The teaching of Zen
Damian Nolan has something in common with Jamie Oliver. At the same time that Oliver was working on his London restaurant Fifteen, half-a-mile away Nolan was also training a group of youngsters to enter the restaurant business.
Like Oliver's aspiring catering army, most had never worked in a professional kitchen or restaurant. Building work for Zen Satori in Hoxton went over budget by £100,000 and, like Fifteen, the restaurant had its share of wrangles with Hackney Borough Council over extractor fans. Then the opening was delayed by three months when the restaurant's gas meter was stolen.
Despite the delays, Zen Satori opened on 18 September 2002 in its home below the Asian and Oriental School of Catering. It offers classic Thai, Chinese, Indian, Singaporean and Vietnamese dishes for lunch and dinner. The average bill is £18 per head for three courses plus wine, while set lunch menus are £5.95. The decor is modern, there are 35 fine-dining seats, 40 banquette seats where fast lunchtime food is served, and a viewing gallery where up to six diners can see the chefs at work. Leon Zhang manages the front of house team of eight, while Saviour Thomas is head chef over a brigade of nine.
Zen Satori is the showcase for what the school has achieved since it opened in September 1999, bringing much-needed resources and training opportunities to the traditionally isolated ethnic restaurant industry.
It all started in 1997. Holland Kwok, owner of the Good Earth Group; Atique Choudhury, owner of three Thai restaurants; and Indian restaurateur Cyrus Todiwala all served as committee members for the Breaking the Logjam report on the ethnic restaurant trade, which highlighted the problems of one the fastest-growing industries in hospitality.
Made up of more than 20,000 restaurants, the ethnic restaurant industry was found to have little structure and few resources. Small restaurants, in particular, weren't using mainstream education and had no access to qualified staff or relevant training. Language was a problem, and there was even found to be a lack of understanding of cuisine.
Choudhury, Todiwala and Kwok decided to set up a school specifically to help equip the ethnic restaurant trade with the services it lacked. From their own resources, plus funding from European and London agencies, they raised £1m and opened in Hoxton as a non-profit organisation in 1999.
Nolan was enlisted to run the school, and he explains the thinking behind it: "The myth that the Indian restaurant market looks after itself was found to be untrue. Small businesses in the ethnic community are no different from small businesses in the mainstream. While they may rely on family members to run the business, they also have to recruit skilled staff from outside. They have to understand the market and develop their business around it in order to survive. As an example, the average lunchtime now lasts 17 minutes - it's about how you respond to that."
The school offers courses and programmes to about 600 students a year, aimed at owners, managers and personnel at all levels. Courses range from NVQs in food service, food preparation and customer care to specialist short courses in Thai, Chinese and Indian cookery. There are day-release and full-time courses for chefs and restaurant employees, and 15 apprenticeship places are offered every six months. The school has so far trained 1,500 people and found employment for 150.
Emphasis is placed on the links between the school and the industry it was set up to serve. Nolan relies on consultation with the directors and members of the hospitality industry in order to adapt to its needs. Courses are tailored to meet the requirements and timescales of its customers. Industry involvement, from small businesses to the contract catering giants, is not only welcomed but demanded.
"We hear about the skills shortage and the lack of training in this industry all the time," says Nolan. "This is an attempt to do something about it, so we try to engage the industry as often as possible."
Yet while the restaurant is very much part of the school's operation, Zen Satori is run like any public restaurant. "All the students work under normal pressures," says Nolan. "We've just taken a booking for 45 people on Friday lunchtime. The restaurant is a commercial venture, and it's very important that we are not seen as a student restaurant."
There have been problems. A Time Out critic came in on the day head chef Saviour Thomas was ill, and students were left on their own. The review wasn't good, but it taught Nolan a lesson. "They said we served ‘canteen food from canteen students'," he says. "Since then we underpin the restaurant with our professional chefs at all times."
The indicators for the future of Zen Satori are good. Business in the run-up to Christmas was a healthy 100 covers a day, the students have come on "superbly", and Nolan has had attention from magazines and radio alike. Maybe not quite on the scale of Jamie Oliver, but it'll do for him.
Zen Satori
40 Hoxton Street, London N1 6LR
Tel: 020 7613 9590
Open: Tuesday to Friday 11.30am to 11pm; Saturday 6pm to 11pm
Restaurant manager: Leon Zhang
Head chef: Saviour Thomas
Seats: 35 fine-dining, 40 banquette area, six viewing area
Staff: 17
Average bill per head: £18 for three courses and wine; set lunch £5.95
Cuisine: Indian, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian
The apprentices
Sarjett Singh, 42. "I used to be an engineer but I've always loved cooking. Every week I cook for 300 people at my local church, but I've never worked in a restaurant before and I was intrigued by food preparation. I wanted to learn how to make food look great even before you taste it. Working in a restaurant has its ups and downs - you need to know what you are doing. If the finances go all right, I'd like to open my own Indian Sikh restaurant."
Louis Colley, 17. "My mum taught me how to cook - I learnt to do spaghetti bolognaise and then I started making pizzas from scratch. I came here because I thought I'd like to learn to make different types of food. I love the energy of working in the kitchen and working under pressure. I get bored when it's not busy. Some day I'd like to open my own restaurant or teach food technology."
Shelly Peers, 17. "I've cooked Thai food at home in northern Thailand and like to cook for my flatmates here - it makes me happy. I like everything about working in the kitchen but I also enjoy doing the front of house aspect, too. I've learnt a lot here. You can talk to the teachers and if you don't understand something they'll always help you. One day I'd like to work in a hotel restaurant."
Gareth Davies, 17. "I come from a family that does a lot of cooking. Asian and Oriental food is my favourite, so I wanted to experience cooking it. There's loads you can do with this style - you can put your voice across and put new flavours together. Chinese is my favourite, but after this I'd like to learn European styles. Working in the restaurant is a great experience for when you go out in the world."
The Asian and Oriental School of Catering
40 Hoxton Street, London N1 6LR
Starting on 13 January, short evening courses are available between 6pm and 8pm in Indian, Thai, Chinese, Vietmanese and Indonesian cookery. Cost is £15 per session.
For more information on courses call 020 7613 9292.
