My name is Lauren Woods. I have a wonderful husband, Ashton, and gorgeous baby girl Erin, who is the light of our lives!

Ever since I was a little girl, I have always loved to be in the kitchen. I spent many happy hours watching, and helping my mother make lovely meals. Holidays were spent learning how to bake mouth-watering culinary delights with my grandfather, who happened to be an expert bread maker. I think this is where I developed a passion for making and decorating cakes. My dream was to one day become a world-renowned chef (or something along those lines!).

After completing school, I was afforded an opportunity to work in the international kitchen at Johannesburg International Airport as a trainee chef for a while. As life tends to have its ups and downs, unfortunately my dream and reality were not quite on the same page at the time, and it was put on hold... for a while.

The next 11 years were spent building my career from the ground up (pardon the pun), in the airline and charter industry. Although this was a wonderful experience, I still found myself spending lots of spare time in the kitchen, catering for small family functions, and baking novelty and birthday cakes. The cake making soon became a “part-time” business, and led to taking orders for wedding cakes too!

Subsequent to the birth of my daughter late in 2007, and having to return to work after a short maternity leave, I was driven more than ever to find a business opportunity that would allow me to work from home, earn a reasonable income, AND spend quality time with my daughter... nothing like wanting to have it ALL right?

Then I remembered watching a feature on Top Billing, where a mother, who once ran a very successful restaurant in Durban, was now operating a small business from home, where she was introducing young children (under the supervision of their mothers), to the concept of good nutrition, whilst having a lot of fun in the process. I remember thinking what a fantastic idea it was, and wished that I could do something similar.

After some investigating, I managed to find out the name of the business, which was called Little Cooks Club. Soon afterward, I started to see the name appear more frequently, and at the most unexpected moments, when finally I had to ask myself the all-important question: “Is someone trying to tell me something??”

Of course, Someone was! After a lot of deliberating, I finally mustered up the courage to contact Christine Phillips, the remarkable woman who created this amazing concept, and who, unbeknown to me at the time, was about to change my future.

At our very first meeting with Christine in December 2008, both my husband and I agreed that this was definitely something IHAD to pursue without any further hesitation.

And so that is what happened. I took the plunge, handed in my notice a mere 3 weeks later, and began to prepare for this wonderful new challenge. Let me tell you something, as a person who had spent all of my working life relying on someone else signing my pay cheque, this was a HUGE step to take, but a step in the right direction. Of this I was certain.

My very own Little Cooks Club was scheduled to start with the beginning of the second school term on 20^th April 2009. With not much time to arrange advertising, setting up my club with equipment, obtaining new clients, while still having to work out my notice period at my previous job AND looking after my family, you can well imagine what a chaotic period this was in my life.

With only 15 children enrolled to start at the very beginning, the wonderful group of mothers and children who attended my classes, started to grow very quickly. The good news was starting to spread that this great idea had finally made its way to the East Rand!

Now, a mere three and a half months later, I am proud to say that I have just over 40 kids enrolled in my classes, and the numbers are growing stronger all the time, with eager Little Cooks.

With each week that passes by, I am continuously encouraged by the enthusiasm and achievements of these children, regarding trying news foods and learning new skills. It brings me great joy to hear that they are eating foods that they wouldn’t have been in the same room with before, let alone helping their mothers to prepare them at home, and that I had a small role to play in this wonderful accomplishment!

Being constantly encouraged by my wonderfully supportive husband, family and friends, and not to omit the awesome group of women who are my fellow franchise colleagues, has surely enabled me to reach the point that i have now reached... SUCCESS!

An additional bonus, is that I am able to include my daughter in my weekly classes, which she absolutely loves, and of course, I thoroughly adore being able to share this special time with her.

I look forward to being able to spend more time with my Little Cooks, and to the new and exciting ideas that the franchise has to bring forward to our dedicated moms and kids in the future.

So, as it turns out, the saying is true: you CAN have your cake AND eat it too!

My name is Lauren Woods, proud and happy mother, and owner of Little Cooks Club, Edenvale/Bedfordview. I look forward to meeting all of you new Little Cooks out there, very soon!

Lauren Woods
082 445 8491
laurenw@littlecooksclub.co.za