Students from the college will now be able to make use of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts Kitchen; the Culinary Science and Kitchen Innovation Laboratory; and the Chocolate Laboratory and Cacau Barry Patisserie.
“The opening of these specialist culinary facilities demonstrates Westminster Kingsway College’s continued commitment to providing what our partners in the Hospitality industry tell us they need,” said Andy Wilson, principal of Westminster Kingsway College.
“We are the first and only Further Education College or Culinary School in the UK to have specialist laboratory facilities for culinary science and chocolate, with specialist lecturers in both areas. We are proud to open these facilities and immensely grateful to our industry sponsors for all of their support.”
Teaching Kitchen
The twelve-stationed Baroness Burdett-Coutts teaching kitchen features the latest Charvet kitchen ranges, multimedia facilities and a separate area for lecturer and guest speaker-led demonstrations.
The bespoke kitchen is named in honour of Baroness Burdett-Coutts, a local philanthropist in London during the late nineteenth century. It will be used by students studying the International Culinary Diploma as well as the Professional chef courses and one-day industry programmes.
Culinary Laboratory
The new Culinary Science and Kitchen Innovation Laboratory is dedicated to the training and education of culinary science and gastronomy. The new facilities provide a fully equipped space where Culinary Arts Foundation Degree students can carry out scientific research related to culinary processes.
It will also be used to teach Kitchen Science to Professional Chef Diploma students and the combination of kitchen and laboratory equipment will provide an ideal venue to allow interactive demonstrations as part of their teaching.
The 8m2 Culinary Science Laboratory contains state-of-the-art scientific and innovative equipment including a rotary evaporator, an ultrasonic homogeniser, a centrifuge, an antigriddle, water baths, a sous vide oven, a chamber vacuum machine, a microscope, a dehydrator and a Pacojet.
Newly appointed culinary science lecturer Rachel Edwards-Stuart said: "In addition to teaching the students here, we will be running a series of three day Culinary Science courses in the new facilities and demonstration days throughout the year to give chefs and caterers opportunities to try out the new equipment and see how it works. We will also be carrying out research projects in the Culinary Laboratory which we hope to publish in several academic journals.”
Chocolate Lab & Patisserie
Meanwhile, the Chocolate Laboratory provides a dedicated facility for the teaching of chocolate techniques. Students will be able to learn about chocolate recipe engineering and learn to use specialist equipment that separates the cocoa from the bean to create chocolate.
The Chocolate Laboratory and The Cacao Barry Patisse
rie are sponsored by Cacao Barry/Barry Callebaut.
Gary Hunter, head of culinary arts at Westminster Kingsway College, said: “We are very excited to have a specialist Chocolate Laboratory at Westminster Kingsway College so that we can promote the teaching and learning of chocolate techniques and develop new courses in this area.
“With all of the new developments over recent months, Westminster Kingsway College has become the hub of culinary teaching and innovation in the UK.”
Westminster Kingsway College's School of Hospitality was formed over one hundred years ago and now offers a range number of patisserie and confectionery courses from beginner level right through to professional development courses for industry professionals. To find out more about the courses at Westminster Kingsway College visit www.westking.ac.uk.