Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Keeping menus fresh for 25 years at Headingley Campus
Michael is the senior chef for Food Services at Headingley Campus, and also works at Rosebowl in City Campus and for the university hospitality services.
How long have you worked at Leeds Beckett?
I’ve been here now 25 years. I do all the menu creation myself, then I pass everything onto my manager, my head chef - we both look at it together, the I go away and produce the dish and we’ll both agree either yes or no. I’ve got free range to do what I want, as long as we can afford it – we need to make sure everything is affordable for students.
And we do it all fresh, everything is fresh even the fish, so none of it is frozen.
I’ve got two chefs at present in the kitchen, who help me out on the day to day. I’ve got my head chef above me and I’ve got senior management above them, and the front of house staff who also help on occasion and do come into the kitchen to come and prep some food, depends how busy we are. We also have the hospitality team which are separate.
What is your favourite part of the job?
I love the variety, it’s never boring. It’s never the same, even when we have a three-week cycle going on all the time it’s never the same. And obviously you get the different customers, and every year we get new faces.
Having worked in hospitality throughout his life, Michael has brought a huge amount of experience and expertise into his role at Leeds Beckett.
I used to work for the company that owned Gleneagles and they used to ship us out all over the country. I also used to work in one of the busiest pubs in England and we used to do 1,200 covers on a Sunday.
Before starting here I mainly worked in hotels I was doing hospitality, which gave be a good starting point, because it gave me the experience to be an in-house trainer with City and Guilds when I started at the university. I used to do that for them as well.
What do you like most about living and working in Leeds?
I like the actual campus. When you come onto campus, although it’s Leeds it feels like the countryside. I can look out and see trees, even when I go out the back door to get a little fresh air.
There are great places surrounding the city like Wetherby. There’s such a variety of areas you can go to, you’re on the doorstep of all the Yorkshire Moors and the Lake District isn’t that far away. You can also get to the coast from here pretty quick, it’s only about 30 minutes from where I live.
