A busy few Mondays!
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.