Lyn was born and bred in West Dulwich, and lived in a six bedroom house on the South Croxted Road SE21. She came from a large family, 7 of them in all. 3 elder brothers and sisters, Lyn was the youngest. She has great memories of growing up in their massive house, with a 120 foot garden, full of every fruit tree, berry bushes, and vegetable plot you could imagine. Both Mum and Dad worked, so everyone in the family had to pull their weight in the household. Mum was a traditional matriarch, providing food for her family, which is where Lyn started to learn her craft. She can peel a whole sack of spud in lightning time.
Lyn was a hardworker, having a paper round at an early age – delivering to rich people in Dulwich, such as Sir Michael Grade, Harry Carpenter, Eric Morley, (and we won’t mention Rolf Harris!). She was not academic at school, but she was a talented athlete. In secondary school she was identified to represent Britian in the javelin, and was hoping to be picked for the Olympics. Sadly, an ankle injury put paid to her ambitions. However, she dusted herself off, and transferred her javelin skills to throwing Darts. She played for London & England Darts Team in 1976 and brushed shoulders on the circuit with the likes of Eric Bristow blah blah. Travelled the length and breadth of the country playing darts in Pubs, winning trophies.
Lyn worked at R. Gordon and Drummond, a chemist in Westminster, as well as the High Courts of Justice, as a clerk for the Families court.
She married Michael in 1980 and they settled onto the Kingswood Estate in East Dulwich. They had two children, Danielle and James. Lyn got a job at Kingsdale Secondary School, as it fitted in with the children. She worked as a Kitchen assistant/Cashier, as well as cooks help (assistant cook). It is a large secondary school with 2,500 pupils, the catering service is large scale, complex and full of diversity of both cultures and diets. The school role is 2,500 pupils.
In 2000 Lyn took a weekend job at the Pavilion café in Dulwich park. A prestigious place and location. The café provided a breakfast service, alongside a Coffee shop style offer – freshly filled baguettes & sandwiches, lunchtime entrees, pantry items, cakes, biscuits etc. It has a separate ice-cream parlour, serving artisan ice-creams. The café attracted many celebrity customers. To name some at the time is James Nesbit, Lesley Sharpe, David Walliams, Jo Brand & Ainsley Harriot. She became the griddle chef there. She was naturally talented at it, and could spin 20-30 breakfasts at a time, making it look easy. She was very popular with the customers. She had a thing of wearing novelty/themed socks – like Mr men, Disney, Pokemon etc. The children used to queue up, to see which socks she was wearing today.
Annually, the park hosted the Dulwich Park Fair. The café was the cornerstone of this event. It was such a vibrant day. Absolutely exhausting, but such great fun.
After compass group lost the contract for Pavilion café, Lyn was TUPE’d over to the new company – the owners Satu and Domini were very wealthy but had no experience in catering. They had made all their wealth in the Fashion industry. Lyn became unhappy in her work. We started Yvelyn catering, whilst keeping both our “day jobs” which acted as a decent stop gap for both of us until the opening of The Bread of Life Café in 2004.
There are three strong threads running through Lyn’s bones… the love for her family and friends, her love for the local community and her absolute passion for good food and drink. It has been said on more than once occasion “Lyn’s cellar is the best kept in the South East.” Don’t take the locals word for it… find out for yourself. We look forward to welcoming you!
