Lucky guests get a taste of student chefs’ culinary art

COOKERY students at West Highland College UHI designed and prepared a threecourse lunch for 24 guests to mark the significant investment of £400,000 the college made in extending the training kitchen in Fort William last summer.

The group of 16 students – ranging from Skills for Work pupils, to City and Guilds levels one and two through to HNC professional cookery – designed, taste-tested, cooked and served the lunch to their guests.

The guests included Shirley and Eddie Spear from the Three Chimneys Restaurant and their general manager and head chef, representatives from Inverlochy Castle, Gleneagles Resort, Glenfinnan Country House Hotel, Russell’s, The Crannog Seafood Restaurant, Strathmore Hotels, Lochaber Chamber, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Lochaber High and Ardnamurchan High.

Ms Spear said: ‘The investment made by West Highland College UHI to create this new training kitchen for the professional cookery students, plus the new Café TOAST for the college campus in Fort William, is excellent and so worthwhile.

‘The three-course lunch, cooked and served by the students, under the guidance of their lecturers and tutors, was truly superb, proving what can be achieved. The choice of dishes at each course was very ambitious and the guests were impressed.’