Young chefs shine as Goodwood's apprentice dinner sells out

SussexWorld

A special three-course meal, designed, prepared and served by Goodwood's apprentice chefs, is the perfect excuse for these young cooks to stretch their culinary muscles.

Transcript

00:00Young chefs working at Goodwood's Kennel Club showcase their skills and creativity in a sold-out

00:05three-course special dinner on February 13th. It's a yearly tradition at the Kennel Club

00:11coinciding with National Apprentice Week during which culinary apprentices take the reins on a

00:16luxury three-course service of their own creation. The chefs, after honing their skills under the

00:22watchful eye of executive chef Mike Watts, work together to develop the menu, source the

00:27ingredients, prep the dishes and, when guests finally come filing into the Kennel's gorgeously

00:32appointed dining room, serve the food hot and on time. It's quite exciting for them I think

00:38because it's their dish, they know they've got support around so we don't leave them completely

00:42on their own at the same time. Their friends, their family are coming, it's a really good

00:45opportunity for them to shine and show off. It's an absolute joy to watch them deliver what we know

00:52they're capable of to be honest and see them under pressure. Half an apprenticeship is about learning

00:57but it's also about making mistakes so although we hope they don't make a mistake tonight and we

01:01won't let them or they shouldn't anyway but it's about seeing how hard it is actually running a

01:05kitchen and being in charge of the service. It's one of those opportunities that I didn't get when

01:09I was their age so it's really good to see them get it now. For Kennel members it's a much-anticipated

01:13yearly event but for the chefs themselves it's a chance to flex their culinary muscles, show off

01:18their creativity, put their skills to the test for a dining room full of real paying customers.

01:24With an ambitious menu consisting of mushroom raviolo to start, herb crusted Goodwood lamb for

01:29main and vanilla choux buns for dessert, all sourced and prepared in-house, it's safe to say

01:34the chefs didn't shirk from the challenge. For hard-working apprentice Henry Harvey who's been

01:40based at Goodwood for a year and a half, one of the most exciting parts of this year's dinner

01:44was taking charge of a kitchen himself, leading a service from start all the way through to finish.

01:50Last year I did this as well, I did a big apprentice takeover where I was

01:56given a section instead of to help lead the whole kind of service, it's just one

02:00small section. So you're top man? Yeah so far. And is that a lot of pressure? I mean I would,

02:07I know who I am, I would absolutely collapse under that kind of thing.

02:14And how do you cope with that? The pressure, well I'd say it's just

02:18at the end of the day it's a lot of pressure but for people I'm working with I know what they're

02:22doing, I can kind of lean on them to help me get through. It's a jump start to their promising

02:28careers which could see these chefs working in some of the best restaurants in the world,

02:33like apprentice Drew Lone who's currently working on desserts and says he has his eyes firmly set

02:39on the international stage. I want to go a few years in France, a few years in Italy

02:44and just basically just work and work and work and work. And do you feel like this has equipped

02:47you to kind of take your skills? Yeah yeah, good connections here, loads and loads and loads of

02:52really good chefs. It's kind of a nice place to calm down, another chef but yeah really good

03:01connections, like a few good chefs who came from London and I'd love to go work there but you know

03:06see where it takes me. Others, and this will come as no surprise, like to stick a little closer to

03:12home. I was actually counting it last night, all of our kitchens still have somebody that's gone

03:19through the apprenticeship working in them, be it a chef to party level or going up the ladder, so

03:24everybody gets a job at the end of it where ideally where they'd like but realistically

03:28where we need as well. We're very lucky to have four generations of different apprentices

03:35still working with us, so you're looking at the 2020 cohort, they've got two that work here at

03:40the Kells and then we've got three at the hotel, almost four because one's about to pass through

03:44their course in a couple months, one at the house and just seeing them flourish and then I think my

03:49dream in the end will be they have to leave, they have to go and see the world, they have to go and

03:53explore but if one of them came back in 10 years time became a head chef at Goodwood, I think that's

03:57the circle that we're looking to achieve.

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