Situated opposite East Finchley tube station in North London, the £1m Hospitality House development allows businesses of all levels to access state-of-the-art training facilities, or make use of new, interactive technology that can stream live demonstrations and conferences around the world.
It features a reception, bar, cellar and café training areas along with flexible meeting spaces and a demonstration and training kitchen with individual cooking pods.
Hospitality House was recently officially opened by the Minister for Skills and Enterprise, Matthew Hancock, and BigHospitality was on-hand to find out more about how the venue will help to inspire the future generation of hospitality professionals.
In this short video, we took a look behind the scenes and spoke with the Guild’s operations director Sophie Roberts-Brown, who told us she believes Hospitality House will help to address the skills gap that continues to impact the sector.
Industry support
We also spoke with Brian Wisdom, chief executive of People 1st (one of the Guild's founding partners), who noted that Hospitality House's technological advancements will allow training to be delivered to more people across the world. And chef Norman Musa, who was on-hand at the opening to help chef students prepare canapés for guests, concluded that he thinks the new centre will give young chefs the chance to learn about a wider variety of cooking techniques and cuisines.
McDonald’s has played a pivotal role in bringing the project to fruition by donating the site to the Hospitality Guild rent-free for seven years. Public investment, industry sponsorship and in-kind support for Hospitality House totals over £3m, with major funding received from the Skills Funding Agency and the Guild’s founding partners - Compass Group, People 1st, City and Guilds and Hilton.
Leading hospitality suppliers including Matthew Clark, Gram, Heineken, Sky, Rational, Claremont Group, Zonal and Electrolux have installed technology and equipment at Hospitality House under a sponsorship agreement whereby they will refresh their products each time an upgrade becomes available.
The management of the building’s facilities is being done through an innovative partnership with Barnet and Southgate College, giving students first-hand experience of the daily running of a commercial venue, while hundreds of students will undertake part of their training within the building.