AMY COSSON

Full Curriculum Vitae

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28/05/89

 

QUALIFICATIONS:

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2023 Advanced cookery course 

2023 Seafood cooking course 

2023 Gut health seminar 

2022 Food safety level 2 certificate 

2022 STCW

2022 Fertility diet seminar  

2018 LCQ qualification 

2014 Basic food safety and hygiene certificate

2012 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Whitecliffe College of Art and Design

2011 Hospitality certificate (Food and beverage service)

2006 Orewa College; completed NCEA with attitude and effort awards

and excellence awards for 4 subjects

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COMPUTING SKILLS:

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Basic skills in Photoshop and Indesign. Competent in Microsoft Office. Confident with Shopify and Wix. 

 

PROFESSIONAL SUMMERY:

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My experience is in business management as well as roles within creative industries. Within the food industries I have worked as a food stylist, caterer, manager and private chef. Within the fashion industries I have worked in textile retail management, as a designer, in production and sales. 

 

15+ Years cooking experience

5+ Years business management 

5+ Years fashion/workroom related experience

5+ Years fashion/textile retail experience

3+ Years marine/yacht experience  

2+ Years food styling experience    

1 + Years event planning and project management 

Full drivers license

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SKILLS:

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• Creative 

• Excellent communication skills

• Proven time management skills 

• Strong organizational skills

• Exceptional attention to detail 

• Problem solving skills

• Leadership and management skills

• Financial management

• Interpersonal skills 

• Sales and customer service experience

• Self driven and hardworking 

• Friendly and positive 

 

INTRODUCTION:

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I have recently finished up working as a sole chef onboard a 35m motor yacht in the south of France. The owners love healthy focused food along with cooking for multiple diet preferences for the crew onboard. I was fortunate to build a strong relationship with local suppliers. I love cooking with local French ingredients. This has been one of my favourite seasons yet!

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Over the last year and a bit I have been launching a new business; Archive. A platform for independent pattern designers to sell their sewing patterns to a sewing community. I have built the website and set up all processes now passing on the continual work to my team in NZ. 

 

For the 3 years prior; I ran Good Food Kitchen Catering Company. Seeing a gap in the market for allergy and preference focused catering whilst running Family Affair catering in 2017. I enjoy creating recipes and menus to suit specific dietary requirements and discovering new products to work with. Creating finger foods, buffet style meals and grazing tables to suit gluten free, dairy free, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian and Halal diet’s. I managed all aspects of each function from event planning, logistics, budgeting, sourcing, food preparation, administration and staffing. 

 

During that time I also freelanced as a food stylist, recipe writer and kitchen manager at Fresh Media and My Food Bag. I gained excellent skills in making food look appetizing for photography. I enjoyed working within a collaborative environment. Creating content for recipe cards, advertisements, tv commercials, social media, blogs and a cookbook. 

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Prior to this I co ran a fashion label in Melbourne. Making leather goods and clothing. I was involved in all aspects of the business, from planning and designing the ranges, to sales, social media and advertising, hands on making and much more. 

 

I am seeking a new role where I can use my creative skillset, continue learning new skills and take on new challenges. Having run three businesses I have a broad skill set and feel I can put my hand to anything.
 

EMPLOYMENT:

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Archive | Director | 2021- Current | Auckland/Europe/Bali | www.archivepatterns.com| @archivepatterns

• Bringing a concept to reality 

• Building a website (Shopify); creating a platform for independent pattern designers to sell their designs

• Social Media management 

• Advertising and marketing 

• Collaboration 

• Administration

• Officially launched May 2023 

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Maritime Experience | Sole chef/Sous Chef/Stewardess | Europe/Asia/Middle East | June-September 2023 | July-September 2022 | April 2010- January 2012 - April 2014-February 2015

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• Solely responsible for the galley. 

• Cooking for guests and crew. Cooking for up to 50 people.

• Ability to work long hours with little down time.

• Meal planning and sticking to a weekly budget.

• Creating well balanced and exciting meals daily.

• Keeping the galley and an exceptionally high standard following health and safety regulations. 

• Provisioning. Sourcing supplies, often tricky places or small towns.

• Housekeeping and service in earlier seasons. 

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Compass| Quality Assurance Coordinator/Supervisor | Jan-April 2022 | Tauranga Hospital 

• Supervised 40+ staff across 4 teams.

• Handling customer complaints by ensuring there was improvement in the quality of the food and service.

• Preparing documents and training staff for a Safe Sphere aduit.

• Health and safety team training through weekly toolbox meetings to continually improve staff knowledge.

• Managed the launch of Food Safe Pro (Quality Assurance Tool) in the Café’s and kitchen. Moving the temperature recording, cleaning schedules and job descriptions to an online system. Training my full team and cafe team to use it. Setting up temperature monitors in the fridges/freezers.

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Good Food Kitchen | Director | 2017- 2022 | Auckland | www.gfk.nz | @gfk_nz

 

• Excellent cooking ability; recipe development, cleaning eating, dietary requirements, nutritional focus. 

• Business skills; financial planning, critical thinking and creative direction.

• Administrative tasks; dealing directly with customers and stakeholders, translating workload into individual tasks, prioritising those tasks by creating timelines to get work completed on time, creating quotes and invoices and accounting. 

• Management and leadership; through excellent communication, delegating tasks, hiring and training new staff, creating a positive and safe working environment through interpersonal skills and building trust within the team. 

• Analytical and problem solving skills; considering every detail for each function, analysing possible problems before they arise, creating backup plans, ability to think on my feet if something goes wrong at the event. 

• Adaptable; able to step into any necessary role to get the job done. 

• Provisioning. Sourcing the freshest produce at the best price. Building good relationships with suppliers.

• Always having a friendly and positive disposition.

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One of a kind events | Project and event management | December 2020-November 2021

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• Responsible for overseeing every aspect of each event ensuring every detail has been considered and executed through a collaborative group effort. 

• Formatting reports and analysing data to influence the events. 

• Responsible for creating an event line up. Scheduling of workshops and performances. Finding vendors to provide equipment and food for the event. 

• Making sure a strict budget is met by financial planning. 

• Developing a timeline of tasks leading up to the event. Delegating tasks and ensuring they are met within timeframes through positive leadership.

• Overseeing progress to make sure goals are met on time by motivating individuals. 

• Establishing and maintaining relationships with vendors and venues.

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Fresh Media | Kitchen manager/food stylist/food writer | March 2021-December 2022

 

• Live cooking/styling and presenting food for video content and still photography

• Writing recipes that best highlight a product.

• Provisioning; dealing directly with clients to ensure we have enough stock for each photoshoot. Sourcing all other necessary products in a short time frame. 

• Adaptable; able to keep up with constant change. 

• Communication with the team directly and clients to ensure everyone is getting the outcome they want. 

• Ability to manage kitchen and pantry operations.

 

 My Food Bag | Chef & Food Stylist | November 2019-December 2020 (Maternity leave cover)

 

• Prepared and styled food for photo shoots, in a timely manner, keeping up with tight schedules.

• Ability to manage kitchen operations.

• Collaborating within a team environment. Communication has been key to getting the right result for all departments involved.

• Ordering supplies, usually in very tight timeframes, to ensure we have what we need in time for every photoshoot.

• Multitasking, for example cooking multiple dishes at once.

• Special projects; including a cookbook, Christmas photoshoots, an online blog, social media and television advertising.

 

Family Affair Catering | Manager/Chef | Auckland | 2003-2010, 2012-13, May 2017-December 2019

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• Food preparation; cooking, baking and recipe development.

• Overseeing the day to day running of a business.

• Administrative tasks. Quotes and invoices.

• Accounting and payroll.

• Liaising with clients and events organisers.

• Managing staff and delegating tasks.

• Staff training and hiring.

• Creating systems and instruction manuals for staffing to follow.

• Logistics.

• Provisioning.

 

Amy Eliav | Director  |Melbourne/Auckland | March 2015 -August 2017 | www.amycosson.com 

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• Created business plans, budgets, costings, stock forecasting and timeplans.

• Head of sales. Finding new stockists and building good relationships with existing stockists.

• Created marketing plans to best reach customers.

• Sourcing materials.

• Creative direction for products, photoshoots, social media and advertising.

• Designing, pattern making & hands on production of the products.

• Developed 6 ranges of leather goods and a menswear and womenswear clothing range.

 

The Fabric Store | Part time assistant | Auckland | February 2021 - November 2021 |

2IC | Melbourne | November 2015 -February 2017, July 2013 - January 2014 (Maternity leave cover) 

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• Managing and motivating staff.

• Time management and multitasking.

• Customer service; building relationships with both customers and wholesalers.

• Often meeting monthly sales targets. Top store in Australia for meeting sales targets.

• Noting trending fabrics and passing this information onto head office. 

• Ordering haberdashery to maintain full stock levels.

• Visual merchandising.

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Bul | Manager | Melbourne | February 2015- October 2015

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• Offering styling advice to customers. Making suggestions of stock a customer would suit and upselling accessories to go with outfits.

• Excellent customer service.

• Interpersonal skills. Able to build rapport with customers.

• Visual merchandising. 

• Meeting daily/weekly sales targets.

• Using a POS system. 

• Picking and shipping online sales through Shopify.

• Reorganising the outlet store and creating better organisation.

• Stocktake. Ordering stock for the outlet store.

• Filling in for the regional manager. 

• Able to give direction to staff and to other stores.

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Coeliac Praxis | Personal Blog | Worldwide | 2014-2017

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• Recipe development and experimental cooking.

• Experimenting with allergy friendly products.

• Writing about markets or special food spots I found whilst travelling. 

• Running a weekly blog.

• Social media marketing. 

• Photography. 

• Editing using Adobe photoshop 

• Prop and food styling.

• Website building.

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Camille Howe | Paid internship | Auckland | 2009

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• Quality control, pressing garments and sorting stock. 

• Cutting bulk garments 

• Administration

• Setting up social media

• Deliveries 

• Sales trip 

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Kookai | Part time retail assistant | Albany/New market | 2007-2009

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• Meeting daily/weekly sales targets.

• Using a POS system. 

• Excellent customer service skills.

• Unpacking new stock and remerchandising the products into the store.

• Upkeep of the store.

 

Red Beach Physiotherapy | Receptionist  | Auckland | 2005-2007

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• Administration tasks 

• Manage phone calls and correspondence

• Customer service 

• Keep stock of supplies and place orders when necessary