Bains slams catering college ‘dinosaurs'

Michelin-starred chef Sat Bains has slammed catering college lecturers for being "dinosaurs" and urged them to quit the profession.

Asked on BBC Radio 4 about standards of training in the hospitality industry, Bains said: "The majority of lecturers are dinosaurs. They haven't got a clue about what's going on in the industry in terms of new styles and the ways menus are presented."

He added that most students he spoke to felt demotivated by their lecturers, and said: "It is shocking that they are allowed to talk to the next generation of young chefs."

The attack came last week on the You and Yours programme, on which Bains, chef-patron of Restaurant Sat Bains at Nottingham's Hotel des Clos, had been invited to discuss Gordon Ramsay's new Channel 4 series, which has highlighted training issues.

Bains added that several offers by him to give demonstrations at local colleges had not been followed up by lecturers. He claimed: "There is no passion. Most lecturers are just concerned with filling places."

His opinions were supported by Annie Schwab, co-proprietor of Lincolnshire's two-Michelin-starred Winteringham Fields restaurant. She said: "Unfortunately, many lecturers lose interest and leave the industry to work in colleges because they see it as the easy option."

Patrick Trodden, director of culinary arts at the University of Salford, who was also on the programme's panel, said that his college often invites chefs in to cook and takes students out to restaurants. He added: "In Manchester, people in education are switched on, they cook with passion. He must have had a bad experience."

Trodden has invited Bains to visit the University of Salford. The meeting will be aired on Radio 4's You and Yours programme on Wednesday 19 May.