Belfast is the capital city of Northern Ireland; it is located on the river Lagan. It is home to a population of 659,000 people. I arrived here on the 26th of September, where I was checked into the Grand Central Hotel. The Grand Central Hotel opened in 2018 at a cost of £54 million, and it is the newest hotel in the Hastings Hotel Group. It boasts three hundred bedrooms, of which ten are suites. The culinary team here is led by Damian Tumility, while Stephen Meldrum leads the hotel as general manager. Through hard work and determination, the team here helped the hotel to achieve its fifth star just over a year ago. I will both work and live here as part of the culinary team for the next three months for my international work placement – in integral part of the BA (hons) in Culinary Arts.
The evening I arrived, after unpacking my
bags, I took a stroll around the city which is just a two-minute walk away. I
find the weather here to be far colder than that in the sunny south-east. While
I was walking around, I stumbled upon Victoria Square, a high-end shopping
district in Belfast. While the area itself is outdoor, it is covered by an
all-weather roof which makes the location ideal for shopping all year round. The
next day I had my induction at the Europa Hotel. This hotel is the sister hotel
of the Grand Central Hotel, and it is the most bombed hotel in the world because
of incidents during ‘The Troubles.’ After the induction I went with the Human
Resources Manager; Rose Nagra back to the Grand Central, where I was introduced
to chef Damian. He showed me around the hotel and invited me to dine in the
hotel that night, as well as have a drink in the hotel’s observatory lounge.
The views from the observatory were incredible.
I started work the next day on September 28th, at 9am. I worked on pastry, where I will be primarily stationed for my first three weeks of placement. The afternoon tea menu, al a carte menu and other places for which we must make pastries were explained to me by Danielle, one of the junior sous chefs. Throughout the day I made many different things such as scones, meringue, and lemon tartlet filling and I was introduced to many of the chefs working in the hotel, as well as other staff such as the General Manager, Stephen Meldrum. I then went to help plate goats cheese salads for a function that night. After I finished that and cleaned down, I was free to go. I have so far really enjoyed my time here in Belfast.
All the best,
Ben Roche.
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