The Hotel Folk launches chef development programme

The Hotel Folk, a privately owned Suffolk hotel group, has launched its own chef development programme.

Nine chefs from The Hotel Folk, which owns and runs six properties and an entertainment venue across Suffolk, have committed to join the first course.

The programme was launched at the Suffolk Food Hall in Wherstead, near Ipswich where the trainee chefs will undertake a series of monthly masterclasses provided by hospitality experts HIT Training.

It will form part of HIT’s award-winning and market-leading Chef Academy.

Monthly masterclasses will cover nose to tail butchery, shellfish, bread and dough, vegetables and protein, game and offal and bakery and patisserie.

All the sessions have been scheduled to work with the seasons with food safety, and health and safety practices embedded into the programme.

The Chef Academy’s lead trainer, Steve Wiltshire, will run the off-site masterclasses.

Wiltshire has 30 years’ experience as a chef within three rosette and Michelin star hotels and restaurants, and a further five years in the training industry, teaching budding chefs everything he knows.

Andrew Clements, the training and development chef for The Hotel Folk and the chefs’ mentor at the business, is also essential to their advancement in the training.

Clements will be the chefs’ main point of liaison throughout the programme and comes with a plethora of experience in the kitchen having begun his career as one of the original apprentices at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant and featured on TV’s Jamie’s Kitchen.

Since then he has worked in several prestigious hotels and restaurants with famous names including Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant in Padstow, John Torode in London, Yotam Ottonlenghi, Marriott Hotels in Kensington and the Ritz Carlton Hotels in Barcelona.

Chefs will also take part in masterclasses alongside some of The Hotel Folk’s head chefs and visit local suppliers to increase their producer knowledge, the first of which will be with award-winning, third generation, family-run business, Pinney’s of Orford.

Clements said: “This is a big step for the group, as we introduce a new way of training and investing in our kitchens and developing the chefs that have put themselves forward and want to progress their career with The Hotel Folk.

“This programme is especially important for me as I started my career as an apprentice, and being a mentor for these nine chefs makes it feel like I have come full circle from the mentee to the mentor. I hope that my experiences of working my way up within the industry means that I am in a fantastic position to support and help these chefs to develop their career.”

Wiltshire, Chef Academy lead trainer for HIT Training, added: “It gives me great pleasure to deliver our Chef Academy masterclass sessions to the group of talented and passionate chefs in this cohort. I look forward to seeing these chefs develop and enhance their skills and knowledge throughout their apprenticeship journey. The future is very bright for the culinary team with The Hotel Folk.”