around her, Abi has felt right at home at The Cheesy Toast Shack in St Andrews.
Abi, now 20, started working at the East Sands eatery at 15.
She says watching her parents, both of whom are cooks, prepping meals for her and her siblings helped show her the ropes at a young age.
“All of my life, my parents have been constantly cooking. There were so many insane home-cooked meals.
“I’m one of seven, so I’m from a really big family. And there have always been a lot of big meals. My mum was feeding ten at every single meal time.
“My brothers are big guys, so she’d be making like 20 bacon rolls for lunch.
“I think seeing my mum do it all the time, it just ingrained in me: ‘of course I can cook’.
“So when I started here at 15, I was just so eager to understand the process.”
Abi was 17 when she took on the role as manager at the St Andrews takeaway.
She isn’t frustrated when people are surprised by how young she is to be manager, because she has faith in her abilities.
“I don’t let it affect me too much,” says Abi, “I kind of understand where they’re coming from.
“A lot of people are probably thinking: how could she know what to do? How could she have enough life experience to run this place? We’re such a busy place, how would that work?
“But I feel like most people who are saying that have probably never worked in a job like this.
“The Cheesy Toast Shack is such a specific, unique little place that there are so many quirks to it.
“It doesn’t really frustrate me, people thinking I’m too young to do this job, because I think, well, you’re not doing it, so how would you know?”
Abi started off at The Cheesy Toast Shack with an almost ‘cheese phobia’
Although now Abi makes cheesy toasties day in, day out when she’s at work, her palate may surprise you.
“I actually don’t like cheese,” she admits through laughter, “I’m really not a fan of it!
“I really enjoy all the toasties without the cheese, and they’re just as good.
“On my first day, I remember walking in and they asked me to make brie and mushroom sandwiches.
“I was someone who was not even a fan of touching cheese.
“And I just remember being like ‘what am I doing? Why have I taken this job?'”
The Cheesy Toast Shack in St Andrews go through a whopping half a tonne of cheese a month.
On one of their busiest days a few weeks ago, Abbi and her colleagues made 680 sandwiches in one day.
“Over the last few years, we’ve had four people work with us who don’t like cheese,” adds Abi.
“I don’t know whether we entice them or something, since all we sell is cheese,” she laughs, “I don’t know what it is.”
‘You can’t knock’ hospitality jobs
Abi has a message for any other young people considering a role in the food and drink sector.
“I would say that you can’t knock these jobs that people assume aren’t that progressive in life.
“I think a lot of people see waitressing jobs and things like that as jobs that will get you from A to B and then you can leave and do anything else.
“But you can actually learn so much from one job like this: working with the public, working with food and drink.
“Don’t knock that.
“Like any job, if you try hard, you’ll succeed in it.”
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