A Flying Visit to the Devonshire Arms

Two Level 3 Professional Cookery students, Anna Claringbull and Michael West, have taken part in one of pork manufacturer Dingley Dell’s ‘Flying Visits’, held at the Devonshire Arms Hotel & Spa restaurant in Bolton Abbey, North Yorkshire.

Flying Visits are all about celebrating the pig and its journey from the farm to the plate. It is a celebration of the skill and the passion of everyone involved, from the artistry of the master butcher to the creativity of the chef.

This particular Flying Visit, entitled ‘The Magnificent Seven’ was a seven-course charity ‘Swine and Dine’ meal, with each course incorporating a selected cut of pork. A line-up of seven top chefs each created their own course, helped by students from catering courses as a part of a Passion to Inspire initiative.

Anna and Michael helped Devonshire Arms’ head chef Adam Smith, a former UCB student and Roux scholarship winner, with his chosen course: Pork jowl with turbot, sprouting broccoli and lobster jus. They helped to prepare the ingredients, skinning and filleting the turbot and portioning.

“The kitchen was very busy with seven courses being prepared and plated since there were 95 guests to serve on the night,” said Michael. “As well as preparing the food, I also worked on the service pass to quality-check the food before it went out to customers.”

“It was great to be in the kitchen with Chef Smith,” said Anna. “It was hard work, but I really enjoyed the day and got to experience what it was like to work in the industry.”

John Penn, Assistant Dean of the College of Food at UCB, said: “Opportunities like this are great experience for students. They can increase their skills, gain work experience and can network with some great chefs and start building relationships with people already in the industry. Being able to work with top chefs, particularly if that chef is a UCB alumni, is very inspirational and shows them just how far that they can go in their chosen career.”

The evening was a resounding success, raising £5000 for childrens’ cancer charity Ilkley Candlelighters.