CATERING students at Colchester Institute have been offered work placements in a celebrity chef’s restaurant after a successful five-course dinner.

Mumbai-born Cyrus Todiwala, chef patron of Cafe Spice Namaste, in London’s East End, spent a day in the kitchen with level two and three catering and hospitality students, who served up dishes to 50 paying guests.

As an advocate of having Asian food on the school curriculum, Cyrus has said the door is wide open for them to learn more at his award-winning restaurant.

For level three student Joshua London, 19, who has a trial with Le Bouchon Brasserie & Hotel, in Maldon this week, the experience has been invaluable.

He said: “It will help a lot with me wanting to be a chef because doing a dinner with Cyrus stands out on my CV.

“We don’t usually do curry dishes and I’ve never seen risotto with curry, for example, so it’s good to give it a go.

“The Balkerne Restaurant isn’t normally as busy as it was but with it being a special night, it sold out, and was good fun.”

Maldon and Burnham Standard:

Faculty staff have a long-standing relationship with Cyrus – which has included regular visits to his kitchen – and was strengthened when the Colchester Institute took part in Zest Quest Asia earlier this year.

The student chef’s competition was launched in 2013 by Cyrus and his wife Pervin to provide a platform for up-and-coming chefs.

The 59-year-old said exposure to high-end cooking will boost the students’ own aspirations.

He said: “In my day, if you wanted a career you took what you got, but the industry has become massive now and as a result the kids have a choice.

“They’re very fortunate growing up in England because it’s not just one cuisine they can look at but sadly they’re only taught two – French and British – which is wrong because Britain is multicultural.

“To everyone at the moment Asian food is cheap, cheerful and rubbish and we need to bring the standard up.

“The only restaurants you find for a lot of ethnic restaurants are in the dinghy areas where those people have lived since they migrated to this country, so some cuisines become ghettoised.

"You need many key skills to be a chef, like patience and the right attitude, but the students also need a strong foundation into how a kitchen works and to have a knowledge of food and its history.”