With expert guidance from Barchester’s Hospitality Development and Standards Manager, Mervyn Knights, 38 talented chefs – the Class of 2024 – have just completed a year’s training and graduated from the Barchester Chef Academy.
The Academy is the brainchild of Knights, who joined Barchester 22 years ago as a Kitchen Assistant and worked his way up through the ranks to head chef and then to his current position as part of the team overseeing hospitality training across the whole of Barchester. Along with the rest of the hospitality team, it is Mervyn’s job to ensure that the food being produced in all of Barchester’s 264 care homes and private hospitals for residents and patients meets Barchester’s very high standards in terms of quality, taste, nutrition and presentation, and that dishes are being prepared to the exact requirements of our individual residents.
The Barchester Chef Academy helps chefs to both hone their skills and learn new ones, covering many different modules including cooking for residents living with dementia, budgeting, balancing flavours, minimising wastage, presentation skills and so much more. The 38 chefs who completed this year’s course were full of praise for all they had learned; the chance to perfect new techniques and recipes, share hints and tips, to network and make new contacts and to expand their skill set. Back in their divisions, these chefs will help to train the hospitality teams in their sister homes.
Speaking about the Academy’s success, Mervyn Knights commented: “I am absolutely delighted at how well the Academy has been received by everyone who attended the course, it has been such a positive experience for all involved. We are already planning and recruiting the Academy’s new Class of 2025 who I know will go on to achieve great things, just as our 2024 chefs have.”
Dr Pete Calveley, CEO of Barchester Healthcare, added: “The Chef Academy is a wonderful initiative which is going from strength to strength each year under Mervyn’s excellent leadership. I have the pleasure of sampling some of the fantastic dishes produced by our talented chefs each year and I am always impressed by the high standard of cooking and by how beautifully everything is presented. I am incredibly proud of all of the chefs that took part in the Academy in 2024, I know they produce wonderful food for our residents and patients, cooked to their individual preferences, every single day.”
