His Grace The Duke of Westminster opens the Centre of Excellence in Catering and Hospitality at Riverside College

On Wednesday 12th February 2014, Riverside College celebrated the launch of the Centre of Excellence in Catering and Hospitality. The College had the honour of being joined for the opening by His Grace, The Duke of Westminster KG CB CVO OBE TD CD DL.

The highlights of the event were a wonderful speech from His Grace The Duke of Westminster, the Highfield Male Voice Choir and ‘Glacial Art Ice Sculptors ‘who created a beautiful Riverside College logo and lobster ice carving.

During his speech His Grace The Duke of Westminster said, “I am extremely impressed by the fantastic facilities at the College”. Having provided great investment in the area, His Grace emphasised, “the catering and hospitality industry needs training facilities like this to be able to offer great staff to local businesses”. He ended his speech by declaring “I wouldn’t have missed this for anything”.

Chris Patino, Operational Director at Halton Borough Council, also spoke about the successful working partnership between Riverside College and the Council saying, “we couldn’t have picked a better partnership than the college to train our staff”.

Mary Murphy, Principal of Riverside College said, “The launch event has been a wonderful opportunity for the College to showcase the talented team of staff and students we have at Riverside and celebrate the outstanding success they have recently achieved in national competitions. We are extremely proud of the College’s reputation for exceptional standards in all areas of catering and hospitality and I would encourage everyone to come along to our new training restaurant ‘Scholars’.

Guests were also treated to canapés created by the students, speeches from College Principal Mary Murphy, ex student William Donlan, followed by entertainment from students Jessica Thickett and Richie Redmond.

Following the speeches, guests were taken to the newly refurbished Scholars Restaurant where they were treated to a spectacular feast of seafood, a roast carvery and a buffet wonderfully created and served by the students.

Guests at the event included:

His Grace, The Duke of Westminster was joined at the impressive event by other influential guests including Lord-Lieutenant of Cheshire, David Briggs MBE KStJ, Mayor of Halton Councillor Margaret Ratcliffe, Mary Murphy Principal of Riverside College, Alan Bennett Chair of Governors, Val Allen External Governor and Chris Patino Operational Director at Halton Borough Council.