Eleny Wood

I embarked on the Culinary Arts Management Degree at University College Birmingham in 2012. After completing my course, I went on to work as a pastry chef at the Michelin-starred restaurant Purnell’s.

After one year of working at Purnell’s, I moved into food product development with Greencore. I worked closely with customers such as Sainsbury's, ALDI, Starbucks, and Caffe Nero, where I developed the hot and cold food-to-go offerings.

Whilst working at Greencore, I had the opportunity to take part in the British Sandwich Industry Awards or ‘The Sammies’ competition, which allowed me to showcase my passion for product development to various brands and industry judges. I succeeded in completing to the finals in 2022 and 2023.

My passion for food development allowed me to progress to the position of Senior Product Developer. Over my career in food development, I have had opportunities to not only visit multiple manufacturing sites and suppliers but to understand technical processes and detailed capabilities of the supplier database. I was the key customer contact for developmental briefs with my customer base and would showcase and present concepts before aiding the scale-up process to Launch.

After six and a half years of service in Food Manufacturing and Product Development, I transitioned into the world of education, returning to where my journey began, here at UCB.

My passion for food development continues as I have the opportunity to teach across product development modules on the higher education degree programmes, including Culinary Arts Management.

Food Product Development & Industry Trends.