City College Plymouth hosts education event

Devon Chefs’ Forum member City College Plymouth hosted a ‘sharing of best practice’ event for South West College. Forty representatives from City of Bath College, City of Bristol college, Exeter College, Cornwall College and South Devon college as well as staff at City College Plymouth attended.

The event was supported by City and Guilds, with the focus was on exchanging ideas on the delivery of level 1 and 2 Professional Diploma qualifications. Following a demonstration by Chef Lecturer Iain Baillie from South Downs College, the participants were put through their paces by becoming students themselves and having to carry out an assessed task from the level 3 Advanced Professional Cookery Diploma.

Chefs were given a magic box of ingredients and had to design and cook a dish that was then assessed by Iain. They benefited from receiving feedback and a grade from Iain and were able to benchmark each others dishes so that there was a consistency to the assessment. All thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the opportunity to discuss the qualification together and how to enrich the learning experience at level 3 with industry involvement for masterclasses and supplier visits.

The demonstration took place in CCP’s new Demonstration Theatre Kitchen and recently refurbished practical kitchens. Colleagues who teach Food and Beverage Service all gathered for sharing best practice workshops at the same time with a focus on the level 1 and 2 Diploma in Professional Food and Beverage Service and updates to the qualification provided by Miriam Garstang from Bristol City College.

There was an opportunity to discuss the new level 3 qualification in Advanced Food and Beverage service and an exchange of ideas on restaurant standards and procedures followed by colleagues in their respective restaurants. Helen Marshall from the Devon Chefs’ Forum and Miriam Garstang from Bristol Chefs’ Forum members shared their experience of the Forum benefits and the proposal for future forum events with a front of house focus.

City College Plymouth will be having their training restaurant refurbished over the summer to give it a more contemporary feel that reflects industry trends. A fully fitted bar will be installed that will enable the development of Barista and cocktail making skills as well as full drinks service. The 75 seat restaurant will be designed with flexibility in mind to enable both a fine dining and brasserie operation as well as enabling larger functions to be catered for.

The new facilities will provide the very best learning environment for student training and reflects the college’s commitment to developing the hospitality industry workforce of the future.

Helen Marshall says “ I am delighted that CCP is is a member of the Devon Chef Forum and we look forward to working with suppliers and members in the future to host networking events and take forward initiatives that will benefit all parties, but particularly our students to give them the best possible start to their careers in this industry”.