The art of perfecting sought after cooking and service skills is a dish that is best served at ‘the Restaurant’ based inside Swindon College.
Over the years the Restaurant has appeared in many forms but it has always been a rich part of the college’s history – even once located at the former Regent Circus campus.
One person who has been influential with the running of the eatery is Faith Marles who has been there for 23 years and is the Manager. She is in charge of the lunch and dinner services, as well as a lecturer for the Catering and Hospitality courses at Swindon College.
Faith began her journey in this industry when she swapped marketing for hospitality where she took over a 10 bedroom hotel in Marlborough. Following a successful period where she created a home away from home ambience, she set her sights on The Restaurant.
“This is the best kept secret that Swindon has, customers are always surprised when they first come here about the facility.
“The transition that I have seen this place go through has been a brilliant experience.
“When I first joined it was completely different to how it is run now, all meals were silver served and traditional with an old fashioned menu but we have adapted and changed with trends to grow and are very experimental with our creativity.”
Faith says the reason they have been very successful is because of the service that they provide, the great tasting food and the ambience they create for the customer, which has led to a wide ranging cliental list that visit the restaurant weekly.
She added: “It’s that stigma of its people who are in training cooking the food but when they taste what’s been cooked they are bowled over by the quality standard.
“It’s a working environment and this really benefits the students here, they get to see first-hand how to do it and they get a taste of what real life is about – under stress, working as a team, and doing the clearing up jobs.
“My goal is to continue to train our future managers in restaurants, hotels and chefs. We have set a precedent here.”
The structure for the area is that the days are split between two Head Chefs with Catering and Hospitality level 2 and 3 students doing the cooking depending what day it is. The chef’s decide what will be on the menu and each have their own style in the kitchen.
Paul Kelly, is renowned for being a competition chef in fine dining, and some of his methods of cooking involves lots of purees, water baths, and foaming machines – the type of style you would see used on MasterChef.
Whereas Sian Vockins our other chef has a completely different approach to the way she teaches, she combines traditional modern cooking with a twist and her menu choices are always on trend with fine dining.
The Catering and Hospitality courses has unlocked the potential of many students which has allowed them to carry those skills with them to work around the world, on private yachts and Michelin star restaurants.
