00:01 My name's Graeme Young, I'm catering manager for East Belfast Mission café.
00:07 The day to day running of the whole café, from food preparation, looking after the chefs, doing minimum waiting service, we open up to the public from nine till three, do outside catering, internal catering, so I'm in charge of all that.
00:23 I came here about three and a half years ago with another catering company and I ended up staying for four years come this August.
00:32 When I left school I sort of had a few things I was thinking of doing but I just got me into catering, just influences from, from mum and grandmother always catering, so just always had it in me.
00:44 My Gran would have uh done a lot of home baking, my mum would have done her home baking and I would have participated in that.
00:50 I went to an all boys' high school, very orientated for sport and things like that, you know. Left with six GCSEs. None in catering, cos they didn't do any catering at the time.
01:02 There was nothing in school that you could do with catering so it sort of never got to the screen stage so just when you left school.
01:09 Friends all went off to their different things, plumbing and electrician and I headed to the kitchen. I left school on the Friday and started work on the Monday.
01:17 Well my mum and dad sort of had, didn't want to go into the like this training scheme you used to do, you used to go on to like a YTP scheme I think electrics and some things like that, but I, I just fancied catering and I tried it instead. I started in the Quarry Inn and then I moved on to the Lamorna House Hotel and then I moved down to Feast, an Italian restaurant and then eventually ended up here.
01:41 The day I, the day I started for I was only twenty-one and was getting the opportunity to be head chef which was a big thing for me at that age so that was, that was the turning point for me which led me on to the, for the last ten years, you know.
01:55 Working at the Quarry Inn was um sort, that's where I got me, there was a fellow there called Bill Craig he's dead now, he had a lot of faith in me, took me under his wing sort of thing on the different sections all over and it, it just got me, it's what I wanted to do.
02:12 It was just by chance, three years ago, that I got a phone call to come and help them out and it just felt right to stay so I've been here ever since.
02:22 I started at six o'clock till two. First thing we come in, we, we don't prep as much from the day before because we use fresh produce every day so the menu is never the same. It's one of the reasons why I like coming to work here, cos we don't have a set menu. We put on five, six different main courses a day, homemade sweets and starters so you get a lot of scope to do what you need to do in there. People appreciate it too because customers are coming in and they don't know what they're going to get from day to day so they're picking these things up, haven't tried this, haven't tried that and they try it and most of them enjoy it.
02:57 Send forty hot meals into the community every day, Monday to Friday and then we would have anything from sixty to a hundred people per day, that's for breakfast, lunch and in the snack bar as well, so.
03:09 It's hard work, it's hard work. You need to put a lot of, a lot of effort into it. There's so many things you need to know and what, what has to, what has to be done, you know, so. You need to stick at it, you need to do your qualifications so you know what you're doing. You do, you do need to put your head down. It's like a chemistry, it's like science and if things don't match up with things then people, they wouldn't care to eat none of it.
03:34 Work hard and keep believing what you need to do. When I was growing up I just learned, I, I'd just constantly kept learning, all chefs are still learning to this day, you know, if you feel as if you want to do something, just push yourself on and, and go for it and don't, don't let go.
03:55 END
Graeme Young
Graeme Young
My name's Graeme Young, I'm catering manager for East Belfast Mission café.
The day to day running of the whole café, from food preparation, looking after the chefs, doing minimum waiting service, we open up to the public from nine till three, do outside catering, internal catering, so I'm in charge of all that.
I came here about three and a half years ago with another catering company and I ended up staying for four years come this August.
When I left school I sort of had a few things I was thinking of doing but I just got me into catering, just influences from, from mum and grandmother always catering, so just always had it in me.
My Gran would have uh done a lot of home baking, my mum would have done her home baking and I would have participated in that.
I went to an all boys' high school, very orientated for sport and things like that, you know. Left with six GCSEs. None in catering, cos they didn't do any catering at the time.
There was nothing in school that you could do with catering so it sort of never got to the screen stage so just when you left school.
Friends all went off to their different things, plumbing and electrician and I headed to the kitchen. I left school on the Friday and started work on the Monday.
Well my mum and dad sort of had, didn't want to go into the like this training scheme you used to do, you used to go on to like a YTP scheme I think electrics and some things like that, but I, I just fancied catering and I tried it instead. I started in the Quarry Inn and then I moved on to the Lamorna House Hotel and then I moved down to Feast, an Italian restaurant and then eventually ended up here.
The day I, the day I started for I was only twenty-one and was getting the opportunity to be head chef which was a big thing for me at that age so that was, that was the turning point for me which led me on to the, for the last ten years, you know.
Working at the Quarry Inn was um sort, that's where I got me, there was a fellow there called Bill Craig he's dead now, he had a lot of faith in me, took me under his wing sort of thing on the different sections all over and it, it just got me, it's what I wanted to do.
It was just by chance, three years ago, that I got a phone call to come and help them out and it just felt right to stay so I've been here ever since.
I started at six o'clock till two. First thing we come in, we, we don't prep as much from the day before because we use fresh produce every day so the menu is never the same. It's one of the reasons why I like coming to work here, cos we don't have a set menu. We put on five, six different main courses a day, homemade sweets and starters so you get a lot of scope to do what you need to do in there. People appreciate it too because customers are coming in and they don't know what they're going to get from day to day so they're picking these things up, haven't tried this, haven't tried that and they try it and most of them enjoy it.
Send forty hot meals into the community every day, Monday to Friday and then we would have anything from sixty to a hundred people per day, that's for breakfast, lunch and in the snack bar as well, so.
It's hard work, it's hard work. You need to put a lot of, a lot of effort into it. There's so many things you need to know and what, what has to, what has to be done, you know, so. You need to stick at it, you need to do your qualifications so you know what you're doing. You do, you do need to put your head down. It's like a chemistry, it's like science and if things don't match up with things then people, they wouldn't care to eat none of it.
Work hard and keep believing what you need to do. When I was growing up I just learned, I, I'd just constantly kept learning, all chefs are still learning to this day, you know, if you feel as if you want to do something, just push yourself on and, and go for it and don't, don't let go.
END
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