STAFF and residents at Cherry Trees Care Home in Alcester are celebrating after the resident chef graduated from Barchester’s Chef Academy in the Class of 2024.
The academy is run by Barchester’s hospitality development and standards manager, Mervyn Knights, and helps chefs to both hone their skills and learn new ones, covering many different modules.
Ayshat Gandarova chose to become a chef when she realised the happiness and joy food could give people.
She said: “Being a cook has taught me the importance of flavours and aromas and the enjoyment they can bring to others.
“The taste of simple recipes can remind people of their childhood or multicultural dishes can make others think of their favourite country to visit.
“I really enjoyed taking part in the academy and attending all the workshops, it was such a positive experience.
“I love to showcase my menus and I take great pride in how I present my dishes.
“Getting to know the other Barchester chefs, sharing recipes, tips and best practice was great fun and most of all I like to try to constantly improve our food and hospitality service for our residents, so the academy was just perfect for this.”
General manager, Debbie Osborne, said: “This is an amazing achievement and the whole home wants to congratulate Ayshat.
“We are so proud of her. Ayshat is an outstanding chef, they are extremely creative producing wonderful three-course menus for residents every day for lunch and dinner.
“This has been a chance to showcase to others in the company just what they can do in terms of skill set and maintaining high standards of presentation together with nutritious meals.
“Ayshat’s food is just fabulous, the residents love their delicious meals, she is such a talented chef.”
