Cove UK host successful dining experience with Chichester College culinary students

Chichester College students given round-of-applause for successful restaurant takeover

A local leisure company took over Chichester College’s kitchen last week to give students a real-life take on working in a restaurant and kitchen.

Cove UK and guests attended Chichester College’s takeover evening at 64 Restaurant on Thursday 1 February, which saw Cove’s chefs work with student chefs to produce a three-course meal with specially selected ingredients.

With drinks in hand, guests were shown to their seats at 6pm while treated to live music from Tag Live, which kept a smooth ambiance throughout the evening.

Diane Jackson, head of learning at Chichester College, said: “Our students worked so hard with the team at Cove UK, and produced a fantastic meal for our guests.

“They will have learnt a lot from the experience. Giving our students the opportunity to work with chefs and front-of-house teams from a range of hospitality companies gives them a great insight into the industry and gives them a flavour of what to expect.”

Front and back-of-house ran like clockwork, while supporting each other from plating and serving the starters, which consisted of a selection of pulled pork crumpets, sweet potato pakoras, king prawns and chorizo.

Mains followed shortly after, serving guests roast cod fillet, treacle cured flat iron steak and potato gnocchi.

Jason Wardill, Group Development Chef for Cove UK said: “We have come here and worked with a load of students that are level 1, 2 and 3. Hopefully we’ll find some chefs out of it and join us at Cove. But just to inspire some chefs and see something different.

“I think they’ve all really enjoyed it and it’s been great and it’s good for all the other chefs coming through to see something different that they don’t normally do so I think it’s vitally important.”

Anthony, head of culture and development at Cove, added: “We’ve had a really good relationship with Chichester College for a number of years now and it’s getting stronger. We do these events with other colleges around the UK, but the college is absolutely up there for being the best college we work with.

“What we really like is that we can bring people into our business who aren’t already chefs, or they don’t have that experience, but we can work with Chichester College to give them an apprenticeship, training, support and work experience to get them up to that level, and that’s what we’re all about. We want to encourage people of all ages to come to our business and we’ll nurture them.”