Dawn Foods ingredients appoints student ambassadors
As part of an on-going partnership with University College Birmingham (UCB) in the UK, bakery ingredients business Dawn Foods has appointed two new student ambassadors for 2020.
Marko Josipovic below) and Vaishnavi Vora (main image) are both second year students on UCB’s Bakery and Patisserie degree course.
A self-proclaimed ‘donut’ enthusiast, Marko is a keen food photographer who posts tempting pictures of his baking creations on his Instagram feed @Marko_bakes.
“I started baking when I was nine years old”, Marko explains.” My mom had a sweet tooth and she’d make a simple chocolate cake almost every weekend. It looked easy so I wanted to learn and soon I started making more complicated things and experimenting in the kitchen. I enjoy making different patisserie products particularly working with chocolate. Enriched breads like cinnamon rolls are my favourite.
“I’m really interested in food styling, blogging and photography and hope to do this full time in the future”.
Vaishnavi’s passion is for new product development, creating new ideas for commercial production.
“My mother used to bake cakes at home for my brother and me and she always asked me to help. This slowly became my hobby and later my passion”, explains Vaishnavi.
“I wanted a career where I could combine bakery with science and technology, so I travelled from my home in India to the UK to pursue a degree at UCB.
“I am passionate about cake decorating and love making cakes for family and friends but professionally I am in awe of the technology used in big companies and product trials. In the future, I would like to work as a new product development technologist or research and development technologist in a large-scale manufacturing company.”
The two student ambassadors will be working with Dawn on developing new ideas around seasonality trends with a focus on bakery application for vegan and gluten free diets. Working closely with Robin Loud, Dawn’s Application Chef, Marko and Vaishnavi will be creating new recipes that tap into seasonal bakery directions as well as ‘free from’ trends. The recipes will be available on the Dawn website and via social media for bakers to try for themselves. Dawn’s social platforms will also be used by both ambassadors for blog posts, sharing pictures, ideas, tips and trends.
Jacqui Passmore, Marketing Manager UK and Ireland at Dawn Foods said: “The Dawn Foods student ambassador programme has been running for several years now and is a great two-way process – students get insight and work experience within a global bakery manufacturer and we benefit hugely from their insight into the latest trends in bakery. New product development – Vaishnavi’s area of interest – is key for every forward-thinking bakery so we are looking forward to working with her to develop new ideas. Marko’s passion for social media is really exciting too – he has a great eye for brand building, and this will help support our marketing activity. Both will bring ideas and insights from the perspective of next generation of bakers.”
