Teachers are chefs for the night at The Leaf

Teachers sweat it out in the kitchen while Year 11s are the customers for a change

The ‘Turn the tables’ event saw teachers create a full three course menu in the kitchen at The Leaf, the school’s fine-dining restaurant, which is the only one of it’s kind in the UK.

Ordinarily, the school’s Catering and Hospitality students prepare the food, tend the bar and wait on customers. However, for one night only, school staff experienced the pressure of creating the high quality food and customer experience the students achieve every week.

Under the watchful eye of Head Chef Paul Mingo-West, The Leaf’s Hospitality and Chef Manager the teachers were put through their paces in the school’s professional standard kitchen.

Justin Humphreys, St Katherine’s Head of School said;

“It was a great evening and quite intense in the kitchen at times! It made all the teachers appreciate the excellent standard of food and hospitality that our students provide every Thursday at The Leaf. The Year 11s really enjoyed the evening and provided the staff with some interesting feedback. We are lucky to have a fine-dining restaurant in our school and it is great to share this with the students. Hopefully we maintained The Leaf’s great reputation but I think all the teachers will be relieved to get back to the classroom!”

As well as being a light-hearted, fun evening off from GCSE revision, the event gave the Year 11 students the customer experience and helped them understand how it is important to respect serving staff. The evening also raised funds for the Year 11 prom later this year.