Inside Quarterdeck
Think this could be the best job in the world but don’t have the necessary experience or qualifications to attend Host Academy?
Quarterdeck requires all hosts to have previous experience working in a professional kitchen or to attend a week, or longer, culinary course, before attending Host Academy. If you do not have any formal training please consider taking a cooking course at a local culinary school, or attending our partner school listed below. We do not require a specific course, but have provided the skills we think are important to master. If you have questions or are unsure if a course is suitable please contact us.
The main objective of the course should be to provide students with as much hands on experience preparing different types of dishes, for various dietary needs.
We hope that by the end of the course students are able to ensure that foods are stored, handled, prepared, and cooked in a safe and hygienic manner.
We want the students to learn the basics of cooking and leave with the skills and confidence it takes to be in charge of every aspect of a meal. The course should teach everything from food handling and safety, meat cutting and cooking, to garnishing and plating techniques during the week.
Recommended competencies to look for:
Basic Knife Skills - How to properly hold a chef’s knife and techniques on how to cut various foods
Food Safety and Handling - This is one of the most important lessons
Menu and Meal Planning - Implementing a meal plan for the week based on different dietary restrictions and needs
Vegetables - Best ways to peel and cut vegetables; how to maintain bright pigment in vegetables; various ways to cook (simmer in salted water, braise, blanch, fry, etc); various vegetable main courses and side dishes.
Breakfast - How to properly fry, poach and scramble eggs; how to make french toast; how to cut fruit and make fruit platters; how to make pancakes/crepes
Starches - How to cook rice, quinoa, pasta/cous-cous, and potatoes (understanding the difference between starchy vs waxy). Discuss different potato recipes including mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, Jackson potatoes, etc
Meat - Show various ways to cook meat with dry heat cooking, and moist heat cooking. Learn techniques such as stuffed chicken breast, roast chicken, coq a vin, pulled pork, pork loin/chops, braised beef/pot roast
How to make sauces - White sauce (how to turn a basic white sauce into a cheesy Béchamel, a garlic and herb sauce for pasta, a spicy creamy jalapeño sauce to enhance the flavour of a stuffed chicken breast, etc.), hollandaise sauce & bearnaise sauce, tomato sauce, and wine sauce with herbs
Desserts - No bake desserts, basic cake skills
Food Presentation - People are said to eat with their eyes first, meaning that they notice how a dish is presented and garnished and have an opinion on the meal before they even have their first bite