Ash Spencer, lecturer at Westminster Kingsway College

The Staff Canteen

Chef Career Advice

Based on his extensive experience working within Culinary Arts, Course Coordinator, Ash Spencer offers his advice to aspiring Chefs in an attempt to help them on their journey up the career ladder:

My names Ashley Spencer, I'm the course coordinator for the part time programme for culinary arts, Kitchen larder and for the pastry.

The advice I would offer a young Chef about to leave college and go into the industry would be to stick at it, concentrate on what you want to do, what you want to get out of life, what you want to get out of your career. I think a young Chef can expect some hard times to start off with.

It is very hard to start off with in the industry but there are vital rewards at the end of all that. Best bit of careers advice I've ever been given was stick to it, stick to it, stick to it stay with it, keep going. When a young Chef comes onto one of my courses I'm looking for somebody who's dedicated, somebody who has a passion for cooking.

We deal with the part time programme so we want students, young Chefs coming in that have a passion, that initial passion, that that's what they want to do and you can see that spark in their eye and they come up with ideas they like to play with their food and design different ways of presenting it and just passion. The industry can expect from a Chef that's finished one of our courses that they’re going to get somebody that has a well-rounded basic knowledge of cooking and understanding and a passion for wanting to cook.

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The Staff Canteen

The Staff Canteen

Editor 1st September 2016

Ash Spencer, lecturer at Westminster Kingsway College