Start Of A New College Experience

For any of you who do not know, my name is Michaela Quigley. I am an Erasmus student who chose to study in Ulster University in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. I wanted to study different modules to what was offered at Waterford Institute of Technology. I also wanted to be more hands on and practical with assignments and not be too focused on just learning the theory. But to learn it by doing.

When there I got to choose three modules. I chose food tourism, festivals and events management, food sensory science and food innovation and consumer management. The first module focuses on food events that are happening locally in Belfast and touches on events happening annually around the world. Discussing topics such as cookery schools, the popularity of tourism and cultural tourism and how the tourism industry has changed over time. Approximately five seminars will be held to do food pairings and wine tastings which is quite interesting and I had an interest back in college hen I did the oenology module.

The second module conducts an actual food sensory analysis on three products made by ourselves based on a chosen commodity. We pick here products make them that day. We get small samples of each product and place them on trays. In an actual food sensory testing lab we test the products o actual people to collect data to decide if the commodity can be tasted through the products. Quite an interesting assignment.

The last and final module is one I will be studying in college back home in fourth year. So I thought it would be a great idea to get a taste for the module before dong it in my final year. For our assignment, we are given a brief by an actual company about a product they want us to create. We work on creating the product, analyse it using sensory analysis procedure and then we create a pitch for the company, showing our progress and given them samples of the product. The best thing about this module is that we get a reference off the company and increase the contacts we have in northern Ireland. Which made this module hard to refuse.

I start a proper week next week. This week was basically induction, showing us around, explaining modules and setting up I.D cards. I am very excited to start these modules. I hope they are as good as they sound.

Venlo – an update

Travels so far..

We’ve almost hit the halfway mark of our time here in Venlo and Erasmus life so far has exceeded all expectations. I have travelled to so many more places since my last blog post and plan more travels in the near future! We experienced Carnival which is a festival celebrated in some parts of the Netherlands and Germany. From our experience, Carnival is celebrated by dressing up in crazy costumes, throwing confetti all over the city, listening to various Dutch artists and copious amounts of alcohol. The whole town of Venlo was basically shut down and stages were erected all over the city centre (about 5 in total) blaring Dutch covers and songs for a week! Tradition here is to dress up for every day of Carnival you celebrate. The effort all the locals put into their costumes was crazy, all elements down to their face paint was amazing. Of course we joined in the festivities for a couple days before we headed on our next adventure.

Locals celebrating Carnival

Life in here in the Netherlands and being so central allows us to travel to many different countries and cities at a generally low cost (if you do it right). The main advantage we have here is having such a large group of like-minded friends who are always up for an adventure. The more people that you can get to join you when travelling can be a major euro saver e.g. splitting costs for things such as discount group tickets for transport, accommodation and food. Being an international student here at Fontys and staying in the student accommodation allows you to meet so many people which will make finding buddies to go travelling with easy.

Some places I have been able to see include Utrecht, Den Hague, Amsterdam (all three in one day), Milan and Brussels. All the places we visited (except for Brussels) were planned by our group of friends. Our journey to Brussels was set up by the Fontys International programme with transport only costing 5 euro and having the freedom to explore the city solo for 7 ½ hours.

I find travelling and exploring new places a major stress reliever so having the opportunity to do these things and have them so easily available to me is a huge benefit.

Snaps from some travels

College life..

Fontys on a Sunday

So obviously work has to be done during our time here! Fontys is a pretty modern campus, seating areas are placed all over the campus allowing for ample study/work space for students, all fitted with plug sockets ( which we are all very impressed by 😉  ). There is just one canteen on campus which does not accept cash or our visa debit cards which isn’t necessarily a bad thing (another euro saver), coffee machines located all over the buildings and vending machines.

Now that we are in our 7^th week into studying we’ve settled into our subjects and beginning to have some halfway tests to allow us to see where our knowledge is on each module so far. Majority of our subjects do these tests which I find very helpful, it gives me a clear indication where I need to put more work in and which modules I have a good understanding in.

Since we started our studies in semester 2 we have come across some difficulties. Some modules rely heavily on ones done in the previous semester so coming in at the second half of the year feels like I am constantly having to catch up with the other students. But after vocalizing our worries with lecturers they easily adjust in a way that helps us understand the module but also allows us to learn more about this side of the industry

More updates to come.

Until next time,

Danielle

Canada ehhhh

Greetings from Canada the land of squirrels, canucks and legal weed. After just one short week home from the Slieve, my partner in crime and I boarded a plane and here we are in TORONTO! It has always been a dream of mine to live in Canada so when I found out that it was an option for our year abroad I jumped on the opportunity. And so far so good. So I am here for the educational portion of my year abroad and to say its worlds apart from working up the north is an understatement but ill get into that later.

First I’ll talk about the important stuff soooo college. Humber college offers a massive variety of courses from Tree Surgeons to Funeral Directory so as you can imagine its quite a big campus with great resources including dental care, sleep rooms and a doctors office. I am studying Culinary Management here which I believe is a good program and we get to do some very interesting subjects such as butchery, Emerging Trends in Canadian cuisine, Advanced Nutritional Cuisine and A La Carte Cuisine which is the production kitchen here. All of our classes are practical which suits me down to the ground because that’s where I feel I thrive the most. The classes are cool and I have learned a lot since arriving here and we’ve gotten to work with interesting produce that we wouldn’t get at home. My favorite class thus far has been emerging trends as for the first three weeks the lecture thought us techniques that he believed to be emerging trends in Canadian cuisine and then he brought guest chefs in from reportable kitchens throughout Toronto. These guest chefs not only thought us new techniques but also featured different cultural cuisines such as Asian and Italian. I also thoroughly enjoy Butchery as we get to work with a variety of meats which we not only butcher but also cook and then sell in the Gourmet Express shop on campus.

Now on to our free time activities. We have a lot of free time here as we only have classes four times and week which means its three day weekends every weekend and that is why our time here is so different to the Slieve. Within the first month alone we done a lot of typically Canadian activities such as skiing which I never really thought I would do but I actually really enjoyed it and only fell six times. Still managed to get my green pass though so I got to ride the big boy trails yay. We have visited many of Toronto’s visitor hotspots such as Lawrence food market which has been awarded the best food market in the world and honestly if you get to go there you will understand why. Myself and Robert sometimes go there just for lunch because you can get the nicest lobster roll I’ve ever tasted for only 12 dollars which is very reasonable here. Also went to an ice skating disco night overlooking lake Ontario. We then got brought on a trip to Niagara Falls with the international office and the entire international group studying at Humber for this semester. We have managed to form a nice bond with the rest of the international students and we call ourselves the

European delights because we’re obviously a delightful bunch. Niagara is cool it was frozen w

hen we visited so it was very picturesque, we also got brought for a free lunch in the skyline tower beside the Falls so we got an amazing view and a free lunch.

  

As for night time activities we have found a really cool bar called the Dime where you can get cheap all day brunch and cheap cocktails which is important when you don’t have a steady income. We have also found a place that hosts weekly drag shows which never fails to entertain. However as we are so far out from the city it can cost a lot to get home. This is my only gripe with Humber so far, its location that is. Where we are is quite a “suburban” area so there is not much amenities here (meaning pubs) so we tend to spend a lot of our free time down town the only downside being the hour and a half commute by public transport, only 40 minutes in an uber home though. Other than that life is pretty great here I just wished I have gotten a co-op visa so that I could pick up some work here because believe it or not I miss the busy hustle of kitchen life. 

Thanks for reading my rambles and ill check in again soon,

Mise le meas,

Saoirse 

A Couple of crazy canucks in Canada

Bonjour beech 

so after a crazy Christmas, it was a short break catching up with friends and family before myself and Saoirse boarded a plane to move to Toronto, Canada

We were greeted at the airport in Toronto by Humber’s international office who had organised a taxi to take us to residence. We got settled in and had a little rest. Humber is about 20km outside of Toronto has very little things to do around it unfortunately, but luckily there’s a great transport system that will pretty much bring you anywhere for 3 dollars. Which is exactly what we had to do the next day.The international office is great and organised a lunch on the second day for all the international students studying for one semester in Humber on the lakeshore campus which is a satellite campus of Humber. It was a great way to meet new people and we made some great friends in the process. Everyone here for one semester tends to be European. The day ended by going to a crazy Danish guys house and playing drinking games.

It was a pretty uneventful weekend after that but college was starting on Monday which I was apprehensive about, a new college, lecturers and of course a brand new class. Our first class was emerging trends in Canadian cuisine. In this class, we were looking at rising trends in Canadian cuisine and how to execute them. it was taught by both our lecturer and visiting guest chefs from some of Toronto's most respected restaurants which were alumni of Humber college.

Classes are pretty casual over here and can be a little chaotic at times as the kitchen labs are small with large intake numbers. But similar to W.I.T. there very much career focused and introducing us to as many techniques as possible. 

Classes are similar to home in the fact that we still do production classes for “the Humber Room” the onsite restaurant, which is open for students so it always seems to be very busy. We then do advanced nutritional cuisine which is taught slightly different in the fact it’s a lab class and we make various recipes and perform hedonic testing at the end of each class to determine which is best.

Lastly, we do butchery which is really interesting, it involves butchering the animal.. Duh. But then cooking the broken down animal for retail in the shop “gourmet Express” which is part of the learning program. Any uncooked meat is vac packed and used in the Humber room or sold via gourmet express. 

Other than class. Toronto is pretty class itself. It’s an amazingly vibrant city even if it is absolutely freezing. Of course, this weather lends itself to many outdoor activities’s such as skiing, visiting frozen waterfalls and going camping in 6 feet of snow.’ the international office is amazing at Humber and organises so many activities for us. We took advantage of the discounted ski trip to snow valley which was 8 hours of skiing in pristine mountains, having never gone skiing before it was so much fun. We did just a little over two hours of lessons before hitting the pistes. Some times literally haha. 

Then shortly after that, they organised a trip to visit Niagara falls including lunch and drinks all for free it was absolutely  amazing. Niagra is so amazing I think it was only amplified by the fact that it was pretty much completely frozen over. 

I had the pleasure of my parents flying over for a long weekend which was lovely as I barely got to see them between the Slieve and arriving in Canada. It also gave me the opportunity to go to tourist attractions without having to pay for them personally. Which as a broke student was great. 

Other than that life is pretty sweet. We’re off three days a week and honestly that’s not a problem there’s so much to do and so much to see. A whole lot has yet to come but so far so good EH!

Cheers From Canada 

Rob J C.

Adventures in Venlo, The Netherlands Part 1

College life with the Dutch

Hi Guys here it is im finally here ! Im here in Venlo, Netherlands studying international Fresh Business Management in Fontys University with my three college mates Ciara, Danielle and Thomas . So far my experience has been nothing but positive. On arrival our college buddies showed us around our accommodation and gave us a tour around Venlo. The city is beautiful and there is lots to do such as going bagel&beans café for a delicious bagel, going for a dance and drink in John Doe Night Club or there is a delicious all you can eat sushi place in town that we have grown quiet fond of.

So our first week in college was just oreination just getting to know what will be studying, getting familiar with our surroudings but getting to know new people. The College arranged a few activaties for the international students such quizzes on the culture of the Netherlands and we also got to take part in laser tag and bowling which was a great way to met new people and have lots of fun.

We are quiet lucky we get to go on some amazing days trips so far we have been to Rotterdam on one trip ,and we managed to see Utreacht, the Hague and Amsterdam all in one day which is crazy ! Both trips were amazing but I have to say the articuture in Rotterdam was astonishing and Seaside town of the Hague was beautiful.

Im living in student accommodation about ten minutes from the college which is great. I have three housemates who are super nice and have become great friends with my Russian housemate Maria. I have been here over a month and I can honestly say im lucky to have met such an amazing group of friends from all over the world it is amazing to see so many nationalities coming together and enjoying eachother’s company.

That’s all for now ill check in again next month with hopefully some more adventures to tell.

Love,

Aine

The Mountain Life to the Flat Life ........ Venlo

Venlo City Centre

Cube House Rotterdam

For those of you who just started following this blog but don’t know me I am Tom. This semester I am doing my exchange semester as the second part of my international year from Waterford Institute of Technology. So therefore, I am attending Fontys International Business School Venlo. The course I am studying for the semester is International Fresh Business Management (IFBM). Venlo is a small town located in Limburg, a region in the south of the Netherlands. After living in the Rockies for the last couple of months I didn’t know what to expect moving to the Netherlands. One certainty was that there would be no physical mountains to climb. This makes getting around very easy.

Cheese and Wine Night
in my Apartment

The organization in getting to Venlo was perfect. We received our application form in mid-November. This was a very straight forward process where you complete information, and Fontys adds and verifies your information. We were giving two choices for our study. The first was IFBM semester 2 and the second was IFBM semester 4.  I decided to do the IFBM semester 2. The reason for this choice was I am not a business student and felt if I went into the fourth semester, I would be far behind the rest of the class. So far, this was the right decision. Shortly after the application was finished and submitted, I got the letter about the accommodation. Again, it was a really easy process. There were four different prices I selected the cheapest one which was €365.05 per month. This includes all utility bills. The accommodation was very clean and equipped when we arrived.

Let the Adventure Begin!!

The best asset that we had when we arrived in Venlo was the Buddy System provided by Fontys. They assigned two students a group of 5 students. Darya and Fabian are my buddies. They introduced us to all aspects of Venlo from the town and where to eat, to the university and other students. They also gave us an introduction to the social scene in Venlo. Bars and clubs stay open until around 4am. Drink is quite affordable and so is food. As there is so many other students on exchange in Venlo, we already have a huge group of friends from all parts of the world.

Classes started on the fourth of February. So far, the way the classes are though is quite different to W.I.T.s methods. Classes are a lot more interactive. For some of the classes you are giving a topic at the start of the class, you have to research as part of a team and do a full presentation at the end of the class. This not only teaches you the topic but it also greatly improves team work and public speaking abilities. Most classes are very interactive and even though I’m left handed I have now learnt how to write on a whiteboard without wiping the words off as I go….

I have a really good feeling about this semester in Venlo and looking forward to updating you….

                                                        

13 people, 9 Nationalities, 4 Continents, 

End to my Slieve Donard Journey

‘All good things must come to an end’

It has come to an end of my journey at the Slieve Donard. It has been an incredible six months at this fine establishment. Since my last blog post I manage to accomplish working through the crazy Christmas Season at the Slieve.

The Christmas season in the slieve starts off with the polar express. This is a Christmas Wonderland that takes place for ten days in the hotel. Its great event for kids and families. As part of this big event they have the option of sitting down for an early bird menu before they enter the polar express exhibition. This means its even more pressure in the evening because you have groups in for lunch, families in for early bird and another 100 booked for a la carte so the pressure is really on. I really did enjoy the challenge of because even though we were under a lot of pressure in the kitchen we did managed to keep everyone laughing everyday especially when Robert would sing at the stop of his voice in the kitchen that would get everyone going (stick to the chefing Rob ). When I did hear I’d be working through  Christmas, not going to lie was tough to hear because I am such family orientated person and love nothing more then the company of my family especially during the festive season. When it did come to Christmas Day it just felt like any other day of work we just had to keep our heads down and get on with it. We had three buffets all in different rooms in the hotel. We served about close to 500 people Christmas day which was extradioanry to see that many people in the hotel sitting down to have their Christmas dinner. I think what really made the Christmas day for me in the slieve  was sitting down after the long day of hard work Christmas day to be served a delicious meal of steak and chips. We had glass bottles of coke and bottles of beer on ice. We were on cloud 9 just sitting down kicking back enjoying sitting down and eating an delicious meal with the team.

After Christmas Day, Saoirse and Rob had finished up it was actually heart-breaking seeing the two of them go because they were such a positive influence on me working in the kitchen. It wasn’t the same without them and the pressure was on because we were two chefs down but I didn’t let that get to me as there was no breather...it was straight back into the work because it was another busy day Stephens day and New Years but we succeded as a team and got threw it all.

This moment on I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone in the Slieve Donard for welcoming me with open arms. They looked after their staff extremely well, they always seem to cheer you up the no matter what the situation is  and must of all they never stopped believing in their staffs capabilities. I would highly recommend the Slieve Donard to any future trainee chef that is considering coming to join the team.

Starting at Slieve Donard

Hello Again, Sinead here and this time I am checking in after my first month of work placement in Slieve Donard Hotel, Co. Down. The Slieve Donard hotel is located at the foot of the Mourne Mountains along the picturesque coastline in County Down. Its located within a short walk to the small town of Newcastle. 

After arriving and settling into my new surroundings I started work. I will admit I was a bit nervous about beginning work but my classmates, Rob, Saoirse and Aine who worked here before me reassured me about how welcoming the team are. They couldn’t have been more accurate, everyone in the kitchen and beyond were very welcoming and I instantly settled into the kitchen team.

Since beginning work on the 4^th of February, it’s crazy thinking for fast this month has already flown by. Even in a little month so much has happened in the Slieve Donard Kitchen. We moved into a brand new kitchen with all sparkling new equipment, this has been a really exciting time for all the chefs and the staff as a whole. The big change in the kitchen was the move from gas to induction, it interesting seeing and learning a new method of cooking.

In the kitchen I have been able to experience many different sections already from starters and pastry to garnish and the pass. The kitchen are not fearful to give you responsibility which I think is a really important part of this placement.

Wedding Showcase Setup

Across is a picture taken from a wedding show held at the hotel. Plates of display of an example of meals offered for weddings along with a spectacular “cheesecake”. I enjoy all the planning that goes into events like these to show everything a venue like this has to offer for special occasions and parties.

Outside of work I have been travelling around some of Co. Down visiting very picturesque places and beaches. It’s nice to be able to stand back and see the beauty that’s in Ireland on our own doorstep. travelling around is made easy as I drive, but there is a good bus service in the down providing buses to Belfast daily.

It has been a fast and exceptionally busy February here at Slieve Donard. I am looking forward to learning more in the coming months. I will check back in soon to talk more about my experience in Slieve Donard. 

Sinead!

Bonjour!!

Vieux Lyon January 2019

What an incredible two months its been here in Lyon so far read below all about life so far in Lyon, my top tips for surviving your first 2 weeks and all the in and outs of my classes at Institut Paul Bocuse.

The last 9 months of my life have been some of the best times I’ve ever had. From living and working in Banff national park in the heart of the Canadian Rockies to living and studying in a world-renowned culinary college in Frances 3^rd biggest city is just amazing.

Leaving Canada was hard, but I was open to all the new experiences and challenges that Lyon has thrown at me so far.

If you’re thinking of moving here id tell you to go for it. Lyon is an amazingly diverse city. So much to see and do in your free time. if you’re a foodie then Lyon is a city for you. Markets every day of the week located all over different parts of the city offering local farm fresh veg, fish, meat, cheese, bread and pastries the list is endless. You can buy you veg for the week for nearly €6 a bargain!! Lyon is full with great local lyonnaise bouchons these are small little eateries, and endless bakeries to be discovered offering up mouth-watering pastries.Top tips and life in Lyon:

Some top advice if you are thinking of moving to Lyon to attend classes at IPB:
Public transport is bar far one of the best I have ever seen in Europe, its definitely worth purchasing a TCL transport card, this can be obtained with your IPB student card it costs around €31 and works for all city public transport (bus, metro, tram) which is very frequent.
Before making the move here is crucial to have some form of accommodation lined up. The college does offer accommodation which is 5 mins walk from the campus, a bit like Riverwalk in Waterford just not as nice and shared kitchens between lots of people.  I came here with my friend Hanna, we looked for months while we were in candida and Budapest but just couldn’t either find something cheap and decent or couldn’t agree on it. It came down to Hanna doing a long-term rent Airbnb and myself subletting from another IPB student who moved away for the semester for his internship.

Learning and speaking French is a must. To live comfortably and have some form of social life with other students. Hanna is nearly fluent in French and has really progressed. Me on the other hand I am really struggling, I can get by and have a basic conversation, read ingredients and recipes etc but beyond that I’m hopeless. A lot of young people here at the college will speak English some better than others. You will find the older generation reluctant to speak English and I have experienced this in supermarkets etc and they are very rude about it but ca la vie. 

Classes at Institut Paul Bocuse: 

I didn’t really Know what to expect before I started classes. Its been touch and go since we have got here, anything I say is my honest opinion and I don’t want to speak for Hanna. Being an Erasmus student in a different college and country is always going to be challenging.  Originally, we were promised and offered the English option for the courses, this is what we expected when we arrived, but at our orientation we were told that all the classes were in French which came as a bit of a shock and a worry, but we pushed on. Before we arrived here we did receive a copy of the classes/modules that we will be taking, they seemed fine until we got into the class. They placed us with the first years as it seems that they didn’t quite no our skill level or what to do with us.

Here at IPB they do their classes very different instead of having multiple different classes each day/week, they do block classes of one module in 3 to 4-week rotations. I started with a 2-week rotation of pastry, it was back to basic which I found okay as a lot of the stuff was repetitive, but it was nice to see the basic items done right and the French way. 

We found that first year wasn’t going to suite us, so we talked to our international officer to see if we could move to the 3^rd year of the program. This took some time to organise and back and forth conversations with the culinary lectures to see if we would be able for it. They basically said that I could move to the 3^rd year of the program but Hanna had to stay in the class she was in and prove herself which was unfair but out of our control. 

While waiting for my new program I moved on to a two-week rotation in a module called “Economat” this is all the receiving and distribution of produce for the college. It’s completely run buy students with the supervision of a lecture basically like the stores in WIT run by Brian. It was a very interesting module. This was also split into a rotation where half the class would take in the produce and sort it according to weight, chef etc. This would then be placed in the correct fridge etc. the other half of the class was responsible for getting the carts ready in including these fresh produce orders along with dry goods etc and distributing them to chef who ordered them. It’s a module that WIT could really do with introducing. 

During my last week here I received my new program, I would be starting with a 3-week rotation at the L’institut Restaurant Place Bellcour, 4 weeks at Restaurant Experience and our final 4 weeks in Saisons resultant which is in the Castel of the college and is very fine dining. All these three restaurants are run by the students on rotations. My three weeks in L’institut restaurant have come and gone already. They were amazing. My Passion is pastry however on my first day I was working in the hot kitchen, again as they didn’t know what to do with me but one of the students swapped with me, so I could work in pastry. The Restaurant itself is in ‘Hotel Royal’ which is owned a run by Accor hotels with the branding of the hotel Gallery by Sofitel. 

Here at IPB they really make the students work. Classes are long some begin at 7am and going to 6/7pm at night. At bellcour you start at 8:15 to 2:30 for the lunch service with a break for lunch in between then you have a break until 5:15 until 11/12pm for the dinner service again have a break for dinner in between this just before service starts. You work here Tuesday to Saturday.  It was a very busy restaurant doing 50/60 covers each service. It was very long and tiring 3 weeks but very worth it, for the experience and knowledge I learned. The Menu here doesn’t change very often as the frequent rotations of students. I aslo liked that the kitchens at bellcour were open to the public so that they could view in in and see the hands that make the 

food and the hard work of the student chefs.

Kitchen Team Place Bellecour

Pastry Kitchen Bellecour

 

This week I have just started at Restaurant experience which is more self lead by the students. The students design their own menu based around one key ingredient e.g. asparagus and mackerel for the starters. This restaurant is smaller maybe only 20 covers with one dinner service and focuses on an exceptional gastronomic experience for the guest. The students are encouraged to think outside the box when it comes to how the present the food, how to prepare, to use modern techniques and using molecular gastronomy. 

The first week of the rotation, the restaurant is closed, and we get examined on the basics of cooking. Filleting a fish, deboning and chicken (head and organs included), mastering basic stocks and sauces including mayonnaise and hollandaise. The students get graded from 0 -5 on these items. If there not done correct the chef has no problem telling you that they are shit.   

I’m very much looking forward to my remaining time here studying in France and many more experiences to come!!

A bientot,

Derek :)

 

Life in the Culloden Estate & Spa

So I’ve been living in the hotel for just over a month. At first I found it very strange to be living here, it took a while for me to settle in and think of it as “home” for the next couple of days. I was here on my own for a couple of days before Shannon arrived up so I took that time to get to know the area and the towns nearby. The staff here are so helpful, if you need advice or just want to know where a certain shop is, there’s always somebody on hand to point you in the right direction.

I’ve made some new friends here which is great, and there’s other staff members living on the same floor. Every night there’s someone to sit down with and have a chat after you finish work. We’re starting to become a close bunch and it’s even strange when one of us is gone home for a day or is away for whatever reason. We’ve traveled around a bit, getting to know the area, and of course we’ve sampled a few of the other restaurants near us. The chefs have been very helpful when we ask about places to eat locally.

The hotel under a blue sky

The kitchen is mainly populated by men, I thought because of this that I would find it a bit more difficult to settle in but it’s been the complete opposite. They have helped me to settle in extremely well. I feel like been here for longer because of the friendships I’ve made in work. Every kitchen shift here is full of laughter and jokes which makes the work load easier. Of course, its hard work here! After all it is a five-star hotel. Plate presentation is pretty free rein here, they like to see chefs express their creativeness through their food presentation. Everyday slates are written for the VIP’s staying in the hotel that night, it’s given me great practice with my chocolate writing which I really needed. My first slate was definitely the toughest.

My first slate attempt (they have improved)

I’m really enjoying the work here. At the minute I cover the sandwich area and afternoon tea for lunch service. During dinner I cover starters and sweets. I’m learning a lot from the chefs here, they’ve got so much experience! There hasn’t a day passed where I haven’t come out of the kitchen with a couple of tips or a good recipe. Lunch service can be a little hectic at times between lounge orders, orders from the spa and of course afternoon tea. Being well prepared for service is the only way for things to run smooth, there’s rarely time for any form of prep top of during service. The pace of dinner service is a little slower, people are coming for a fine dining experience and that is what is given. It also helps that you’re not trying to serve two or three different areas of the hotel.

After spending the past month here, I can honestly say that I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m excited to see what the coming months bring as the hotel gets busier leading into the summer months. There’s a lot more for me to learn during my time here! Stay tuned for updates on my time at The Culloden.

Bye for now

Áine B.