The course, which was recently trialled with 14 delegates from a range of the company’s sites, consists of five hours a day of practical training in culinary basics, cooking techniques and creation of more complex dishes.
Chris Jowsey, trading director at Star Pubs & Bars, said: “The reality is not all licensees have lots of cookery experience. It is important to support them because as an industry we are faced with a chef recruitment crisis which is limiting the true food potential of pubs.
Star Pubs & Bars trading director:
The reality is not all licensees have lots of cookery experience - it is important to support them"
“It is our belief that to build sustainable pub food businesses licensees need to improve the quality and quantity of food in their pubs. And with Star’s ambition that 50% of pub sales should come from food, we felt it was important to act now and help licensees and their teams acquire the kitchen skills they need.”
He added that to increase food profitability, licensees needed to create more home cooked dishes from scratch rather than try to compete with the value end of the food chain.
The trial course consisted of classes on kitchen hygiene and knife skills, masterclasses in meat and poultry, roasts, steaks, fish and shellfish, herbs, spices, soups, stocks, sauces and a chef’s challenge where licensees were asked to create their own dishes based on what they had learned.
Dianne Irving, licensee at the White Mare, Beckermet, who completed the trial course, said: “I feel so much more confident to manage the kitchen with some authority now.
“I shall spend more time in the kitchen now and work more closely with our chef team to further develop the quality and variety of our food offer.”
Delegates also learned about wine, beer and food pairings and visited a London food pub to examine it from a “customer perspective”.