A former hedge fund employee who makes chutneys from waste food has been named as one of the UK’s most promising female entrepreneurs.
Jenny Dawson, 27, was inspired to start Rubies in the Rubble by her mother who used to make preserves from left-over fruit and vegetables at their family home in Scotland.
Miss Dawson, from Bethnal Green, is one of three finalists in the Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award, celebrating up-and-coming businesswomen under 35. She said: “It is overwhelming that a young, small company like ours was noticed.”
She left her City job in 2011 to start “something she was passionate about”. She said: “You see so much food waste everywhere. I thought there must be something that could be done about it.”
Miss Dawson and her assistant — helped by three chefs — make more than 250 jars of chutney a day out of wasted food from stalls at their kitchen in New Spitalfields Market. The chutneys are stocked in Fortnum & Mason and go on sale at Selfridges next week.
