“Hugely satisfying”, says DUNCAN COLLINGE.  And he’s not talking just about his prestigious post as Executive Chef at Windermere’s four-star Lakeside Hotel.

What has given this 41-year-old Scot so much satisfaction these last six years is passing on his culinary skills to youngsters for whom the kitchen was a definite no-go area and is now their proud place of work.

Lakeside’s vision in setting up their Ulverston Training Academy is paying rich dividends thanks to the one-on-one tuition offered by men and women like Duncan, who learned his own trade so brilliantly from the world-famous Roux brothers and in places as diverse as London’s La Gavroche restaurant and hotels across Europe.

Now all the priceless knowledge gleaned over so many successful years is being imparted to youngsters for whom dole queues and dead-end jobs have often been a way of life.  Trinity gives them a chance to carve out a career in the hotel and catering industry and for Duncan, who began his own career peeling potatoes and scrubbing pans, the chance to help hands-on has been “terrific, just terrific”.

“They come to us completely raw, with nothing to connect them with cooking except an instinct to give it a go,” he says. “Some of them, of course, don’t see it through, but those with enthusiasm and a genuine desire to see what we have to offer, have not only found jobs at The Lakeside and elsewhere, but have escaped a background of unemployment and state benefits and are now taking a real pride in having a decently-paid, worthwhile and interesting job.

“I got an enormous buzz out of seeing a young man like Darren Anderson cooking unsupervised in our Ruskins Brasserie at the Lakeside just a couple of years after walking into Trinity House from six months on the dole.  He became a junior chef de partie with an NVQ qualification, so good that he was voted our top apprentice and we sent him to work for a month in a top Swiss hotel, which was a fantastic experience for him.

“Darren took his chance brilliantly and at 23 he had a great future ahead of him. We were sorry to lose him when he decided to move on to a job in Barrow, but  what he  achieved here was certainly an inspiration to others. He was one of our first ten apprentices and four of them elected to specialise in the kitchen. Some didn’t stick it out, of course, but they were our pathfinders and I’m proud to have been involved with the Training Academy from the start.”

And what does Duncan look for in youngsters who declare an interest in cooking, having happily admitted that they can’t boil an egg let alone sauté potatoes?  “Stickability – a determination to give it their best shot and not to walk away when the going gets tough. A hotel kitchen can be a volatile environment to work in, but the longer our apprentices stick at it the more you see their confidence growing and their character developing.
 
“I look for good listeners, for that spark of interest.  Some budding chefs you can spot early, others are late developers. But I tell them all that they can have it all if they want it badly enough.  Sure they have to work unsociable hours, but hotel and catering work is like that. I’m lucky, my job is my hobby and I worked enough 12 and 14-hour shifts when I was their age to know what I’m talking about.

“But it’s also very rewarding, and not just in the financial sense – we are now doing dishes at the Training Academy that we serve at Lakeside and we insist from day one on very high standards. A lot of these youngsters join us at Trinity with difficult backgrounds – maybe their parents have split up - and being unemployed for a long time can be soul-destroying. Working with them has been so good for me – I certainly have more patience than I used to have – and it is so satisfying to bring your own chefs through to The Lakeside rather than relying on catering agencies to fill the gaps.

“If a youngster wants to learn to cook, if he or she wants to go all the way and become a top chef, then we’ll give them all the help and backing they need from the Training Academy right through to a good position at Lakeside. Darren Anderson will vouch for that. And so will Kerry Roberts, who was also in our first intake of apprentices after six months on the dole and three doing really mundane work in the kitchen of a Barrow café. After she left school she had been to Furness College for two years and had come out with NVQ Levels 1 and 2 in Catering and Hospitality and Food Service Preparation, but what she really wanted to be was a pastry chef.

“Kerry achieved that ambition with us and it was an absolute pleasure to see her blossom not only professionally but also personally. She, like Darren, achieved what she set out to achieve and you could see her self-esteem improving alongside the first class work she was doing in the kitchen. She moved on after three years with us, but she was our main pastry chef for a year and was excellent. I would gladly employ her again.

“And that also applies to Tom Barnes, who was only 15 when he began at Trinity as a Saturday boy. Within three years he was a much-valued member of our team of chefs at The Lakeside, so good that he landed a job at The Vineyard at Newbury in Berkshire, which has two Michelin stars and is certainly one of the ten best restaurants in Britain. I have every confidence that Tom will do himself justice.

“He has always been single-minded, absolutely determined to be a top, top chef. We were sorry to see him go but delighted for him at the same time. He was a terrific youngster to work with – so driven and so interested in his work - and I knew that his ambition would inevitably take him away from The Lakeside.

“But you don’t mind when you know how hard he will work to become better and better. Tom Barnes was one of our great successes from the Training Academy and Luke Woodend is another young man who started on the same day at TrinityHouse and has also blossomed brilliantly into a valued member of our Lakeside staff.

“Luke spent three years in dead-end jobs when he left school, but once he found something he was really interested in
- cooking, fortunately for us – he just grew in knowledge and confidence. He is very gifted – he has what I call a great palate with a great feel for seasoning – and he is very much another of our great successes.”

Duncan Collinge was the first chef in Cumbria to be given a Tourism, Science and Engineering Ambassadorship – “it means I am badged to go into schools and work with the kids in food science and I love it” - and it would be well-nigh impossible to find a man more passionate about his profession.