January Profile: Cindy Webster & Emma Humes
This month, we spoke with the wonderful duo from Cindy Webster Cooks, Cindy & Emma! A family and female led recruitment business, we wanted to shine a light on the impressive work they do to make sure the best possible service is being provided to their clients and cooks. We all know what goes into a shoot day and sporting holidays but did you know there has been a meticulous process to make sure that the experience delivered is exceptional? Enter Cindy Webster Cooks!
In the world of sporting estates, shooting weeks and fishing lodges, good food is never an afterthought. It is part of the experience - rooted in place, season and what the day has yielded. For more than four decades, Cindy Webster has worked quietly behind the scenes of this world, matching skilled cooks with private clients, and helping ensure that what is shot, caught or hunted is cooked with knowledge and respect.
Cindy Webster Cooks is a family-run business specialising in placing experienced cooks and catering staff with private clients for sporting weeks, private lunches, family celebrations and festive gatherings, both at home and abroad. Many of the cooks on their books are experts in preparing game and wild produce, from venison and grouse to pheasant, partridge and fish, skills that are central to traditional fieldsports hospitality.
Based in the Scottish Borders, Cindy has spent 40 years working at the intersection of food, people and the sporting landscape. An experienced cook turned recruiter, she brings rare practical insight into what these roles truly require: adaptability, discretion, stamina and deep culinary knowledge. She founded Cindy Webster Cooks in 2011, and the business marks its 15th year this year.
In 2023, Cindy’s niece Emma Humes joined the company and established the Blairgowrie office. Emma has focused on improving systems and processes to support a growing community of cooks and clients, helping the business evolve while retaining its personal, relationship-led approach.
Fieldsports have long relied on women’s labour, skill and organisational strength, even when their contributions go unremarked. Cindy and Emma’s partnership reflects that tradition. Working closely together, they share values of honesty, care and practical problem-solving, always aiming to find the right match for both cook and client. Their reputation rests almost entirely on trust, with many clients and cooks returning year after year through word of mouth alone.
A defining feature of the business is time: time spent meeting every cook, and time spent understanding each client’s needs in detail. In a sector where expectations are high and conditions can change quickly, that attention makes the difference.
In a field where heritage matters, Cindy Webster Cooks quietly highlights the central role women continue to play - sustaining standards, skills and relationships at the heart of field sports life.
