Fast Tracking your skills and industry knowledge. Trade shows are a great start.
When I was 17, in 1977, Hull Catering College took our year to London to attend Hotelolympia. Aside from this shy Yorkshire trainee chef being goggle eyed at actually been in London for the first time, after the first day I had a massive epiphany.
Seeing the unbelievable talent and expertise of the countries leading chefs being demonstrated and viewing the outstanding centre pieces in the ‘Salon Culinaire’. I couldn’t believe such masterpieces of culinary artwork had been created. More importantly, some of the chefs were in their early twenties and only a few years in front of me.
These shows also introduced me and my college chums to the fact the catering industry is made of many sectors and all of these were represented.
In 1977, the world of commercial cookery was expanding, developing and becoming centred around trends. For the first time I came across the term ‘Nouvelle Cuisine’ – New Cookery, and something stirred inside and I could feel a strong desire to better myself and be more like these clever chefs.
College was great, it taught us the basics well and gave us an introduction to commercial catering. But it couldn’t give us what this Exhibition gave us – inspiration to be something better, creative, daring and confident.
My first Head Chef, Ron, regularly questioned the point of college, because he wanted chefs to know how to prepare and present 250 Prawn Cocktails, not 2 as we were being taught. Maybe he was right but preparing that amount of single dishes didn’t happen every day and in reality, our daily dessert trolley for instance was filled with single highly creative dishes, and I caught onto this, motivated by seeing incredible desserts being exhibited. It was my opportunity to unlock my creativity and wow our diners. This desire to impress was a direct result of attending catering exhibitions because I saw the ‘whole industry’ and what is was up to, and understood that talent didn’t have to be shackled. If I hadn’t attended Hotelolympia, perhaps I wouldn’t have been as inspired?
My advice is to try to attend as many food exhibitions as you can, especially when you’re young. It galvanises your intent, offers new ideas that you wouldn’t see elsewhere, you can develop relationships with suppliers, view new equipment, exposes you to new interesting ingredients and methods of cooking. My lecturer called them a short weekend college course. For me, they helped me realise that staying in and around Hull was far to limiting, hence my, what felt like at the time, very brave move down south to start my career.
Nowadays, all should attend exhibitions, especially business owners, buyers and managers because there is so much technology and fresh ideas designed to save time, reduce costs, develop staff and make your catering business more profitable.
These days, I go to exhibitions to simply be wowed and amazed at the constant high standards still being achieved. I’m retired and can’t keep up with modern cuisine techniques. I watch civilians on Master Chef and stare in wonderment as to how they learned some of the skills they use. They say the Internet and YouTube is the best college course you can use? But getting to see what others are up too and being able to talk to them and suppliers is crucial. Exhibitions are a concentrated source of support and motivation.
I also strongly believe attending exhibitions gives you an edge, keeps you sharp and in touch with why you’re in the industry. Such factors can keep you ahead of your competitors also.
I understand those living in faraway locations may find it difficult to get to London, but a little research will reveal there are shows and exhibitions all across the UK serving the catering industry. I looked online this morning and found over 200 trade shows nationally in less than 60 seconds. Take a look at THIS WEBSITE illustrating many shows and exhibitions.
I hope this short story is useful and Trade Exhibitions can be as inspiring, as they were for me, because they played a significant part in my amazing career!
