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On the 18th of January, Highbury College in Portsmouth opened their doors and welcomed Business Development Manager, Gary Kilminster and Development Chef, Robin Dudley for a street food inspired interactive demonstration.

During an Essential Cuisine interactive demo, our team of passionate chefs work alongside students to create mouth-watering dishes, with the aim to teach the budding young chefs invaluable skills whilst working with guest chefs in their own environment.

We caught up with Matthew Sussex, Chef Lecturer, to speak about the experience...

Essential Cuisine: How impactful was the Essential Cuisine Interactive Demo for your students?

Matthew: The students learnt about new flavour profiles from around the world, which is incredibly important with the street food market continuing to rise across the industry. The students were engaged throughout the whole lesson, you could tell they enjoyed the experience and getting stuck in! The team building exercise was invaluable, it really demonstrated the importance of a brigades camaraderie.

Essential Cuisine: What does 2022 look like for you and your students?

Matthew: Hopefully getting back to some sort of normality and hitting the competition scene again. Also inviting more guest chefs and industry leaders in for some interactive lessons, just like we have just done with Essential Cuisine, is definitely something we will do more of in 2022.

Essential Cuisine: Would you recommend our Essential Cuisine interactive Demos to your fellow food lecturers / teachers?

Matthew: Absolutely, we use a whole host of different products from the Essential Cuisine range here at Highbury College and the session gave us and the students more product knowledge.

Essential Cuisine: Do you have any advice for future chefs and people wanting to enter the industry?

Matthew: Always try and be the best that you can be and always push yourselves. Also remember anything worth doing takes time!

Essential Cuisine: Lastly, what stood out for you the most during the Essential Cuisine Interactive Demo?

Matthew: Students engaging, teamwork and collaborating to produce some exciting dishes

To discover how Essential Cuisine can support your college and students, click here or email advice@essentialcuisine.com