The Chefs’ Forum Academy with Sam Fazackerley

New techniques and seasonal flavours were on the menu at the latest Chefs’ Forum Academy session at The Manchester College Industry Excellence Academy for Hospitality & Catering.

Sam Fazackerley, Head Chef at Rosso Manchester, joined Level 2 Culinary Skills students, providing two hours of industry-standard mentoring and expert advice about the hospitality & catering sector.

Sam, who’s also worked as Chef de Partie, Head Pastry Chef and Sous Chef at Rosso, set the students a challenging task of cooking roast pork with roasted squash puree and fennel mostarda, with the students worked on seasoning, pan-roasting, plating and presentation.

“What we chose to do today was a pan-roasted pork chop,” Sam said, “It’s all about the technique. Dealing with the protein isn’t the easiest thing to do when it comes in like that but they’ve done really well, they should be proud of themselves. The flavours are a lot to do with the season that we’re coming into, such as squash, winter fruits and fennel.”

Students quizzed Sam on his favourite dishes, the different ways to cook pork and his experiences as a top chef.

Sam added: “The experiences, benefits and privileges the students get, like the Chef’s Forum Academy, goes towards building a better chef in the future. It’s incumbent on every chef to make sure that the chefs coming up are better equipped than we were. Every chef is only the product of the chefs before them and if you’re aware and honest enough to ask about things, the chef will always help.”

Level 2 Culinary Skills student Ethan Bates said: “I’m a practical person so this course is great for me. I’ve never used some of these techniques before with pork but Sam was very informative and he helped us a lot.”

Find out more about our Industry Excellence Academy for Hospitality & Catering at our TMC Live event on Wednesday 14 October and enrol today.