Getting Involved: Modern day Apprenticeships

Chef George: This is Monday morning. Tomorrow we have a function for 50 people, so what the students are doing now is getting all the preparation ready. We’re getting the cauliflowers cut up, the potatoes peeled…

Pupil 1: The local chef, George, he’s come in and he's helped us with many skills like the different vegetable cuts that we’ve had to learn and the knife technique and just general kitchen safety.

Chef George: The pupils will need technical skills:

• how to use a knife,
• how to use different pieces of equipment,
• how things are prepared,
• the method that you should use for preparing potatoes, vegetables, to an industrial standard.

Sous Chef: At first it was quite daunting having someone in with you that had such experience, but eventually you got to speak to him and it was … he was just one of the class.

The Master Chef: Hi, my name is Andrew Fairlie. I'm a chef restaurateur. I have a restaurant at the Gleneagles Hotel. So, I’ve been involved with the project, probably, from its conception, with regards to menu, seasonality of produce; the best way to go about a menu for this sort of event.

The Master Chef: The main benefit of having the chefs in here, like Andrew and George, has really helped myself and my fellow pupils to develop skills necessary for a workplace environment because they’ve been out there for years, they know what they're talking about. And I think it really helps to show what a career in the hospitality industry is like.

Sous Chef: It’s the night of the gala dinner and we’ve just been preparing the lamb. So we’ve de-boned it and put the garlic cloves in with some rosemary just to give it that bit of extra flavour. Now it’s netted, stuffed and ready for cooking.

Event Manager: The foods obviously got to be hot, got to be of good quality and got to be presented really nicely because you eat with your eyes first, instead of your mouth.

Sous Chef: Teamwork has always been critical in the kitchen. You have to have everyone working together towards the same goal. We’ve been able to put our own ideas into it and have a final say and you know how the plates should look, what food we should use, how we should present the specific parts. I’ve been able to see that within myself, I can make something and have it on a plate, assembled correctly and make it look perfect.

Head Chef: If you look back to the start of the year, and most of the class didn't know how to turn on their cooker. And now, to have come to a stage where we were able to produce that quality of food that just really pleases me and I think everyone should be really proud of themselves.

The Master Chef: The opportunities in hospitality are limitless, really. I think Gleneagles takes in about 36 different job descriptions; from accountancy, housekeeping, front office, kitchen, food and beverages – there is a huge spectrum of different jobs in hospitability.

Sous Chef: I think is this definitely real learning and I couldn’t enjoy it more. I really couldn’t. It’s just fabulous.