Top chef says students at the West Suffolk College are a ‘game changer’
Lucky Catering and Hospitality students at West Suffolk College had a top class experience when they helped Tuddenham Mill prepare and serve a special four course Gala Dinner.
More than 50 diners benefitted from the brilliant new partnership between the restaurant, with its three AA rosettes, and the Level One students.
Chef Patron Lee Bye dubbed the event “a game changer”.
He said he wanted to help young chefs stay in the industry. He took his team to the college to work with students in the kitchens, showing them how to prepare dishes for the event and to work front of house. He then chose four students to work at Tuddenham Mill on the special evening.
The restaurant sold all their tickets for the event. In the kitchen Kieron Fishwick from Bury and Kasey Webb from Newmarket, worked hard helping prepare the dishes, while Daniel Blackburn from Diss and Matthew Riddle from Sudbury were busy preparing the front of house.
The meal included roasted mackerel with mushroom emulsion, fennel and chestnuts, a main course of Norfolk black chicken with spelt, wild celery and golden ale, pre-dessert was calimansi lime, ginger beer and blueberry, the dessert was rum baba with quince syrup, vanilla cream and pistachio. Everyone was full of praise for the students coping with a full house.
Chef Lee said: “It was a game changer welcoming the guys to the restaurant. It’s the first and the most crucial step for us to mentor and nurture these young people of the industry, I would recommend all restaurants to open their hearts and doors to these guys.”
All four students loved the experience of working with a top chef and his team.
Kieron said: “I enjoyed the pressurised environment and learnt so much. The Tuddenham team are very welcoming, it was a great learning experience and I definitely want to be a chef”.
The Level One students are very excited that the Tuddenham Mill team are to continue their work with them and will be back at the college next term planning a gala dinner to be held in the college’s Edmunds restaurant with tickets on sale in the New Year.
Pictured above is Kieron Fishwick.