Food Hygiene Training

Sterling Service Training was founded by Nigel Brown as a direct response to his client's requests for statutory food hygiene training at their place of business and at a time to suit their staff working patterns. Whether these clients ran a small tea shop or a company employing hundreds of staff, they all shared the same basic requirement - that their staff be trained using a nationally recognised accredited course by a training provider that could be flexible to their individual needs.

Sterling Service Training prides itself on delivering the most up-to-date government food hygiene requirements of the care, catering and hospitality industry with a relaxed interactive approach. We understand the time constraints that many businesses work under and will do our utmost to accommodate unusual shift patterns, late night or weekend training requests at no extra charge.

"We never thought we would find a training provider to deliver the course to our night shift workers but then we found Sterling Service Training, thanks for helping us out"

Visit our website at www.sterlingservicetraining.co.uk or send us an email to sterlingservicetraining@yahoo.co.uk

Hard work pays rewards; well that's what they say.

I can remember being about 13 and that was probably one of the last phrases on my mind as a teenage boy. Having said that, hard work was something I was already familiar with.

From an early age I was working in the family business, catering would you believe! So it was just one of those things when I followed my two brothers footsteps to Hull college to do my two years full time catering training as they had done previously. The years passed by in Hull and out popped another trained chef with high aspirations but little confidence within to face the larger world of catering.

Not content with just the basic training I'd received at Hull college, I also attended Grimsby College to enhance my skills in the patisserie section and Scarborough College to enhance my kitchen and larder skills, these two courses better known as the City and Guilds 706-3 were in the catering world the equivalent to Her Majesties elite SAS training!

Another three years training under my belt and one more to go, not catering this time though, teacher training at Beverly College - that should sort out the self confidence issues I had with myself!

I'd realised by this time that I had just spent seven years at colleges, I could have studied to have been a doctor in the same time, oh well never mind, we all still need to eat.



In 1988 I broke the mould, left home and headed off in the direction of London and ended up around the bright lights of Heathrow, believe me it was no holiday when I arrived. I was interviewed, shown the kitchens of an 800 bed hotel with conference catering for 1000. One of the bedrooms was to be my home, I literally started work there the next day, reality had kicked in!

The Executive Chef must have seen something promising in me as my entry level into his kitchen was 6th in line for his job as Junior Sauce Chef in the a la carte restaurant kitchen.

Talk about pressure, it was all there and I couldn't afford to get myself into a pickle if you know what I mean, the pressure was on - big time.

I survived my first week. Even after having to share a bedroom with the night porter it didn't put me off staying for 6 months in the end, made some great friends too.

Hungry for change and more cash I looked for a challenge. I had impressed the Executive Chef in the six months I had served so I asked for a position upgrade and pay rise under threat of leaving for another job "like you do"!



Well, that paid off, a pay rise and a title upgrade to Senior Sauce Chef. Chef was so impressed with my cheek for asking to the point he was also happy to write me a glowing reference towards my next challenge which was to be Pastry Chef de Partie in another hotel.

The challenge arrived and I found myself working in a fantastic pastry kitchen alongside a great Italian Head Pastry chef called Marcello Pocatterra.



It was a struggle to understand Marcello at first but in time it got easier, we worked well together and he too liked my style and commitment to the job. He had a cupboard in the pastry kitchen that he kept locked at all times, even when he was working. On his day off he would only let me and the Executive Chef have the key. He kept his hand made chocolates and petit fours in there, I felt honoured that I was also to be a key holder in his absence.

A one month secondment to Ecole Le Notre, a highly acclaimed patisserie school in Paris was next on the cards all thanks to Marcello, who pushed my boundaries even further.

Marcello retired back to Italy and I took over as Head Pastry Chef, not bad progress for a quiet and shy lad from Driffield, East Yorkshire.

22 years on and I'm still donning the Chef's jacket. There's been lots of ups and downs and other jobs in catering along the way from teaching in colleges and secondary schools to running my own outside catering business and now a very successful cookery school along with cookery demonstrations up and down the country.



I've previously had screen tests for BBC2's Ready Steady Cook, catered for Royalty and appeared regularly on local radio. Requests for a cookery book to be published are frequent and television work is a strong possibility on the horizon. I've worked with some of the nation's favourites such as Jean-Christophe Novelli, Ainsley Harriot, Richard Fox and just recently, fellow chef and Yorkshireman James Martin.



2010/11 looks to be another hectic year with events being planned already and would you believe there has even been some interest from an Australian food festival for 2012 featuring James Martin and myself as the "Yorkshire Chefs on Tour".



It's true what they say, long unsocial hours, split shifts, low pay, hot kitchen, firey temperaments, growling chefs and demanding managers with budgets. A life of catering can be hard work and often seem relentless and unrewarding, "but", like any profession or trade, hard work does pay rewards!

I'm the proof of the pudding!



Nigel Brown