Hospitality Week
19/02/10
Its not every day that you have the opportunity to take a tour of possibly one of London's most glamorous hotels and we enjoyed both a tour of the stunning public spaces and rooms of The Dorchester hotel and an incredible tour of the kitchens which are so large that chefs and waiters travel between the kitchens and restaurants on a series of escalators and conveyor belts!
During our visit to the Thistle Hotel in Kensington Gardens we had a presentation about the running of the hotel and a tour of the entire hotel and kitchens.
At Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant the Fifteen restaurant training Chef Lucien told us about the much acclaimed chef apprenticeship scheme which offers young people, often in need of a break in life, the chance to transform their lives through the experience of learning to work in the restaurant business with the profits from the Fifteen restaurant helping to fund the programme. We learnt that Fifteen is named after the first cohort of 15 young people who joined the London chef apprenticeship scheme in 2002, and we heard how Fifteen sources its ingredients using only seasonal, high quality ingredients from suppliers in the UK and Italy to produce their delicious Italian-Mediterranean menus.
Following this all the students competed in a Saturday Kitchen style two-egg omelette challenge to see who could cook the fastest omelette. The winners Leo Pantelaki and Harley Long, who managed not only to do it in under 40 seconds but also turned out a decent omelette, received signed copies of Jamie Oliver's latest book.
Lastly we visited the kitchens of the brasserie restaurant at the Malmaison Hotel in the Barbican renowned for French classic food. As well as taking a tour of the chic hotel, students had the fantastic opportunity of cooking the celebrated luxury French dish of Lobster Thermidor - included killing, complex preparation and cooking under the watchful eye of the Head Chef. And to finish the week on a high students enjoyed sampling the end product!
Chris Potgieter
Head of Hospitality, Travel and Tourism
Highbury Grove School,
Highbury Fields School
Cental Foundation Boys' School
St Aloysius' College