Students studying for qualifications in Catering and Hospitality at Nelson and Colne College’s School of Culinary Arts have benefited from the skills and experience of working alongside professional Chefs from The Seafood Pub Company at a week-long pop-up restaurant, in the College’s own restaurant Farringtons.
Nelson and Colne College Sixth Form has an outstanding local reputation for Catering. Students who enrol on its highly popular Catering and Hospitality courses perform strongly and go on to attain highly successful careers in the industry. In the past, students have gone on to work with some of the best chefs and in the best kitchens in the industry; with students going to work with the likes of Raymond Blanc, Heston Blumenthal and Nigel Howarth.
Recently, the students had a fantastic opportunity to work alongside chefs from the Seafood Pub Company, who took over Farringtons to set up a pop-up restaurant. The Seafood Pub Company brings together highly trained and experienced staff with a unique dining experience at venues across the North West, including The Assheton Arms, a longstanding favourite restaurant for Ribble Valley diners.
The students were able to further their culinary skills, making such dishes as roast hake with celeriac mash, wild mushrooms, mussels and garlic butter; teriyaki swordfish steak with jasmine rice, pak choi, garlic, chilli and ginger and sumptuous desserts such as Moroccan almond and orange pudding with rose water ice cream
Executive chef Antony Shirley temporarily joined the College, alongside several members of his team including chef Mark Taft. They worked with the Catering and Hospitality students to make the pop-up restaurant a real success—and loved every minute of it!
Antony Shirley said, “I love the challenge of a new project and going into the unknown! The students rose to the challenge and everyone got stuck in. We aimed to provide them with a real taste of the day to day running of a quality establishment. It was a hectic but very rewarding five days and some of the students had star potential! We hope to work with the College and students in the future!”
One of the College’s Hospitality students, Aaron Howe, has now received an Apprenticeship offer as a result of the hard work and dedication he showed during the event. He has a trial date in May at the Barley Mow, and if that is successful it will lead to full employment!
