Fifteen
Tuesday 21 July 2009
Jamie Oliver set up the Fifteen project to train aspiring chefs. Check out what they had to say about it.
The Naked Chef
From a really young age Jamie Oliver always loved being in the kitchen. He was a regular at his dad’s restaurant, The Cricketers in Essex, and claims he could chop a vegetable like a “demon” by the time he was 11!
After training at Westminster Catering College he worked at restaurants in London and France. In 1999 he landed his own TV series called 'The Naked Chef'. The casual style of the show appealed both to students and people who were new to cooking. The name 'Naked Chef' came about because of the simplicity of his recipes, and not because he liked to cook in the nude!
Fifteen
Jamie set up Fifteen in 2002 as a way to put two of his favourite things together – cooking and helping others. The idea was to have a restaurant and a social enterprise that could train young people to cook good quality food in a top quality restaurant, while under the trained eye of professional chefs. Watch the video!
There are now four different Fifteen restaurants in Cornwall, London, Amsterdam and Melbourne. Liam Dodgson, an apprentice at Fifteen in Cornwall, says, “My life was pretty boring before I started working at Fifteen. I was unemployed for about a year and I basically found this opportunity and took it.”
Yes, chef
Fancy being a chef? It's a physical and demanding job role...
- A chef must know why certain ingredients are part of a recipe.
- They also have to take criticism well. Not everyone is going to like how they make their Bolognese!
- The kitchen can sometimes reach 35 degrees and higher, and chefs have got to continue working no matter what.
- Chefs have to work together to run the kitchen, also known as the back of house, so team work is important.
- Chefs have to stay calm under pressure. Could you cook two meals at once - one on the hob and another on the grill?
Cooking is for me
Fifteen Cornwall is currently looking for a new set of apprentices to join the team in October! If you're between 16 and 24 years old and not in any type of education then get in contact.
Schemes
Each branch of Fifteen has its own scheme in place to train wannabe cooks. Trainees take part in almost a year’s worth of work experience at Fifteen and other restaurants, and also get the opportunity to go abroad and learn about other cuisines. Apprentices also get time at catering college to learn different culinary skills.
Support system
Many trainees come from difficult backgrounds and have experienced circumstances that may have stopped them from progressing in life. To help them Fifteen has a system that tackles their problems through regular group discussions and one to one sessions with support workers.
“(Fifteen) keeps you going, keeps pushing you,” explains Dean Turner, another trainee at Fifteen. “You have your ups and downs, they pick you up and try to push you in the right direction.”
Recipes
Though cooking can seem like a drag sometimes, it’s not always as hard as it looks.
Sam Stern has come up with a few meals that are easy to make and good for the body too. Here are recipes for brilliant beef burgers, Glamorgan sausages, pasta and simple but satisfying club sandwiches.
