The Culinary Ability Awards, the competition focused around championing individuals with disabilities in the hospitality industry, is to celebrate ten years of success with a day of inspirational workshops culminating in a glittering gala dinner.
Held at the Glasgow City Hotel on Thursday 10th September 2015, The Culinary Ability Awards has joined the Zero Barriers Project, uniting six European organisations under the banner of the EU’s Lifelong Learning Programme, and will deliver two completely free workshops during the day aimed at eliminating language barriers in kitchens.
Culinary Ability Awards founder and chef, Chris Sandford, comments:
“With kitchen brigades becoming increasingly more international in flavour, the workshops, aimed at university and college students as well as employers, will look to introduce the idea of using 250 different signs to aid slicker communication – once you understand these, you can communicate with anyone. Crucially, the training can be delivered by deaf or hard of hearing teachers who rely upon sign language daily – it’s extremely empowering.”
Gala dinner – a serious challenge
After an inspirational day that will include time for networking, thoughts then turn to the evening gala dinner where disabled, trainee-level chefs from across Europe will get to test themselves in the bright spotlight of the kitchen. The chefs will be tasked with cooking a very special four course menu alongside seasoned professionals for an estimated 100 attendees.
Chris adds: “We’re bringing these guys into an extremely high pressure environment to cook for a lot of people, they’re meeting new faces, using new equipment and often not talking the same language. It’s a serious challenge, but it’s all about giving individuals, regardless of their disability, an opportunity to prove themselves. Talent is talent, no matter your circumstances and the kitchen is a great leveller!”
The Culinary Ability Awards has been going from strength to strength since its birth in 2005. From participating at Catex, Chef Ireland in Dublin to becoming internationally renowned, the competition has helped thousands of people with disabilities globally, to work in the catering industry.
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Marcus Wareing, Mark Poynton and Angela Hartnet