Tip for the top
An impressive track record of successful work placements in some of the UK's leading restaurants, together with an impeccable college report, has helped student Lisa Allen of Lancaster & Morecambe College win a scholarship worth £5,000 from her local HCIMA branch.
The Cumbria HCIMA Hospitality Scholarship, inaugurated as a biennial event in 1998, is part of the wider Entrepreneurial Awards for hospitality and tourism in the region organised by Cumbria HCIMA. It recognises and promotes the outstanding hospitality student in the branch's area, and requires local colleges to submit a portfolio of work from star pupils.
Allen, already the recipient, in May, of Lancaster & Morecambe's own Most Outstanding Student award, was able to show an impressive list of work placements at Michelin-starred restaurants, including Northcote Manor in Lancashire and Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham.
She is due to take up a permanent job at the latter with chef-patron David Everitt-Matthias in the near future. "She's gone out and made things happen for herself. She will do very well in the future," said Allen's course tutor, Robert Marshall-Slater.
Allen's prize includes an all-expenses-paid, four-week culinary trip to South Africa, split into a two-week placement at a leading Cape vineyard and a two-week placement at a leading South African restaurant/hotel. A two-week work placement at the Sharrow Bay hotel beside Lake Ullswater in Cumbria also forms part of the scholarship, together with a cash prize of £500 and a place on an advanced pâtisserie course.
Allen said: "I'm looking forward to seeing and learning about different cooking methods in South Africa and to keep learning with David at Le Champignon."
