We all love a good half time snack at a game of football, but what if it was more than just a pie and chips?
At Blundell Park, both home and away fans are treated to a taste extravaganza thanks to Paul Cook of Cooky Cooks. With restaurant standard food delivered during the interval, there’s no wonder pictures of his creations have been doing the rounds on social media with people from all over the world blown away by what’s on offer.
However, cooking hasn’t always been his vocation. Working in sales for 22 years, Paul made the huge leap to go full time with Cooky Cooks in 2019 travelling all over with his weird and wonderful recipes. Now, he can picture himself doing nothing else.
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He said: “I’ve always loved cooking and I would often cook for my friends and family. I started doing it as a pop up shop part time in 2019 to see how it would go and two years later I handed in my notice at my other job to take it full time.
“Since then, I’ve never really looked back.” Not tying himself down to one cuisine in particular, Paul cooks all sorts from pizza to fried chicken. Creating amazing concoctions like the Otis chicKhan, named after Grimsby Town player Otis Kahn, Paul has enjoyed pop-up life and credits it as the reason for his success.
“It’s really helped me to get to different places and try new things. I’ve definitely reached more people by being in a number of places rather than having a shop in one location. If I’m honest, I think deciding to stay as a pop up is one of the reasons the business has done so well.”
(Image: Submitted Image)
With that in mind, he’s got no plans to find a permanent home. “The dream right now would be maybe to have a permanent workshop where I could try and come up with different dishes and flavours. I really like the flexibility of my work now so I wouldn’t change that, especially now I’m a dad.”
He added: “The fact I can work the business around life is great for me and I don’t want to change that. I’m living my dream right now and I just want to keep on doing what I’m doing and coming up with silly names for my dishes.” Recently, Paul has enjoyed great success by becoming one of the staple vendors at Blundell Park, home of Grimsby Town Football Club.
(Image: Submitted Image)
Having been given a chance out of the blue after another vendor couldn’t make it, Paul soon impressed the black and white army with his funky dishes and has gone from strength to strength since. “I’m now a permanent fixture for the home and away fans.
“The food, and especially the names, seems to go down really well with the fans and I’m so grateful for the support they’ve shown. Every where I go people seem to enjoy it and I even get stopped in the street by people saying how nice my food is.”
His creations have also been celebrated online by football food pages, which has become a surreal situation for the man from Grimsby. “To see my food going across the world online gives me a great feeling, but it still doesn’t feel real. I’m just so thankful to the fans and the football club for how well things have gone and I can’t wait to keep creating more dishes in the future.”
