She will remain as chair of the representative body for the hospitality, catering education and training sector until the annual conference in March 2025, with plans underway to hold the event in the north west.
She says her intention is to look to move to Dubai in May as a professor at one of the higher education centres.
“I’ve got a lot to do before then,” she said, with a December deadline looming for her thesis in the PhD she’s studying for with Surrey University.
With student enrolment numbers down in the catering and hospitality department of Middlesbrough College where she has worked for the last 17 years, Molly has opted for voluntary redundancy and stepped away from day-to-day teaching.
“I’ve loved that side of things. I’ve got students I’ve worked with over the years who are at the Dorchester and other top venues, but it’s a chance now to give myself the time I need to complete my studies. I’ve always emphasised this point to my students over the years, so now I’m taking my own advice.”
Not that giving up the day job is going to leave Molly with a lot of spare time.
Alongside her studies she says she is going out one day a week to help deliver the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts (RACA) Adopt a School scheme, which takes leading chefs into classrooms to talk about cooking and lead practical workshops.
Says Molly: “Before lockdown I helped raise about £10,000 for this work and then we didn’t get a chance to spend it, so now we are.”
She is also helping plan a follow-up fund-raiser for the scheme on March 20th 2025, when colleges in Middlesbrough, Darlington and Newcastle come together to host a charity meal at a leading venue in the region.
It offers the chance for students to work with some big-name chefs to produce a three-course meal, with other chefs contributing dining experiences at their restaurants as prizes for the raffle.
“The target is to match the £10,000 we raised last time, but I’d love to make it more,” she says.
When she does move To Dubai she hopes this will be a legacy she can leave for catering students in the north east.
In the meantime she says she will continue in her role with PACE, going round to colleges to make the case for the work it does, and will continue to push for closer involvement between employers in the public sector and the colleges helping to train the chefs and catering managers of tomorrow.