Ayr college students make the Scottish Chefs Conference a success

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A group of Ayr College hospitality students helped make this year’s Scottish Chefs Conference a roaring success by using their hospitality skills to impress fellow delegates and professional chefs.

Ayr College sent three members of staff and over thirty students from its award-winning Hospitality Department to the recent event at the Citadel Leisure Centre in Ayr. A selection of students helped prepare fresh lamb curry, chicken a la king, fresh vegetarian tortellini and a variety of sweets for over 600 delegates.

The conference was originally the brainchild of master chef and founder member of the Scottish Culinary Olympic Team Willie Pike MBE. An annual event, the conference has been running since 2006 and has attracted a huge amount of interest ever since – this year almost 600 chefs and representatives from the hospitality industry attended. The Scottish Chefs Conference is an opportunity for Scottish chefs to discuss current issues in the industry and help light the way for the next generation of chefs to feed Scotland.

Norman Robertson, Curriculum Leader in Hospitality at the College, thought the event was a big success, due in no small part to the efforts of Ayr College’s budding chefs and hospitality stars: “We had the chance to watch four demonstrations from expert chefs not just from Scotland but from as far away as America.

“Our students who cooked and helped out on the day performed brilliantly, and it was great for all of us to be there and learn from the professional chefs. Our students train in state of the art kitchens at the college and also have the chance to work in our training restaurant which is open to the public – so they were more than prepared to step up to the challenge.”

One student chef involved with the event was 15 year old Nicola McDonald from Troon. Nicola currently studies the Introduction to Professional Cookery and attends the college’s Dam Park Campus on a full-time basis. Nicola said: “I really enjoyed the event, I felt as if I learnt a lot and it was the first time I had experienced that type of atmosphere. I’m really enjoying my course and I’m planning to progress right up to diploma level. Afterwards I hope to work in the catering industry abroad somewhere!”

Ayr College offers a range of hospitality courses suited for all levels – from professional cookery courses to HNCs and HNDs students can study full time, part time, or even one day a week in the college’s industry standard facilities.

For more information about courses at the Ayr College go to www.ayrcoll.ac.uk or call freephone 0800 199 798.