The latest group of budding chefs to join the English Lakes Hotels Resorts & Venues Culinary Academy include trainees from Milton Keynes, Leicester, Romania and Canada.
Leo Nkumalo and Shantel Adjei
Doris Lam
Ethan Livesey and Doris Lam
Ioana Stiop with Dora Preece and Hannah Jones
The 2023 Culinary Academy Intake
Culinary Academy 2023 Intake
New Culinary Academy trainees join hotel group from far and wide
The latest group of budding chefs to join the English Lakes Hotels Resorts & Venues Culinary Academy include trainees from Milton Keynes, Leicester, Romania and Canada.
The 2023 cohort of students enrolled into the academy includes 26-year-old food writer and fine cuisine enthusiast Doris Lam from Vancouver.
Shantel Adjei and Leo Nkumalo have moved up from Milton Keynes and Leicester respectively to take up their course places at Low Wood Bay Resort & Spa, whilst Ioana Stiop, originally from Romania, is working at Lancaster House Hotel.
They are joined by local youngsters Hannah Jones from Levens, Dora Preece from Kirkby Lonsdale and Ethan Livesey from Lancaster.
Recruitment for this year’s Culinary Academy intake has involved a wider catchment area due in part to its growing reputation. Now into its sixth year in partnership with Kendal College, it provides the students with a one year apprenticeship with a pathway to attaining Level 2 Commis Chef and Level 3 Chef de Partie qualifications.
The accredited courses offer the chance for the trainees to hone their chef skills whilst earning a wage with the hotel group across our venues in the Lake District and North Lancashire.
"It’s been heartening to see applicants from across the country, and in this case from overseas as well, keen to come and train with us and develop their careers in Cumbria. We’re also still working with local schools to maintain baseline catering skills provision and pathways into the hospitality industry wherever we can, and that includes offering demo sessions for schools who get in touch. Doris’ successful application obviously stands out as she was determined to join us from Canada. And we can already see in his work and approach that Leo has a very creative mind. He is particularly interested in 1950s cuisine and aims to run his own restaurant one day. I’m greatly looking forward to working with the whole group over the next two years."
In the past 3 years, the Culinary Academy has attained 100% achievement with all apprentices on Level 2 and Level 3 programmes. Over 90% of the students have progressed on to further studies with the academy or have taken up full time roles within the hotel group.