Hastings College and the Royal Victoria Hotel

I started my two-year, full-time culinary school qualifications at Hastings College of Arts and Technology in September 1990. I was sixteen and ready to absorb as much information as I could. I didn’t really enjoy the classroom theory, but I thrived on the practical—filleting fish, meat butchery, making sauces, baking bread. The first year flew by and I hit a full credit with distinctions.

Meanwhile a friend of mine at college had landed a summer job at the close-by Royal Victoria Hotel, a stunning period hotel built back in 1828. This was high-end dining for Hastings with full silver service, twenty-four-hour room service and plush crisp tablecloths. The chef was a confident and loud Irishman who loved a drink (or ten) in the kitchen most nights. I started in the summer season of 1990 and worked the entire school holidays, often six or seven days a week—split shifts from 10 am to 2 pm, four hours off and then back again for dinner service between 6 and 10 pm.