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Flair for Food at Boston College
08/07/2008
Boston College has invested in advanced food preparation technology in its Hospitality and Catering department, adding huge benefits for students and local businesses. Boston College has an enviable reputation for training talented students whose subsequent successes are recognised nationally.
The hearty funding boost has been made possible through the College’s membership of the East Midlands New Technology Initiative (NTI) Food and Drink Network.
As well as giving match funded grants to businesses, NTI also provides funds for member colleges and universities to invest in cutting edge technology. Local businesses who work with NTI can also have access to the new technology and work with students on product development and improved production techniques.
One aspiring chef, a Professional Cookery NVQ Level 3 student, who is benefiting from the new equipment, is Paul White. As one of 40 people on the catering team at the college, Paul works in all three of the college’s realistic working environments run as commercial enterprises - The Haven Restaurant, the Bistro and the high-volume catering kitchen, which supplies around 300 daily school dinners to local primary schools.
The vegetable preparation machine, meat slicer and vacuum packer purchased from the NTI grant have all made the kitchens more efficient and enabled students like Paul to speed up production, control portion sizes, reduce food wastage and ultimately increase profits from school dinners. For Paul, a winner of young cooks of Lincolnshire when he was 14 and with strong ambitions of working in the finest restaurants the world has to offer, the new equipment has helped him to become more efficient at his current job and stands him in good stead for his future.
Jane Edwards, Curriculum Leader: Hospitality, Sports, Leisure & Travel at Boston College, said: “Paul has made rapid progress in the three years he has studied at Boston College, progressing from NVQ Level 1 to Level 3. He has recently received an offer of employment for when he completes his studies this summer at a country house hotel in the Vale of Belvoir, Nottinghamshire.
“At his interview the hotel staff were so impressed with the high standard of his cooking that they have offered him weekend work until he completes his NVQ3. Achieving this high level of skill is a testament to his hard work and the skill of his lecturers, but is also a reflection of the equipment he has to work with. The NTI grant enabled the college to purchase training equipment that could not otherwise be afforded and so enhanced the learning experience of all catering students.”
Food And Drink
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