Future Chef

This week both Robert our head chef and Noel our sous chef spent a morning at Oban High School working with a calls of 20 students as part of the Future Chef competition. The competition is organized by Springboard UK and starts with local schools running heats to choose the most suitable candidates to move forward to the area finals. The winners of this final will then represent their region at the country final and then the best in Scotland will compete against the other nations in London.

It is not only a fantastic opportunity for the children but also a great chance for the industry to inspire and enthuse the youngsters to join the industry. It is also a great opportunity for the staff from the industry to see what goes on in schools and see how things have changed since they left school. It is all very well for us to criticize the standards of the students who apply for jobs with us however having seen the conditions and the levels off the teaching we can all sympathize. it is very easy when you are working in the catering industry on a full time business to forget that students only deal with this subject on both a part time and limited basis.

However by Robert and Noel spending time with the school it helps the school and staff liaise with the industry and helps them understand the expectations of the industry and also in return it allows the industry to see the hard work the education system are putting in within the tough constraints that they operate. It was however good when Robert returned to hear from both he and Noel on how the day had gone. they both were on delighted by the enthusiasm of both the staff and students and both also proud of the two students they had chosen to move froward to the next round. As always it is the taking part and not the winning which is the key but try telling those that nearly made it.