Come Dine With Us

Oulder Hill School GCSE students

It was a case of ‘Come Dine With Us’ recently for students from Oulder Hill School as a group of them staged a dinner party for parents and staff at Hopwood Hall College’s restaurant, The Cottons. The school students have been studying GCSE Catering and NVQ in Food Preparation and cooking at the college one day a week for the past 18 months and held the dinner to celebrate the end of their course.

The students were given the opportunity to run the production kitchen at the college restaurant, under the watchful eye of their tutor Brian Yates. It also gave them a chance to show off their recently acquired skills and get a real taste of what it feels like to run a commercial kitchen.

The Oulder Hill School students produced an extremely challenging four course menu and excelled in all of the courses. Their guests started with minestrone soup accompanied by a freshly baked bread roll which was followed by ravioli filled with ricotta cheese and spinach, served with a tomato and cream sauce. The main course consisted of a steamed chicken breast with Chasseur sauce, fresh vegetables and new potatoes. All of this was finished off with a delicious selection of plated deserts including strawberry cheesecake garnished with fresh strawberries, bakewell tart with raspberry coulis and a profiterole with warm chocolate sauce.

After service had finished the students were invited into the restaurant to receive massive praise from all of the diners for their exceptionally tasty meal. Course tutor, Brian Yates, commented on the success of the evening: “The students excelled themselves with the meal that they produced for this special evening. They worked very hard throughout the course and I am extremely proud of the progress they have made from the start of the course to the end. Thanks must also go the College staff and students who gave up their time to serve in the restaurant on the night.”