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This week, Loughborough College opened their doors and welcomed Business Development Managers, Kay Derbyshire and Gary Kilminster and Development Chef, Robin Dudley for an inspirational kitchen takeover.

During Essential Cuisine Kitchen Takeovers, 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 Katie Jordan, Chef Lecturer, to speak about the experience...

How impactful was the Essential Cuisine #ECKitchenTakeover for your students?

Having Essential Cuisine come to Loughborough College was a great experience, the knowledge and understanding was taken on board by each of the students and there was continuous concentration and questions asked which is what we are looking for. When the students go into the industry, there’s preparation that we can give them, however guest chefs are something we feel the students benefit from and the skills and knowledge that the students have learnt from these 3 wonderful chefs from EC have shown new skills for the students to show during my real working experience lessons in Radmoor Restaurant.

What does 2022 look like for you and your students?

Since coming into the hospitality team at Loughborough College, my ideas are to change and adapt to make sure the students enjoy their remaining time at Loughborough College. We are currently working towards completing our assignments, more guest chefs are booked into the diary to give more opportunities for the students to learn as much as possible before they move onto pastures new. We have some students in the final rounds of competitions, seeing students fly is so rewarding and of course we couldn’t be any prouder than we already are. Over the next few months, we have the BCF student of the year final, the UK Young Restaurant Team of the Year final. After doing competitions myself when I was a past student I feel, it’s my second chance to do better by teaching them everything I know! 

Would you recommend our Essential Cuisine #ECKitchenTakeover or Interactive Demo to your fellow food lecturers / teachers?

Having Essential Cuisine come to our college was fantastic, I’d hugely recommended that you give it a try! Having another chef in your kitchen changes the skills, knowledge and attitude of the students, it’s great to see them adapt to the different styles of cooking, and I already can’t wait for them to come back to take over our kitchens once again!  

What stood out for you the most during the Essential Cuisine #ECKitchenTakover?

When I met Robin, Kay and Gary I felt at ease, the kitchen was in control like usual, all students were busy and shown new skills. The Essential Cuisine guys had a huge amount of time for our students, and we provided a great 5 course meal for a full restaurant! It was fantastic! 

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

My advice for future chefs will be to make sure, that you listen, take on board every piece of information that is given to you, constructive criticism, note taking, anything we mention. Before you leave college, we can teach you everything we know. But you need to be able to support our knowledge by putting it all into practice! And you can do you if you try your best! 

Business Development Manager, Kay Derbyshire said, "Excellent evening with the students from Loughborough college. Students were very enthusiastic, they took instruction well and asked plenty of questions throughout the day and night. We couldn’t have asked for more and Katie and Darren should be very proud."

Would you like our talented team of chefs to come to your college? Simply email advice@essentialcuisine.com!