TV chef headhunts young talent at Hopwood Hall College

Mike Jennings and students

Masterchef winner Simon Wood sent his head chef Mike Jennings, an award winning former Grenache chef, to Hopwood Hall College Riverside Restaurant on behalf of the 2015 Masterchef winner to look for budding young chefs to join the new Manchester restaurant ‘Wood’.

Whilst working in the college’s own multi-award winning restaurant, students who had achieved a Level Three qualification in catering were invited to speak to Mr Jennings and Wood’s General Manager James Cunningham about their futures and career opportunities in the industry.

Wood, based close to Manchester’s Great Northern, recently opened its doors to the public offering 'unintimidating high end dining'.

Mr Cunningham emphasised the importance Wood places on promoting young, local talent in such a competitive industry. He said: “At Wood we’re really keen to tap into the catering talent many of the local areas possess.

“To be the best in this industry is incredibly challenging and if we can offer opportunities whilst candidates are still young, it gives that bit of a head start in development when they have worked in a kitchen with standards as high as ours.

“The students, myself and Mike spoke to today have shown great promise, it’s a great sign for the future of this industry when colleges like Hopwood can produce young talent like this.

“Wood operates at the high end of restaurants, so we need to make sure we’re recruiting team members who work at that same level. Hopefully some of the students we met today will meet that calibre.”