A time to skill
The Youth Skill Olympics have a new name, but the standard required is every bit as high as before. Janet Harmer talks to this year's UK hospitality representatives about their preparations.
Thirty dedicated youngsters from across the UK are about to embark on the challenge and adventure of a lifetime. Next month, they will fly nearly halfway around the world to test their skills in their chosen careers in a series of the most exacting and demanding exercises.
The event is the 36th World Skills Competition (formerly known as the International Youth Skill Olympics), and the venue is Seoul in South Korea. Among the British competitors taking part will be three young people representing three different trades within the hospitality industry. Waitress Kelly Young, chef Lucy Hyder and pastry chef Hugh Marsh will join nearly 600 other highly skilled and motivated youngsters, all aged under 23, from 35 countries, competing in four gruelling days of competition.
Their aim will be to return home with a gold, silver or bronze medal, or a diploma of excellence for reaching a defined international standard. The last British team to compete in the event - held in Montreal, Canada, two years ago - brought back one silver and two bronze medals, including a bronze won by waiter Stuart Bennett, who was working at Browns hotel in London at the time. Nine diplomas were also awarded to the British team.
The most successful year for Britain, though, was in 1995, when the event in Lyon, France, attended by 250,000 people, produced three gold, one silver and two bronze medals for the British team. Among the gold medal winners was Simon Hulstone, who is now Lucy Hyder's head chef at the Bacchanalian restaurant at the Hotel on the Park in Cheltenham.
"Since winning in Lyon, my career has boomed," says Hulstone. "I was given instant recognition as a chef, and so were my employers as excellent trainers."
For the past eight months, Hyder, Young and Marsh have been training relentlessly - both to refine their skills in their respective professions, with the help of mentors, and to build up their confidence in competing as UK team members on a world stage.
In order to achieve the latter, they have recently joined their fellow team members - representing a host of diverging trades including painting and decorating, stonemasonry, and information technology - on a team-building weekend organised by UK Skills and held at Brathay Hall in Cumbria. Raft-building, rope-climbing and mental agility tests were just some of the tasks the team took part in.
Here, Hyder, Young and Marsh - who were all selected for the event through a series of qualifying competitions held at the beginning of the year - talk about their preparations for Seoul. Their mentors will be in Korea as experts to judge their fellow competitors, but they will be allowed no contact with their protégés for the duration of the competition, 13-16 September.
Kelly Young, 21
Head waiter, Restaurant One-O-One, Sheraton Park Tower, London
The restaurant service task
Day one: Fold 10 napkins (six ornate, two simple, two paper folds); box a buffet table; box a box; prepare a Continental breakfast tray.
Day two: Carry out a full lunch service, including the flamb‚ of a pepper steak, the preparation of an Irish coffee, and the service of white and red wines.
Day three: Carry out a full lunch service, including the service of Kir Royale and wines, and the decanting and service of port with cheese.
Day four: Prepare and serve three cocktails - Tom Collins, Brandy Alexander and Gin Martini; prepare and make up own non-alcoholic cocktail; identify 10 drinks by sight and smell only.
"Until just recently, I've been training once a week since my selection. Now we're into August, the training has been stepped up to twice a week. My mentor is Rob Smith of Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies, so it means a lot of travelling between London and Birmingham for both of us.
"The training has been brilliant - I just can't fault Rob. He has been regularly marking me using the same criteria that will be used in the competition. I'm feeling quite confident, but he doesn't want me to peak too early.
"I've been getting a lot of extra help from technical experts such as a florist at Earthworks in Marylebone in London; Luigi Sportorno, the catering manager at Abbey National in Baker Street, who is just the best at napkin-folding; and Peter Dorelli, the bar manager at London's Savoy, who has been coaching me in the mixing and presentation of cocktails.
"The event itself is going to be daunting. As well as the competition, there's going to be a huge opening ceremony with fireworks and dancing, and being in an alien culture like Korea is just going to be incredible.
"I've got chills down my spine just thinking about it."
Lucy Hyder, 22
Sous chef, Bacchanalian Restaurant, Hotel On The Park, Cheltenham
The chef task
Day one: Write and compose a four-course menu for four covers, to be prepared on day three - menu to include a cold vegetarian starter, a hot fish or seafood dish, a main course with three vegetable garnishes, and a dessert that incorporates a cake, a fruit composition and a chocolate piece; start mise-en-place for day two.
Day two: Prepare a buffet to include a pâté of white fish stuffed with scallops and mussels with two garnishes and a sauce, salad of veal sweetbreads served with two salads, classic millefeuille served with three fruits, and an apple beignet served hot with orange-flavoured ice-cream.
Day three: Cook and serve menu written on day one.
Day four: Cook and serve set menu for four covers of breast of duck with émincé of veal and chicken liver, roulade of salmon stuffed with a white fish and served with mussels and shrimps, and white and dark chocolate layered mousse.
"On being selected for the British team, I immediately felt a great sense of pride at being chosen to represent my country, but also quite daunted by the enormous task that lay ahead.
"The competition itself is going to be incredibly tough, but I've been receiving such tremendous support from chefs in the industry. Peter Richards, chef-director of the School of Hospitality and Culinary Arts at Westminster Kingsway College, is my mentor - and, of course, Simon Hulstone has provided the ultimate inspiration. Winning gold himself, Simon knows exactly what is needed - he has given me the backbone and confidence to go out and do the competition.
"The team-building exercises with UK Skills have also been fantastic in giving me the mindset to believe in myself and provide me with my own inspiration.
"I've been working particularly hard on my puff pastry, my butchery skills and my ability to properly organise and time-manage myself. Helping me have been some fantastic people such as William Hamelin, pastry chef at the Connaught, and Bruce Sangster at Lehman Brothers, both in London.
"At the end of the day, I just need to stay focused for four days. It's a massive honour to represent the UK and I don't want to let myself down - it will be the only chance I'll ever have."
Hugh Marsh, 19
Commis pastry chef, Langham Hilton, London
The confectionery/pastry task
Day one: As much as four hours of mise-en-place is allowed for days two to four.
Days two, three and four: Six tasks have to be completed over these three days, but the competitors will not know until the start of the competition which two pieces have to be presented on each day. The tasks include making:
A 21cm round celebration gâteau, with an emphasis on innovative filling and finishing.
A 60cm x 60cm sugar presentation piece.
A 60cm x 60cm chocolate presentation piece.
Sixty hand-made chocolates, comprising 15 of four different types, two of which must be moulded.
Two pairs of marzipan animals, each weighing no more than 100g.
Forty French pastries, to include 10 using choux paste, 10 using sablé paste, 10 using jaconde, and 10 free interpretation.
"I'm really looking forward to going to Seoul and doing my best. I'm spending all my spare time training and have just spent the whole of my recent holiday practising my different tasks.
"My mentor, John Huber, has been a great inspiration, as has Nigel Braithwaite, my pastry chef at the Langham Hilton, and Yolande Stanley, my pastry lecturer at Thames Valley University. John knows all the experts and has introduced me to lots of people who are helping me, including Michael Nadell of Nadell Patisserie; Lisa Crowe, pastry chef at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park hotel; and Ernst Bachmann of Bachmann's Patisserie. All the time, I know that if I need help then I can get it.
"One of my favourite tasks is the gâteau. The only criterion that we've been given is that it should be a celebration cake, and I'm doing an 80th birthday cake. It's made of layers of jaconde biscuit, cold-set crème brûlée flavoured with Cointreau, and chocolate and Grand Marnier mousse. The coating is a dark chocolate glaze with flower decorations in white and dark chocolate.
"I know exactly what I've got to do now. It's just a matter of keeping practising."
