HIT Heroes Awards winner - Chef Apprentice of the Year

Jodie Plummer has been crowned a Hit Heroes Awards winner as Chef Apprentice of the Year.

Why an apprenticeship?

I manage the hospitality and fine dining kitchen at a leading financial services firm in the city through our Restaurant Associates business – which is a premium hospitality brand, providing workplace catering. My role is to create seasonal concepts and fine dining dishes with my team of ten. It’s an exciting and diverse role as we cover lots of different events, including bowl food, simple sandwich lunches and fine dining three course meals – with events ranging from small and intimate gatherings to catering for hundreds of people.

I was nominated by my culinary lead for the ‘Forward with Marcus Wareing’ programme when it launched in the Summer of 2021. I decided to go for it because I wanted to continue learning and progressing in my career. Although I was nervous about applying, it seemed like such a unique and exciting opportunity that I had to have a go. I was thrilled when my application was accepted - I haven’t looked back!

Benefitting my business

Working with the HIT Training Chef Academy during my apprenticeship, has really taught me what it takes to excel in my role. The course truly inspired me and gave me lots of innovative ideas and skills to bring back to my kitchen and use on a day-to-day basis. The learning has empowered me to take more control and run the hospitality kitchen myself. It’s given me the skills and confidence to take on menu innovation and share the learnings with my team.

The plant forward and ground up cookery workshops inspired me to really look at utilising our waste products, for example we now use leftover coffee grounds in our brownies, and porridge oats to make ice-cream and zero waste muffins. I have also been preserving more with my team, using British seasonal produce and stretching the seasons through processes like fermenting or making pickles and jams, or freezing. This means I am introducing more British produce to the restaurant wherever possible and highlighting to my team why this is important.

As well as gaining so much more confidence in my professional skills within the kitchen, I’ve also learnt about other aspects of this this role, including finance, sales and marketing. Plus, communication and presentation skills have helped me grow as a leader.

The HIT Training difference

The HIT team is so knowledgeable and enthusiastic about what they are teaching. The online classes and practical workshops are brilliant and the tutors are always there to support you. They have helped me strengthen my weaker points, such as finance, by providing full support to enable me to gain the skills and confidence to pass this part of the course.

I also had the opportunity to get involved with various events, and other projects such as photo shoots for marketing. I am passionate about developing my own team and now feel more able to support them with new opportunities to learn and progress, helping them keep moving up the ladder. I’ve learnt to carefully consider how to appropriately delegate tasks to team members, ensuring they have every chance to improve their skills and have proper guidance. In my own career, I feel empowered to pursue my goal in development - where I am able to create seasonal British menus, that will be used in multiple sites across the company that focus on using every part of the ingredient possible.