Last week, the City Restaurant at our College Green Centre opened its doors for the first time this academic year and our catering students were treated to the first guest chef masterclass of the semester.
This time, the guest chefs in question were Pete Wateridge and a wonderful development and support team, hailing from Holroyd Howe who selflessly dedicated their time to leading the masterclass.
Speaking of entering the kitchen, Pete Wateridge, regional Development Chef for the South West at Holroyd Howe commented:
“It’s a great honour to be supporting the guest chef dinners at City of Bristol College and is something that we are extremely passionate about and proud to be involved with.
“One of my core values is that I absolutely love to teach, I love mentoring, coaching, guiding; it’s a real passion for me to be a part of that.
“This is one of the highlights in my calendar for the year, so I get to do the project from the start to finish. I will design the menus, I will develop the recipes; it’s something that I really enjoy doing.”
Designing the menu himself, Pete’s culinary choices were drawn from a combination of technical elements and approaches that were designed to complement the current skill level of the catering students.
The menu was bursting with delectable dishes such as:
– Pea & cider vinegar soup with smoked ham cream and crispy bell pork skin
– Confit salmon with vanilla infused fish stock, salsify emulsion, cumin scented skin and red grape and herb oil
– Yuzu, lavender and black pepper tart
– Beetroot candy floss
Talking of the menu, Pete continued: “So we’re doing an amuse-bouche that incorporates more of a technical element from when I used to work in a three-rosette restaurant; it’s from that level but slightly simplified for the student’s abilities but the core values of it are still the same.”
It’s clear that Pete and his team have a deep-running passion for teaching, he said: “It’s a great opportunity for students to spend some time talking to the development team and the support team with me today, talking to them about their experience in the industry and getting the message across that at Holroyd Howe, work is a family.
“When I briefed them all before we came into the kitchen, one of the things I said was that it’s absolutely okay to challenge and they need to learn that now, it’s absolutely okay to put your hand up and say ‘Can I just challenge that?’, that’s something that should be ingrained from day one and not having that fear and not feeling able to put your hand up and that’s how we learn by asking questions and more questions.
“Everyone has different learning techniques and you have to be very aware of that, generally chefs like to learn hands-on as they’re generally practical, creative people and naturally that’s the way they learn but that’s not always the way; some people like to learn by watching, some people like to learn by reading and we also provide written material too to support that.”
If you would like to experience a guest chef gourmet dinner for yourself, simply follow this link.
