THE head chef of Cactus Jacks swapped his day job at the restaurant for a role as food designer on Martin Scorsese’s new film Tomorrow, which is being produced by Salisbury native Dean Woodford.

Dean Crabb knows Woodford from their time together working at the restaurant in the city and was only too happy to step in when the original food designer on the film had to pull out due to sickness.

He said: “I was only supposed to stay and do one scene but the director Martha Pinson was so impressed with my work that she asked me to come back and do another one.

“When I came back the second time they made me an extra as a reward for all of my hard work. So in the scene with James Cosmo I am actually presenting my own food to him.”

The film, as reported previously in the Journal, explores the difficult reintegration into normal society of battle-worn soldiers with one of the characters in the film attempting to start up his own restaurant business.

During the filming it was Dean’s task to make sure that the food the actors were eating throughout the scene was in top condition.

He added: “The first scene was done in one shoot so it was quite easy but in the second one they had to re-shoot a number of times.

“It meant I had to keep remaking the dishes and putting them back in exactly the same place as before.

“The actors would just be nibbling at the food during the throughout the scene so they eat a lot of food while filming.

He said: “It was a really great experience and amazing to work with somebody like James Cosmo who is from Game of Thrones.”