Two guest chefs made an appearance this March to teach our Hospitality and Catering learners a range of exciting and innovative new cooking skills. Linking up with people from industry is an important factor in our Hospitality Career Excellence Hub.

First up was Prayag Rajpura, head chef of Lympsham Pavilion. Prayag’s lesson focussed on demonstrating the use of spices, seeds, and herbs to create high protein, intensely flavoured dishes. These meals were also either vegetarian or vegan, a key demographic in today’s hospitality industry, for example the chickpea curry which was served with chutneys and pickles.

From the business side of hospitality, Prayag also taught about sourcing ingredients, costing products and how to make smart business decisions as a chef to ensure good revenue and profits.

Prayag has helmed several restaurants in Weston, including vegan pop-up restaurants and local community café the Stable, which provided thousands of free school meals to households in Weston during the first Covid lockdown.

The second guest chef to make an appearance was Dave Newman, the Patron chef of the Ginger Pig Kitchen who made a sticky toffee pudding blended with ‘porkcorn.’ Dave was able to demonstrate cooking technology to the learners when using his Thermomix to make the pudding element of the dish.

This recipe used gluten free flours since Dave has his kitchen aim to produce foods for all dietary requirements, highlighting that more customers can be reached, and a restaurant can gain higher customer satisfaction by replacing allergens.

Dave garnished the pudding with a popped pork fat known as pork corn to add flavour. Speaking about pairing flavours, he went on to add a rich butter scotch sauce and salted caramel ice cream to add a modern twist.

Dave has broad experience producing a uniformed product which can cater to most diets, having previously led his own course of a Brit awards banquet!

A big thanks to both of these chefs for coming and speaking to our learners, the skills they gain from this will be excellent.

If you want to find out more about our Hospitality and Catering courses, click here: Hospitality and Catering | Weston College