Inspiration in Culinary Education – an Evening with Stu Collins at Academy West #Review

Victoria Hayes
29th October 2019

It may seem like an odd place to be treated to an incredible 5 course gourmet meal, but Cheshire College South and West is home to its very own bistro restaurant in the form of Academy West.

The college offers a culinary and hospitality education to people taking their first steps into the industry, and the whole evening was super charged by the excitement of these students showing us what they have learned.

In the service industry details are key and the hospitality students have been drilled in all the best details,  taking a customers coat on arrival, how to lay a napkin on the lap, how to pour wine, which side to serve from, there was even some debate about the possible pre warming of guests seats… Each course showed us more of the promise these young people have to be the future hospitality super stars.

However these hospitality superstars were forced to share their stage (in the very best way) with the incredible team in the kitchen. Chef trainees at levels 1,2 and 3 worked together under the leadership of the phenomenally talented Stuart Collins (Docket no.64, Docket no. 33) and his colleague the long suffering but brilliantly talented Felix.

Stuart comes from his own impressive culinary education; After a total of four years working with Michael Caines, Stuart was offered a job with another Michelin-starred British chef, Gordon Ramsay where he worked for 5 years in New York before returning to the UK as executive chef at Chester’s Abode , and other ventures in Qatar. He is incredibly passionate about passing is knowledge and skills on to the next generation of Chefs and this showed right through the evening from the beginning, through every dish until the end.

The evening was the relaunch of Academy West following a refurbishment completed by joinery and electrician students from the college under the meticulous management of the college staff, Andrea Huby and our friend Brian Mellor from Harthill Cookery School (a teacher, a mentor, a collaborator and friend of The Academy). The transformation is really brilliant, with lovely touches that really made you forget that you are actually in a college. The licensed à la carte restaurant provides the perfect working environment for their gifted learners and provides the public with top dining for low prices.

The Academy West promotes various events throughout the year that give the students the opportunity to experience different challenges. Their Gourmet Night is a special event in which the college invites a renowned chef to help the students to host a full fine dining experience for paying guests. All the money raised through the sales is to help the college’s continuous work with their Hospitality course

We were also lucky to have our courses accompanied by some delectable wine choices, made by our wonderful friend Richard from The Wine School of Cheshire. As we have come to expect from him, each choice was thoughtful, not only great quality wine but cleverly matched with each dish, so I should really tell you about these very special dishes.

Our opener, I have been lucky enough to sample before at Docket no. 64, Chickpea chips with smoked garlic custard. On our table of dignitaries, we all agreed that we could quite happily have a jar of that incredible custard and a spoon, and there was more than one person scraping every last drop off the plate to enjoy with the Cava, Anna Cordniu Blanc de Blancs it was served with.

Followed, with immaculate service by the students, by Mushroom Cannelloni, Goats Cheese, beetroot, and pine nut. I was in love with this dish, the earthy mushrooms, the salty goats cheese and the addition of the pine nuts meant that it disappeared rather faster than is usually polite when at dinner with the kind of notable people we were surrounded by. However a quick glance around the room showed me I was not alone, and it gave me time to relish the Felicette Grenache Blanc. I also absolutely have to mention the Love Lane Beer Bread and Appleby’s butter it was served with, as it was completely wonderful. I know Stuart makes all the breads and bisctuits/crackers for his Docket restaurants and they are always top notch, its exciting that a new generation will be continuing these skills.

Course three was Briony’s favourite, delicate Crab salad, Kohlrabi and coriander, paired with an Austrian wine, the Eschenhof Gruner Veltliner.  I should mention that with each course we were given a little wine education from Richard and so it was not just the students who learnt so much from this dinner.

Course four was Goosnargh Chicken, Sweetcorn, turnips and basil, lovely and moist, the sweetcorn had a real flavour punch – a brilliantly balanced dish. The wine  was the Liberator ‘The Francophile’ Chenin Blanc, this had a delightful minerality that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Lastly, the most incredibly light ‘trifle’ in the form of an Apple and Caramel Trifle which just melted in your mouth, paired with finger lickingly good cinnamon doughnut. An exquisitely selected Torres Floralis dessert wine meant all the guests were pleasantly full and felt completely spoilt by the whole experience.

I am extremely glad that time was taken at the end to thank all the students for the impressive hard work and achievement, and to thank their celebrity mentor Stuart for his time and dedication to teaching them new skills. We were so privileged to be treated to this wonderful meal and I for one cannot wait to see what the future brings for these gifted students. Perhaps we have already been fed by a future Gordon Ramsey, although I am assured that bad language is not tolerated in this particular kitchen!

A huge thank you and well done to everyone at Academy West, particularly Brian Mellor and Stuart Collins for looking after us and inspiring us with the future of culinary education.

If you have a budding chef in your household, we absolutely encourage you to look into the course provided by South and West Cheshire College and Harthill Cookery school for a top notch hospitality education which opens up opportunities with real culinary superstars.