Great Chef's Training with a great Company
I did not realize how lucky I was when I got my apprenticeship with Holiday Inn and Mövenpick. Little did I know, how good the training is going to be and even better with Mövenpick. Back in 1978, the training of a Chef in Switzerland was still based of the old classical French and Swiss cooking. I was amazed how well we where taken care off when it came to the training.
The bible of evey chef apprentice and chef who is qualified is a book written by Eugene Pauli. We all call the book just "Pauli". Believe it or not, I still use it today. That book is used throughout Switzerland, Germany and Austria and it is written in German. (I think that same book is now also available in English). See photo below:
This book is still used today for the chefs training here in Europe.
We apprentices had to go to trade school once a week. I had to go to Zurich city. My home was only 12 km away from Zurich and the hotel I made my apprenticeship was only 8 km away from Zurich.
Been a apprentice with Mövenpick, I was going to get my first in house cooking training with a certified instructor from the Mövenpick company. The classes were held in one of the Mövenpick hotels or restaurants in our region and we where 6 to 8 apprentices. A small class, better for training and everyone get his or her turn. Every class was held in a different place every time. This way we got to know some other Mövenpick resorts and seeing different kitchens. It was also a great social event as we got to know some Chefs and staff from different hotels and restaurants.
The class would begin at 8 am with a lunch break of one hour and finish at 5 pm.
In the morning we get a A4 format booklet with the subject of the days training. We would go through the theorie part. Every class was held about 6 to 8 weeks apart and we would cover one subject like braising. We would learn the concept of braising and what foods were ideal to braise. Every booklet had also some recipes on the subject. Those recipes we would then cook in the afternoon. We would also have the opportunity to taste our cooking and share what we learned. Before the days end, we would all get changed again into our normal clothes and get back to our room where we had the morning theorie training. At the very back of the booklet where about 4 pages with questions. Those questions would also be ask at the final exam before you would get your chefs certificate. We had to fill in those questions, then hand our booklet to the instructor and he will check the answers. Once that part was done, we wrapped up the day and went back home.
NOTE: In Switzerland a chef apprenticeship goes 3 years. It may be longer today in 2016. The exam went for 3 and a half days. 50% of the final score was from all the tests we done in trades school. One day is practical tests, from boning to making soups and sauces, knife skills to cooking a full menu for management and parents. 1 and a half day was tests or final tests through trades school. If one failed, we could redo the test 6 months later.
Next week I will talk about a relocation of my apprentice training to a restaurant, also run by Mövenpick. Until then, enjoy your week and enjoy life, eat great food and be happy.
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