News
HRH meets young people learning a trade with the help of The Prince's Trust
9th March 2010
The Prince of Wales met young people learning a vocation with the help of The Prince’s Trust today.
His Royal Highness toured the kitchens at Westminster Kingsway College's School of Hospitality, which has trained chefs for the capital's leading hotels for the past 100 years, and met young people learning skills for a career in the food industry.
Senior culinary lecturers took The Prince through all the stages of a lunch being prepared by the students for guests invited to a reception to meet The Prince.
On the menu was line-caught mackerel smoked at the school, a loin of Welsh lamb, mutton shepherd's pie and ginger parkin cake for dessert.
The Prince has a long-standing interest in locally sourced, sustainable food and runs his farm on his Gloucestershire estate organically.
His Royal Highness joined a class of students dressed in aprons and chef hats who were being taught the process of butchering a venison carcass.
Later at a reception, he met some unemployed teenagers enrolled in a 12-week Prince's Trust initiative that is helping them build skills and confidence.
The college is also launching a 'Get into Cooking' trust course that helps youngsters forge careers in the catering industry.
In a speech at the reception, held at the school in Victoria, The Prince said: "It is hugely encouraging that it has been possible to put together a programme between Westminster Kingsway College and my trust.
"It will make an enormous difference for young people to have the chance to experience catering and cooking and it will give young people a 'taster' course to see if it suits them.
"The firm relationship between my Trust and Westminster Kingsway College is something I really appreciate - I am so keen to see young people equipped in all the skills they need to pursue a vocational career.
"I just wanted to use this opportunity not only to congratulate the college on its centenary and its one hundred years of real excellence in hospitality training, but also to say how proud I am to be Patron of the Academy of Culinary Arts and to meet people in this wonderful field."