Darren Millgate - New Course set-up aids in ‘modern hospitality management’
Our Food & DrinkDarren, our Cornish chef executive spends most of his days leading ‘the kitchen brigade’ here at St Michaels. His passion for food and talent in his craft goes way beyond the kitchen.
Recently, Darren was involved in setting up an all new, one-of-a-kind hospitality course in the UK called Future Chef, and it’s exactly what it says on the tin. This course is all about creating “future chef managers who can manage a modern day kitchen”.
“The defining difference between old hospitality management and new hospitality management is the culture and the atmosphere. Less hierarchy and more team work.”
Hospitality Cornwall are apart of Truro and Penwith Ofsted Outstanding College, and have collaborated with many local leaders including St Michaels Resort.
“My role within setting up this course was basically liaising with a bunch of people within the community and filling the gaps in what needs to be done in order to have a better understanding of the hospitality sector and once we’d all put our twopence in, the guys from Hospitality Table started working on the syllabus which ended up being a massive collaboration of what we think future chefs should know, and the outcome was this new course.”
The Hospitality Table had eight local chefs involved with making this course possible. With Darren from St Michaels contributing a wealth of advice and knowledge to create the syllabus that exists now.
“As far as what this will do for young aspiring chefs, the opportunity is already there and always has been, but it will give them the appropriate knowledge. There’s a shortage in skills and in chefs, so people get promoted for the sake of it - whereas this course helps those who are truly passionate about culinary arts to be able to have equal opportunities to people ‘working their way up’ within a company.”
This is a three month course which focuses on an ILM Level 3 Award in Leadership and Management as well as sessions that will typically involve a lot of team building, focus on sustainability in the kitchen, gas safety and food waste knowledge, HR, Finance and mental health support and knowledge in the workplace.
“Mental health is a crisis and it can be difficult to manage a team when you’re not well, and as well as some of our team members turning to The Burnt Chef Project for advice, this course makes sure that you know who to turn to in times of need.”
This new course will give people management training that is essential to hospitality workers who may be promoted with no further training, which is all too common within the hospitality sector. The hope is tha’sa more people feel inspired to join hospitality sectors with healthier, better trained environments.”
“I do wish I'd had this course back when I was training because you just never get taught it, it’s often trial and error and I put emphasis on error. With this course, you haven’t got to worry about the silly little errors or what’s expected of you as we’ve refined this course to the point where it can become second nature to new aspiring chefs. It allows you to access career progression also. There’s a community of chefs-in-training of a similar level, age etc who can work together, it’s a great opportunity for them to have.”
Demand for this course is already at an all-time high, and the College is looking for its next division for 2024, be sure to follow this link to find out more at www.hospitalitytablecornwall.co.uk/future-chef