Hospitality & Catering Courses

For your first activity, we would like you to cook something of your choice. Maybe a Sunday lunch or your favourite dessert. Send a picture of your completed dish with your name, a brief overview and an explanation of your dish to paul.mansfield@hsdc.ac.uk and andy.backshall@hsdc.ac.uk.

We would like you to design and create a dish using a favourite book as inspiration. We would like to see how you link the book with the food. It can be a starter, main or dessert. How does the main food item link with the book (maybe chocolate for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)? You should think about your presentation – how will it bring the book to life? How about flavours, colours and textures – how can they be interesting and exciting? Draw and label your dish design, create the menu and take photos of your created dish (photos if you’ve managed to create the dish at home; don’t worry if you can’t, just create the design and recipe) and send it to steve.donnelly@hsdc.ac.uk. Research Heston’s Feasts and Heston’s Fantastical Food for inspiration.

Why not design and create a cake that you think will be appropriate to celebrate and thank the actions of our brilliant NHS and care workers. Think about suitable flavours, colours and textures that could be used and then have fun with the decoration element. Use this link to give you some inspiration.

You could draw your creation with explanations on how it will be created and a recipe or, if you’re really up for it, have a go and cook it, then take a photo of your finished masterpiece. Please send your submission to gary.poole-gleed@hsdc.ac.uk.

Good luck!

Research the internet for two famous TV personality chefs (including Angela Hartnett). Research their style of cookery, their various restaurants and any signature dishes they have developed. Pick one of their signature dishes or styles and attempt to recreate their recipe, including presentation. Send your finished masterpieces to iain.baillie@hsdc.ac.uk.

Read all or part of your favourite celebrity chef’s book for inspiration. It could be to yourself or perhaps to a family member as a bedtime story.

Please also upload photos of your work to Facebook or Instagram and tag HSDC, so we can share and comment on your work, this will allow you to see what your future classmates have been up to!

Browse archives of recipes – look at www.greatbritishchefs.com, where you can get a vast quantity of recipes from chefs in the hospitality industry.

Watch the documentary by Michel Roux on Auguste Escoffier and learn how modern British cookery was and still is influenced by this great chef.

Watch episodes of the latest series of the Great British Menu to see how professional chefs link books to dishes. Watch the episodes here.

Did you know? Auguste Escoffier invented the stock cube

There are five ways to ‘temper’ chocolate (the technique to give chocolate a shine and crispness).

Using this website, research and write down the five ways to temper chocolate and then indicate what would be the correct working temperature for milk chocolate.

Exploring Hospitality and Catering

Welcome to the exciting world of Hospitality and Catering. Over the next year, you will study a variety of theories and be involved in our contemporary College restaurant. As well as working closely with our highly experienced staff, you will also work alongside some of the country’s finest guest chefs throughout the year. You will be taught a broad range of skills that will prepare you for the next stage of your career in a professional kitchen once you complete your studies next summer. These range from planning a service to menu writing to leading a team, so there is plenty to look forward to.

Activity 1

For your Getting Ahead Activity, I would like you to explore the ‘food culture’ and ‘gastronomy’ of a European country (including the UK) of your choice. For example, write about how culture/religion, people’s lifestyles, the country’s geography, and sustainability have over the years influenced their food culture and way of life.

Activity 2

Once you have completed your investigation for Activity 1, why don’t you choose a national dish and beverage from your chosen country and write a little about it – what is the history? Why is this dish linked to that particular country? How did it become so popular?
I would love your findings to be presented in a good old-fashioned scrapbook – who doesn’t like a bit of ‘cutting and sticking’?

Did you know? The hospitality and catering industry is such a large and diverse industry that there is truly something for everyone.