Young Chefs and Bakers academy success
The last 10 Saturday's have seen a group of future Chefs and Bakers take part in University College Birmingham's Junior Academies. The Bakers Academy was sponsored by bread manufacturers Warburtons whilst the Chefs' Academy was sponsored by Industry leaders Compass and Whitbread. 11 Junior Bakers and 23 Junior Chefs completed the course with a graduation ceremony and presentation.
Bill Rea from Warburtons presented certificates and medals to the Junior Bakers as well as bag of Warburtons goodies. There was a special award to Marie Kenny who was picked as the STAR of the course; Marie has attended two Junior Bakers Academies and will be joining the full time bakery course in September 2009. Families of the students then sat down to a buffet that the students had prepared.
Over at the Junior Chefs Graduation the representative for Compass was Richard Bowden who is the Sector Executive Chef for Business and Industry and also the representative for the Craft Guild of Chefs (who supply the medals). The representative for Whitbread was Rob Boulton who is the General Manager for The Plough Beefeater Restaurant and Premier Inn Hotel, Solihull. The guest chef was Ian Bowden who trained at the College 14 years ago; the three representatives presented certificates and medals to the students as well as aprons, recipe booklets and copies of menus.
Families then sat down to a three course meal which the students cooked in the Brasserie kitchens and served by the NVQ 3 Food Service students from University College Birmingham.
The Junior Academies started in 2004 and are aimed at students in Years 10 and 11 at school, the courses run twice a year, each over a period of 10 weeks on a Saturday morning. There is no charge, except a nominal payment if the students want to take home whatever they have cooked. A uniform and set of knives is provided for each student, which is handed back at the end of the course.
To find out more about the junior Academies contact Sid Adkins at r.adkins@ucb.ac.uk.