Tag: alumni
A chef who trained at Westminster Kingsway College has won the Craft Guild of Chefs’ prestigious National Chef of the Year competition.
Ben Murphy, who is Chef Patron at Launceston Place in Kensington, scooped the top prize at a celebratory dinner at The Berkeley in Knightsbridge attended by VIPs from the hospitality world, including Gordon Ramsay who won the competition in 1992.
April Lily Partridge, who also studied at WestKing and is Sous Chef at The Ledbury in Notting Hill, came third in the competition, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Ben served a menu of butter poached pollock, radish and oscietra followed by Lake District young fallow, watercress, onion and batek pepper, and a dessert of clementine, honey, tahitensis vanilla and yoghurt.
In an interview with the Craft Guild of Chefs at the ceremony, he said: “Winning National Chef of the Year is crazy. Seeing the standard of food today, I didn’t expect to win at all. As I said to my friends and family, I’m going to cook the food I do daily, cook food I love to eat and hope for the best.
“I was confident and in my comfort zone and felt happy with what I did. I felt I did enough, but I wasn’t sure because afterwards we got the chance to view other dishes and I saw the calibre of the chefs I was against and the level of food they were cooking.”
Ben was presented with an exclusively designed winners plate framed together with the winner’s medal from Churchill Catering, along with £500 worth of products.
He also received a cash prize of £2,500 from Knorr Professional to support his career development along with a chef experience from Continental Chef Supplies including Michelin-starred restaurants, masterclasses and artisan food classes.
Each of the finalists have also been given the chance to enjoy culinary dining experiences with well-known Michelin-starred or award-winning restaurants across the UK.
The competition was judged by a panel of professional chefs chaired by Kenny Atkinson, Chef Patron at House of Tides and Solstice in Newcastle.
He said: “Wow, what a final, with an incredible winner! I’ve absolutely loved my first year as Chair of judges and seeing the calibre of cooking we’ve witnessed today has been the highpoint.
“The brief I set, purposely left the menus open to individual interpretation so that we could clearly see each chef’s personality, skill and talent so we’ve tasted some amazing food today. Congratulations to all the finalists and well done to Ben.
“To the other nine chefs, I want to see you learn from this experience and come back next year, more determined than ever.”
Competition organiser David Mulcahy, Food Innovation and Sustainability Director at Sodexo UK and Ireland added: “The reason this competition has spanned half a century is down to the way we have developed it year on year to address the industry’s biggest issues and attracted the highest level of talent to enter and judge this competition.
“I know that Ben is joining a long list of incredible chefs who have become real ambassadors for our industry.”
The Craft Guild of Chefs is the largest UK chefs’ association with members worldwide in food service and hospitality, from students and trainees to top management, working everywhere from Michelin-starred restaurants to school catering.
WestKing is home to one of the UK’s leading schools of hospitality and culinary arts. Find out more and apply for our courses here and apprenticeships here.
WestKing alumnus, actor and comedian, Babatunde Aléshé, is getting off his Celebrity Gogglebox sofa and is off to Australia as one of the stars taking part in ITV’s smash prime-time hit show, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
Babatunde is one of Britain’s brightest black comedians. He studied Performing Arts at WestKing from 2002 to 2005 and is dreading the trials that he’s likely to face in the jungle. He told ITV that it took several attempts to persuade him to join I’m a Celebrity… because he is filled with horror at the prospect of rats, snakes and cockroaches being poured over him.
“I am going to see what happens but I know I will be doing a lot of screaming for sure,” he said.
Good luck Babatunde!
I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! starts on Sunday 6 November at 9pm on ITV. You can follow Babatunde’s exploits in the jungle – and vote for him – on ITV, online and on social media (#ImACeleb). You can find out more about his fellow contestants here.
A former Westminster Kingsway College student’s powerful drama about a young gay, black woman at her wits’ end has been shortlisted for an award. babirye bulkilwa, 28, who is also an actor, poet and model, has been named among the finalists in The Women’s Prize for Playwriting for their short play, …blackbird hour.
The competition celebrates and supports women playwrights by discovering and promoting the best new work from writers at all levels of experience.
babirye, who uses they, has described their play as “a call to arms to loving oneself when love has evaporated from the body” and said it was inspired by events in their own life.
They said: “It’s about a young, gay, black woman and her safe space, which is her bedroom, and her unanswered questions about love and life. I enjoy storytelling. I’ve always been drawn to creating stories and pictures. Writing allows me to do that, while performing is unlike any type of happiness I have ever felt.”
babirye was pleased to be among the finalists in the competition but feels more needs to be done to promote black and gay artists, writers and performers.
“Without competitions like this, nobody with big pockets would pay my work any attention, but I am proud of myself. I had an idea and I finished it,” babirye said.
…blackbird hour was previously shortlisted for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, run in partnership with the Royal Exchange Theatre.
babirye recently appeared on stage in …cake, a prequel to Blackbird Hour, at Theatre Peckham.
Listen to …blackbird hour on the Fizzy Sherbert podast, performed by babirye and Michael Balogun, and directed by Anna Girvan (please note: the piece contains strong language).
babirye studied our Performing Arts diploma from 2008 to 2010. “I remember going to see lots of plays, and really analysing theatrical language and technique. My teachers really supported me and celebrated my talent,” they said.
“The lessons were intense, but always provocative. I learnt so much.”
Last year babirye performed opposite Hollywood star Cate Blanchett in When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other at the National Theatre. Her film and TV credits include the BBC series’ Casualty and Our Girl.
babirye co-founded the Sistren podcast to give a voice for the black lesbian community and was named among 10 female creatives in The Guardian newspaper in 2018. babirye is one half of a comedy duo Ackee & Saltfish, seen on BBC Three, and has also modelled for brands including Dr Martens, Adidas, Macy’s and Burberry.
Since it began in March, the Coronavirus lockdown has provided an opportunity for students of Westminster Kingsway College’s renowned School of Hospitality and Culinary Arts to put down their utensils and engage with renowned chefs.
The college – home to London’s leading culinary school – has hosted four online ‘lockdown’ question and answer Masterclasses for students so far, with chefs Ben Murphy, Freddie Forster, Selin Kiazim and Andrew Wong – all of whom are former students of the college. The Masterclasses gave students a unique opportunity to hear the alumni talk about their careers so far and what they have learned along the way, as well as their top tips for success.
Ben Murphy
The first Masterclass was on 1 April with Ben Murphy, head chef at Launceston Place restaurant in London’s Kensington, who gave a ‘warts and all’ talk about his career. Ben graduated from our Professional Chef Diploma course in 2010 aged just 19 and went on to work in France and at the five-star Berkeley Hotel, Knightsbridge. He said: “The college is the foundation of everything that I learned, from holding a knife to making a base for a sauce.
“But it wasn’t just the cooking. I learned how to be more patient, how to respect my elders and those who know more than me.” He went on to talk about those that influenced his career including mentor Norman Fu and his tutors at WestKing, whose advice and feedback he still seeks. Career highlights for Ben include being driven by Pierre Koffmann to the south of France to work in a 3 Michelin starred restaurant. “It was tough, but I learned a lot and eventually I think I earned their respect,” he said. Providing inspiration to the next generation of culinary and hospitality professionals, Ben told them: “You get out what you put in. The harder you work, the more you get. Live your best life, be happy and have no regrets.”
Freddie Forster
The next chef to share their expertise and experience with students was Saturday Kitchen regular and former Head Chef at le Pont de la Tour restaurant in London, Freddie Forster, on 8 April. Describing his decision to stay at the college and complete his final year as “the best decision I ever made,” Freddie graduated from the three-year Professional Chef Diploma course in 1990 and went on to work for Raymond Blanc in a career that has taken him all over the world. Freddie’s Masterclass covered everything from his favourite dishes to cook and eat, to staying positive and setting goals. Freddie provided a unique insight into the impact of the pandemic and how he believes it will affect the service industry. He discussed the need for restaurants to be more vigilant on spending money and how hygiene practices will change. You can watch it here:
Selin Kiazim
Our third culinary Masterclass was on 23 April, with Selin Kiazim, who graduated from the college in 2008. Students logged in to hear her talk about her time at WestKing and how competing in culinary competitions helped shape her future. One of these competitions resulted in her winning a five-week trip to New Zealand where she met world famous chef Peter Gordon. She went on to work for him and eventually became head chef at the Kopapa restaurant. Trying to establish herself in her own right, she then ran several pop ups across the UK and it was only after a career-changing review from Giles Coren in The Times that she gained confidence in her Turkish Cypriot cuisine and opened her restaurant Oklava in 2015. Selin also competed on The Great British Menu in 2017 and her dessert was selected for the final banquet.
Students questioned Selin on being a female in a male-dominated industry. She talked about the harsh reputation that working in kitchens has and how working for Peter Gordon taught her that nurturing her staff is important. “The way that I treat people and the way I run my kitchen is very much in line with him [Peter Gordon],” she said. Watch Selin in action:
Andrew Wong
Andrew Wong – the host of our fourth Masterclass – grew up in a culinary family. His parents were restaurateurs, but the young Andrew was much more interested in studying to go to university than helping out in the kitchen – indeed he deliberately threw himself into his studies so he wouldn’t have to work in his mum and dad’s traditional Chinese restaurant. But people, and circumstances, change and after leaving university and training to be a chef at Westminster Kingsway College, Andrew is a highly accomplished chef with a Michelin Star for his restaurant A. Wong. Watch his Masterclass here:
Programme Manager for the Professional Chefs Diploma at Westminster Kingsway College, Paul Jervis, said: “We are a very well-connected college and these Masterclasses are a unique chance for students to hear first-hand from people who are not only their heroes in the industry, but who, like them, have studied here. We’ve been delighted to run four Masterclasses so far and we are really grateful to Ben, Freddie, Selin and Andrew for taking part.”
“We have a lot of other talented and successful culinary alumni who we keep in regular contact with. We’re pleased that so many of them want to help inspire the next generation of chefs and so we’re planning more Masterclasses, with more alumni, as the lockdown continues.
Find out more about our Hospitality and Culinary Arts courses here.
