Treasurer and Trustee ANN SMITH Dip.D MHCIMA

Grand-daughter of Joseph Hicks, Restaurateur and leading Event Caterer in Chelmsford and throughout Essex in the late 19th and early 20th century.

As a child, during the Second World War, she learnt all about peeling spuds for masses of hungry troops and, in her final year at school, passed the ‘Tattie Rogueing’ Course!

However, the Hicks family influence, through her mother’s much loved cooking skills, took Ann beyond potatoes to Edinburgh’s much acclaimed ‘Atholl Crescent’ to become a catering manager and to The Royal Infirmary School of Dietetics to qualify as a therapeutic dietician.

During the summer vacation of 1952 she toured with The Oxford & Cambridge Players, coping with the problems of food rationing and theatre life in Oxford, the West Country and at Riddle’s Court during the Edinburgh Fringe. Her final year, before qualifying, took her to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital and the experience of a lifetime, then 3 years as Senior Dietician at Stracathro Hospital in the county of Angus, before experiencing colonial life in The Gambia.

Back to normality at Edinburgh’s Western General dietetic department then, in 1962, a change of direction! The Hicks family influence played a major part in her accepting the post of caterer at the Traverse Theatre. After a few years Ann founded Town & Country Catering in Edinburgh and became a Restaurateur and an Event Caterer as well as gaining hotel experience as a director of Lithgow Hotels in the west of Scotland and cooking, menu planning and buying for Arthur Bell’s mail order business Scottish Gourmet.

Seeking semi-retirement Ann moved to the Scottish Borders where she could still work for Arthur but take on the job of organiser of the Scottish Committee of the Hotel & Catering Benevolent Association and later fundraiser for Hospitality Industry Trust Scotland (HIT Scotland) which supports hospitality students in colleges and universities.

Since retiring (completely!) Ann has worked as a volunteer in the Community Council and Village Centre of her local village and in Scottish Borders Tweeddale area’s Community Volunteer Service, Community Safety Panel and Village Halls Federation. She is Main Editor of ‘News & Views’ which disseminates information to the Parish of Carlops and to a wide area of Tweeddale West and beyond. She currently runs the monthly Market at the Carlops Village Hall and oversees a stall supporting The Food Trust Scotland.

Ann still enjoys sharing her expertise as a chef and hostess with friends and colleagues.