From student to restaurant owner - Codi's Kitchen

How Codi’s experience at Bury College prepared her for success

Codi first developed her professional cooking skills while studying Catering at Bury College, where she learned the technical foundations that she still uses in her cooking creations today.

From knife skills and food preparation to health and safety and classical training methods, Codi says the course helped her understand how a professional kitchen really operates. Although her current style of cooking is very different from the classical cooking techniques she learned at college, those core skills continue to shape how she works with ingredients and manages her kitchen.

A particularly influential part of her course was the opportunity to work in the college bistro, serving real customers. This gave her early experience of the pace, pressure and communication skills required in hospitality, helping her become confident not only in the kitchen, but front of house too.

One message from a tutor has stayed with her throughout her career and directly influenced how she runs her restaurant today.

“The sign of a good restaurant is somewhere anyone can eat.”

Codi has made sure that her restaurant is just that, as Codi’s menu focuses on being inclusive and accessible, with most dishes suitable for gluten-free and vegan customers.

Codi chose Bury College because the course content appealed to her and because the course gave her the ideal foundation for a career in the hospitality industry.

Codi’s journey after College to setting up her restaurant

While studying, Codi took on part-time work with a catering company to build experience alongside her course. After graduating, she successfully secured a role at the well-known Manchester restaurant Australasia.

Working in a fast-paced, high-end environment proved challenging, but it allowed Codi to develop professionally and gain valuable insight into modern, international cuisine. She remained there for 18 months before deciding to take her career overseas. After doing some travelling, Codi returned home during the Covid pandemic.

It was at this point that her career took an unexpected turn.

With no job and limited resources, Codi decided to create her own opportunity. Working from her auntie’s kitchen, she began producing meals and developing a menu with support from her grandad, combining family influences with flavours inspired by her professional experience.

She initially delivered chilled meals across Manchester, before moving into hot food delivery through platforms such as Just Eat. As demand continued to grow, it became clear that operating from home was no longer sustainable.

Codi secured her first small premises and began offering takeaway alongside limited dine-in service. Eighteen months later, she relocated to a new site on the high street in Prestwich, giving the business greater visibility and allowing it to develop into the restaurant it is today.

The learnings of being a restaurant owner

Opening her first restaurant brought an immediate and intense learning curve. On the very first day of trading, Codi sold out within hours, quickly realising that running a restaurant single-handedly was not sustainable.

With the help of her parents, siblings and friends in the early weeks, Codi gradually began to build a permanent team. Today, the business employs eight full-time staff alongside several part-time team members, marking a significant step forward from the early days of operating from a family kitchen.

The concept behind Codi’s Kitchen is closely linked to her professional background, working with raw, fresh, and vibrant ingredients, which now form the heart of the restaurant’s Pan-Asian menu.

Looking ahead, Codi hopes to continue growing the brand and would like to explore franchising in the future.