Media24 opens Woolworths TASTE food assistant internship in Cape Town for 2026

Why this is a realistic first job

Most culinary school graduates in South Africa expect their first job to be a gruelling commis chef position in a hotel or restaurant. That usually means split shifts, late nights, and years of repetitive prep work before anyone asks for your creative input. Commercial food media is a completely different route, and entry-level openings in it are rare.

This Media24 vacancy on the Woolworths TASTE content team is structured specifically for people leaving culinary training who want to take their kitchen skills into photography and video production instead of traditional hospitality. It is a realistic entry point because it does not ask for years of commercial studio credits. Production teams know that styling for the camera is a specialised craft that nobody teaches fully in college. They look for candidates who already understand foundational food hygiene, knife skills, and ingredient handling, and then train them on how cameras and lighting change the way food must be prepped.

Cape Town is the centre of South Africa's commercial stills and film production industry. Entering that world as an assistant on an established retail brand gives you immediate exposure to commercial standards that would otherwise take years of networking to see from the inside.

What you will learn in the first months

Working in a test kitchen or on a photo set is very different from cooking for diners. In a restaurant, the goal is flavour, correct temperature, and speed. In a studio, the priority is how a dish holds up under warm studio lights, how the textures read through a macro lens, and whether an ice cream scoop will collapse before the photographer gets the frame.

During your first few months on set, you will learn the practical mechanics of production:

• Sourcing ingredients with extreme precision, such as finding four bunches of herbs with zero blemishes or sourcing out-of-season produce from specialty suppliers across Cape Town.
• Staging and food prep timing, so dishes hit the set at the exact moment the lighting team is ready.
• Assisting with prop organisation, backdrop care, and keeping kitchen work stations spotless while a shoot is actively running.
• Recipe documentation, checking measurements, calculating ingredient costs, and tracking pantry stock.

You will also learn set etiquette. Commercial shoots involve art directors, client representatives, photographers, and videographers working against tight daily call sheets. Learning how to move quietly, anticipate what a senior stylist needs before they ask, and keep calm when a dish has to be remade three times is half the job.

Applying with little or no experience

If you have just finished a culinary certificate, diploma, or cookery qualification, you might wonder what to include in your application when you have never worked on an advertising campaign.

Start with what you have. Media24 asks for examples of food or creative work alongside your CV and academic results. You do not need professional studio photographs taken with high-end cameras. Clean, sharp phone photos taken in good natural daylight showing your own plating, baking, or prep work are enough to demonstrate attention to detail.

When writing your brief cover letter, focus on three specific points:

First, acknowledge your culinary training directly. Mention the school or programme, what you specialised in, and confirm your grounding in kitchen safety and hygiene.

Second, explain why you want to move toward visual content rather than restaurant service. Talk about your interest in composition, visual balance, recipe testing, or photography. Be specific. If you have spent time studying food styling techniques or following food publications, name what catches your eye.

Third, address reliability head-on. Shoots frequently start early in the morning to catch prep time before call times, and days can run long. State clearly that you are dependable, organised, and ready for physical kitchen work. A candidate who turns up on time, keeps prep stations clean, and listens carefully is far more valuable to a lead stylist than someone with grand ideas who leaves dishes unwashed.

Turning it into a career, not just an income

An internship of this nature lasts 12 months, and you should treat it as an apprenticeship in an industry that rarely recruits through standard job boards. Most working food stylists in South Africa are freelancers or independent contractors who pick up commercial advertising, packaging work, and editorial projects through personal reputation.

Use your time on the Woolworths TASTE brand to build professional relationships. Every shoot connects you with photographers, videographers, retouchers, and art directors. If you establish yourself as an assistant who is quick, tidy, and calm under pressure, stylists will remember your name when freelance assistant bookings come up after your contract concludes.

Beyond styling, this type of production experience opens doors into commercial recipe development, test kitchen management for supermarket chains, food editing, and content production for digital agencies. The commercial food world in South Africa is small. Twelve months spent learning on one of the country's most prominent retail food accounts gives you an industry reference that carries weight on your CV for years to come.