Spotlight On Health

This series shares health & fitness discussions and tips from Catering & Hospitality lecturer Sue and our Sports & Uniformed Public Services lecturer Ben.

The Catering and Hospitality industry is growing fast and provides plenty of scope for career development and opportunities for working at home and abroad. You can gain valuable hands-on experience in our well-equipped professional kitchens, on-site restaurant and the bakery shop; all of which are open to students, staff and members of the public. 

The world of sport and fitness is so much more than it used to be. It brings people together and can increase quality of life. Qualified sport and fitness professionals are always in demand, from training and coaching to nutrition and injury treatment, even business and management.

Get In Touch: catering@brooklands.ac.uk | sport@brooklands.ac.uk | Catering Courses | Sport Courses

Summer Recipe Ideas

Summer is the ideal time to eat a diet with more vegetables and fruit- just because there are more available options really. Now we are returning to work rather than home-working it is nice to have no fuss recipes. We have given you salad recipes and ideas in previous blogs - but stuffed vegetables are a lovely summer recipe.

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Grow Your Own

As a department (Catering) we have been thinking about trying to grow some of the more specialist ingredients on site and members of the team have begun to start seeds in an area behind the classrooms. This will include edible flowers, herbs and vegetables, maybe some fruit.

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Ideas for Spring & Summer Al Fresco Eating

So at long last we can have a little social interaction- sharing food in the fresh air is a great way of catching up and raising our spirits. Of course we still have to be wary of certain sharing activities we took as normal- bowls of crisps for instance, but  with a little thought we can do this safely. It is also a great opportunity to make an effort with more healthy choices.

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Lifelong (and lockdown) learning is good for the soul!

This week my adult cake dec learners and I had a discussion about how developing their skills in lockdown has helped with their overall wellbeing. One learner Natalie decided that she would make cakes for every occasion in her family’s life (and a few extras!). Each one she used different skills relating to the awarding body criteria. As a group we had long discussions and WhatsApp’s, as well as the online lessons.  

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Reflecting On A Return To College

This week has been an eye-opener for me. We used this week to really re-engage with students, to try to inspire a sense of excitement and enjoyment at the idea of a small return towards normal (what does that even mean anymore?) life. It meant talking a little bit, but listening a lot. The one thing that came up time and again was students feeling like their mental health had been impacted by the lockdown.

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Let them eat cake!

Whilst talking with the university lecturers it came to light that doing a dissertation on cutting sugar/ fat in confectionary products has been discouraged. (upping the protein content by using cricket flour hasn’t- but that is another story!). The reason for this was the consensus in the long run was that it is  better to eat the cake...have a smaller slice maybe, do more exercise to counteract, eat less often but really enjoy it when you do! 

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Why a Sport & Fitness course might be the right thing to do…

Last week was the Virtual Careers Week at Brooklands - a chance for us to deepen our knowledge of potential employment after college. There were guest speakers, tasks, live streamed talks from industry experts, and much more. One of the guest speakers we had was Claire Desroches of Movement Fix - a company focused on helping people move their bodies more often and more effectively through the use of specific training sessions and therapies.

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Making Wholemeal Bread

Wholemeal flour absorbs more water: the bran  takes it up. The date syrup is a brilliant ingredient as it adds sweetness but is a very natural sugar (wholemeal bread really benefits from a little sugar to help the yeast and gives a ‘roundness’ to the flavour); I normally use malt extract which is similar but never had any (you find that in jars in health food shops).

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Jacob, Life After College

After only getting 2 A Levels I didn’t quite have the grades to get into university so after a beautiful pre-COVID Summer of thought, festivals, and lads holidays I decided to apply to Brooklands. During my interview I met with peculiar fella called Ben (nice chap), he teaches and writes this blog on the internet somewhere…

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Making Your Own Bread

Bread is sometimes called ‘the staff of life’. It was a staple food: people’s pay included bread in the middle ages, it is where the term of the baker’s dozen (13) comes from (bakers could be put in the stocks for underselling so making 13 loaves prevented this, people got an extra loaf per dozen to make up for any shortfalls or light loaves in the batch).

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How to come out of lockdown better than you entered it.

We will start by covering what you could do to come out of lockdown better than you entered. Then how to do this and also why. So since I think I've just roped myself in for more than I can handle, I'm going to start and try to get this done under the word count I'm trying to achieve.

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Can you make takeaway style food at home?

During the Autumn term, my SEND vocational option group and I decided we would tackle making our favourite takeaways at home, partly as we are all at home, but also when I asked what some of their favourite foods were it was takeaway specials!

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Stress & Exercise

Monday, 18th January 2021 Happy New Year? It can be if we get going… No, I didn’t make a mistake with the question mark.  2020 was a difficult year for […]

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