Forest Side raises money for Kendal college

The kitchen team from Andrew Wildsmith’s latest hotel offering, The Forest Side, Grasmere, held an exclusive pop-up fine dining fundraising event last month at Kendal College raising over £800 for their culinary team.

The Forest Side’s head chef Kevin Tickle, a former student with the college, took over the Kendal campus’s fine dining restaurant last month with his kitchen team, treating 44 diners to a tantalising glimpse of what will be on offer when his Grasmere restaurant open its doors later this month.

>>> READ: 10 minutes with: Kevin Tickle

Kevin Tickle said: ‘’Kendal College played an important part in developing my cookery skills and this evening was about giving something back. It’s important to me that resources like this College are recognised and supported as fully as possible.

"If we as a region want to continue to be at the very top of the UK’s food offer we have to develop our home grown talent, something that owner of the Forest Side, Andrew Wildsmith, fully supports.’’ .

Kevin and his sous chef, Martin Frickel, created a fantastic six course menu for the evening including chestnut and bacon, pumpkin, Tunworth and crispy blood, smoked Anya’s, pigs tail, mugwort and alfalfa to name but a few.

The gastronomic evening raised over £800 which has been donated to Kendal College’s culinary team to support the continuing work the College does in helping to grow and nurture local talent in its cookery school.

Richard Axford, Deputy Head of Hospitality at Kendal College, said: “As a tutor, nothing makes me prouder than to see past students be successful and welcome them back to the college for events like these.

"Kevin was one of my first trainees so it’s fantastic to follow his career and see him growing and developing into one of the area’s top quality chefs. We were all incredibly excited to get a sneak preview of what he’ll be serving up at The Forest Side and I have no doubt that Kevin and his team will continue to go from strength to strength.”