From cooking-under-pressure with army chefs using ration packs, to learning how to offer the best hospitality on board an aeroplane, hospitality and catering students at West Nottinghamshire College welcomed various guests in the kitchens and bar at the Derby-road based restaurant, Refined.
Head of animal care and hospitality and catering Helen Wilcockson said: “This team never fails to impress our students when it comes to organising industry week activities.
“Learners have experienced such a varied agenda from creating their own food and drink to tasting the talents of other professionals.
“Industry week has also broadened their horizons when it comes to seeing just how many job types are available across the sector such as a supermarket or retail ‘ready meal chef’, and this is so important when they’re starting to think about the paths they are looking to take in the next year or two.”
Take a closer look at how Industry Week played out for the students…
1. Army experience
Professional cookery students worked under pressure with the Army cooking a three-course meal with ration pack ingredients. The Army’s 167 catering support regiment set trainee chefs the task of creating a three-course menu using ration packs, which would typically be issued to troops ‘in the field’. Students learnt more about the range of catering roles within the Army whilst discovering the range of nutritional options which can be created from limited ingredients. Photo: West Nottinghamshire College
2. Rations
Just one of the creative dishes made from ration pack ingredients Photo: West Nottinghamshire College
3. Food masters
Trainee chefs joined Matt Gabbitas from Pilgrim Food Masters for a ready meal taste test. Matt Gabbitas from Pilgrim Food Masters joined students on a frozen food assessment mission. Matt, whose chef career spans over 17 years, now works as senior research and development chef for the food manufacturer, whose meals are stocked in many well-known shops. Matt asked students to try different meals from budget range to superior range. Students gave feedback on the appearance, taste and texture of each meal and then guessed what price each meal was set at. Photo: West Nottinghamshire College
4. Serving passengers
Maria Gunning, who is a member of Eastern Airways’ cabin crew, joined hospitality supervision students on-board the college’s ‘Vision Air’, part of an Airbus A320 ex-passenger airline, which is used to train mainly travel and tourism students in the skills needed to become cabin crew staff. Photo: West Nottinghamshire College