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| Investing in its people,
Singita’s in-house chef training course
provides our passionate staff with the valuable
skills required to render them masters of
their profession. Emanating from his driving
desire for staff development and using his
outstanding culinary skills, a Senior Sous
Chef at Sweni Lodge, Kurt Abrahams, set about
training “interns” from the local
community, from which the Singita Cooking
School was ‘born’. Kurt himself
sharpened knives at the only Relais Gourmand
establishment at the time in South Africa,
the Grand Rochè, before honing his
talents at The White Barn Inn restaurant,
also a Relais Gourmand restaurant, and later
in Lake Placid, all in the United States.
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This
programme is a practical hands-on, sustainable method
of assisting community. With a growing need to expand
the school, Kurt became the permanent trainer and
mentor and developed the kitchen into a full-scale
cooking school accommodating up to ten trainees
at a time.
The Singita Cooking School is a community development
programme aimed at equipping youths from the local
community with the skills required for a successful
career as a chef. It is a 7-month full time programme
- a combination of theoretical and practical training
- aimed at building knowledge, skills and confidence
and improving spoken English. On completion of training,
students are assisted to apply for a position as
Comis Chefs within Singita and other lodges situated
close to or within the Kruger Park. Students who
receive bursaries keep in contact with their sponsors
whilst studying and sponsors are provided with a
progress report during, and at the end of the programme.
In January 2007, the first group of six trainees
began their culinary journey at Shishangaan, the
staff village that houses around 100 Singita staff
in the Kruger National Park. For nine months, the
trainees cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner for
the staff. The second intake of youngsters –
aged between 17 and 24 - mainly from villages close
to the Lebombo Concession began in October 2007.
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