A job trial alone at Tom Kerridge’s prestigious The Butcher’s Tap and Grill warranted celebration for FdA Culinary Arts Management student Eryn Beales, but there would be more reason for her to rejoice when she was given a job immediately after the end of the shift – a rarity at the gastropub.

“It was insane! I spoke to them on the phone after [they offered me the job] and apparently Chef doesn't offer jobs on the day. So it's a massive shock that he obviously saw something in me. We ended the trial shift early as well! Chef was like ‘I’ve seen enough, we can go have a conversation!’. Then he cooked me and my mum a meal afterwards, so I got to eat there as well, which was really nice!’”

“It was definitely something that I haven't done before, I haven't been in that kind of space, that kitchen. They were very supportive as well. Usually on a trial shift, you only go into the back kitchen but they were very much, ‘Come here, help with this, try this.’ I did everything that was there on that day. I literally went from the butcher to the back of the kitchen, and then I did some prep and then I went out to the smokers with the head chef.”

Eryn certainly dazzled the chefs at The Butcher’s Tap and Grill, but it hasn’t always been an easy road. Though she had always had a love for cooking, especially as her uncle owned a pub, she found the adjustment from college to University more challenging: “It was hard at the beginning. It was a big adjustment for me, but I feel like we had such good lecturers and support here at the university – they’re very good with the help you can get.

“As a whole, it has definitely taught me a lot - how to be organised, how to live as an adult really. I learnt a lot from Emma [Shephard, Culinary Arts Management Lecturer].

“But I also learned a lot about individuality. At college you learn how to cook a recipe, but here you learn how to be a chef.”
Eryn enjoyed being able to understand flavour profiles of ingredients and to be a bit more creative, thinking outside the box when putting them all together into a dish:

“The way I’ve been taught previously at school and college is to follow recipes, but here I learned more about the ingredients themselves.”

She supplemented her hunger for knowledge with watching every single cooking show on Netflix she could find: from the well-known to the niche, and reading as many books about food as possible.

But it was ultimately being at University College Birmingham’s well-renowned College of Food that helped Eryn on her way. She saw the stellar teaching had led to multiple award-winning alumni and students, among them Michelin star winners, MasterChef winners and finalists and many more: “When I was researching [which university to go to], I saw who had come to University College Birmingham, and saw what you could get out of it - it was really good to see! I've always been told by my parents if you're going to do something, to be the best at it, so I came here to get that extra knowledge and learned as much as I could.”

Want to create tantalising dishes and work with top industry chefs? Check out all of our courses at the Birmingham College of Food.