By Isle of Wight Observer
A selection of students in Year 10 from The Bay CE School had the opportunity to attend a catering workshop this week with ex-student Alex Woodward-Parker.
Alex works at The Seaview Hotel as a chef de partie and is proud to be part of the team that were awarded 2 AA Rosettes. Alex has now been offered a job with a famous chef in London and leaves the island in two weeks. He wanted to go back into the school to inspire other students to do a career that he loves.
During the workshop Alex taught the students completely new skills such as filleting a fish, creating a beurre blanc, cooking a fondant potato and plating up professionally. He even introduced them to cooking with sea vegetables and spoke about sourcing local and seasonal produce. The skills that the students learnt will be transferable to their GCSE course in Hospitality and Catering enabling them to secure the best grades next year when they take their final exams.
Aaren Campbell-Sutch (age 15) ‘I really enjoyed learning to fillet a fish and learning to cook new things. It reinforced my aspirations to be a chef.’
Harry Burton (age 15) ‘The workshop boosted my confidence and my desire to be a chef. I learnt so much that will help me in my GCSE exams next year.’
Louisa Evans (age 15) ‘The workshop was hard but fun. It was great to learn skills from an actual chef.’
Emily Fillis (age 14) ‘I loved the experience of cooking with new ingredients, ingredients I have never used before! It was a great opportunity to learn skills and it was really enjoyable.’
Alex Woodward-Parker said “I wanted a career that I was really passionate about, that’s why I chose to become a chef. It was my pleasure to go in to The Bay CE School to take a workshop for the students. I enjoyed teaching them and hope it has inspired them to consider a career in Catering. The behaviour and conduct of the students was excellent.’
