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Alex Head may not be a chef who has always been right in the limelight, but she is certainly someone who is constantly busy behind the scenes and brilliantly represents the importance of the food industry within our society.
Born in Australia, Head developed of love for cooking early on in life; her mother would give her tasks in the kitchen to stop her misbehaving. Her family moved around a lot when she was young but she mainly grew up in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. After being expelled from school aged 15, she decided that she would set up a sandwich business to try and make some money. This was this first time Head dipped her toe into the world of the food industry.
After moving to the UK and catering for some of her friends and running a few small events, Head discovered where her true passion lay. Over the next few years, she set up her own catering company, called Social Pantry, while also working in restaurant kitchens in Oxford and London. After, a restaurant she was working in closed down, she decided to make Social Pantry her full-time project.
Fast forward and Social Pantry is not just a catering company but also has three London sites: Social Pantry Café, Crane's Kitchen, and Soane's Kitchen. Motivated by being a teenager who often got into trouble, since 2015 Head has worked with social enterprise Key4Life who help rehabilitate young ex-convicts. She now employs a number of former prisoners across various parts of her business.
Social Pantry continues to thrive as a catering business while Head's permanent sites stay open in the background, and her mission remains to bring back the dinner party. Alex Head is an example to all young people that with enough graft and determination, you can form a career doing something you are truly passionate about.