Following the successful Hotelympia weekend, it was full steam ahead at Bachmanns for Mothers Day and Easter preparation. With Bachmanns closed on Sundays and Mondays I always try to make the most out of my weekend and the last few Mondays have been busy doing things.
On Monday 8th March I travelled down to Portsmouth to give a chocolate demonstration and inspirational talk to the students at Highbury College. Having spent time with the colleges Principal, Stella Mbubaegbu CBE in Calgary at the last WorldSkills Competition, I was keen to keep a link with the college as they run hospitality courses. The demo was very well recieved and the students were very keen and interested. Some of them were training for the Wessex Salon Culinaire and I helped them with that as well having judged Hotelympia the week before. I was pleased to hear that they did very well. I was also treated to a 3 course lunch with Jackie Page and Martin Tarbuck in Chimes, the colleges training restaurant - the food was of a very high standard and something the college are and should be proud of, its also open to the public. If you live in Portsmouth or surrounding area, Highbury is the best college down there. For more information : www.higbury.ac.uk
The following Monday saw me back at my old stomping ground of Thames Valley University where I covered for Yolande Stanley MCA's first year degree class. Having recently completed a term of lecturing there and now used as a part-time lecturer it was again good to pass my skills to other young chefs. At Bachmanns we make wonderful fruit frangipane tarts nearly every day and that was what was needed to be covered in the BSc class whcih was excellent because I know what can go wrong and how to get them perfect and I was really pleased as the students all paid attention to the skills and came out with really great products. TVU have just won the prestigious Queen's Anniversary Prize for outstanding achievement and
excellence in hospitality education and earlier in the month Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter John and Professor David Foskett MBE
accepted the award on behalf of TVU, which is one of just 21 colleges
and universities across the country to win the award and the only modern
university in this biennial round to receive the royal accolade from the Queen at Buckingham Palace. In London, TVU is the best place for hospitality and has great lecturers and facilities. For more information: www.tvu.ac.uk
Monday just gone saw the final of the fantastic FutureChef competition hosted by Springboard as Westminster Kingsway College. I've been involved with FutureChef for the last three years and I think its a superb. Kids as young as 12 up to 16 compete to a very high standard and there food is sometimes better that food I have eaten in proper restauarants - they are always so focused and determined and at a young age is so vital and important to their future careers. Not only do they have to cook in a professional kitchen they have never stepped foot in before they are also judged by industry experts who this year included Theo Randell, Lesley Walters, Cyrus Todiwala OBE, Chris Galvin, John Williams and Brian Turner. ALthough I didn't judge this year like the previous two finals, I really enjoyed the day helping out in the kitchen watching the amazing young talent on show and seeing what potential they all had. The winner was announced by Brian Turner as sixteen year old Kerry Johansen from the North West who works on match days at Everton Football Club. Speaking to Brian Turner who is the Chairman of FutureChef;
"FutureChef is an inspirational programme which gives young people a
wonderful insight into this fabulous industry. Every single young person
who takes part in FutureChef displays an enthusiasm that the
hospitality industry would be proud of, but the twelve National
Finalists and in particular the winners are the absolute cream of the
FutureChef 2010 crop.
It was an excellent day and very inspiring to see the competitiors work brilliantly and I hope to be writing about the next one next year.
As my first blog as Acorn Scholar 2010, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about me before telling you about this past weekend's Hotelympia competition.
I'm a pastry chef at the award winning Bachmanns Patisserie in Thames Ditton and have worked there for 2 years along side 3 other pastry chefs and occaisionally the renowned Ernst Bachmanns who has trained some of the modern great pastry chefs. Long before working at Bachmanns I began my culinary career at The Fat Duck at 15 when I did a work experience week with Heston that would change my life forever! Continuing through school and A-Levels, I then began my degree at Thames Valley University where I met my tutor and mentor, Yolande Stanley MCA. Yolande introduced me to WorldSkills and I will blog soon about WorldSkills. I finsihed TVU with a 1st Class Honours degree before flying to Japan alongside 25 other young skilled men and women to compete against the rest of the world at the prestigious four day competition. By the end of it, I became the first British pastry chef to win the coveted Medallion Of Excellence and gaining 6th place beating the likes of France, Germany and Switzerland. Last year I was awarded the Young Chef Award by the Craft Guild of Chefs.
After Japan I wanted to keep competing and last weekend saw the Hotelympia competition at ExCel in London. Hotelympia is a major hospitality show that happens every two years and encompasses the Salon Culinaire de Londres which is a collection of static and live competitions. On Sunday I was competiting in my first senior class at my first Hotelympia. Having worked frantically on my tea pastries the week before at work which included a Coffee and chocolate pyramid, Passionfruit and Strawberry charlotte, cherry and chocolate linzer tart and pistachio choux bun amonst others, I was extremeley pleased with my Silver medal position.
Getting good constructive feedback from the judges was excellent and I will certainly learn from this for next year's Hospitality competition at the NEC. On Monday and Tuesday I was privilidged enough to be asked to judge similar competitions both in junior and senior classes. I thourghly enjoyed the judging experience as I learned lots of new skills which will hopefully also help me for competiting. On the Monday I also did a demonstration along side Yolande (me mentor) and Alistair Birt, who alongside Yolande, I helped train for the 2009 WorldSkills in Calgary (which I was also at in a UK Ambassadorial role to the Premiere Experience). He also won a Medallion of Excellence and has become a great friend. Demonstarting different chocolate techniques included a "Ready, Steady Cook" style competition which saw both me and Alistair make a centre piece out of chocolate against the clock. A great afternoon and well received by the audience. On the Tuesday I judged the UKSkills "Search for A Star" competition which is the first heat of the competitior shortlisting process for the next WorldSkills competition in London in October 2011. All the competitors did extremely well and I am looking forward to seeing them compete at the National final in April.
Bachmanns were very proud and pleased of my achievements at Hotelympia and so it's been back to work with preparations in hand for Easter with eggs coming out of all our ears ready to hit our shelves for Mothers Day.