A London chef, Tait Miller, has partnered with leading youth homelessness charity Centrepoint to create and teach a culinary hospitality course for the young people the charity supports.
Launching in September, the course will last six weeks and be packed full with practical sessions and culinary challenges led by Tait, as well as English, Maths and employability modules taught by Centrepoint staff.
Previously Head Chef at Berlin’s health food hotspot Daluma, Tait has worked at a number of London’s top Michelin star restaurants including Murano, The Ledbury and Marcus Wareing at The Berkely Hotel.
The course, which will include work experience at local cafes and restaurants, will equip the young people with the skills they need to create and sell healthy and nutritious meals. At the end, they will put what they have learnt to test when they create, design and cook meals at a celebration event at Centrepoint’s Soho base.
This course is part of Centrepoint’s Get Set Go hospitality and catering programme, which offers the young people it supports the opportunity to gain qualifications and to participate in relevant work experience in the hospitality sector.
While youth employment figures are improving, the levels are still higher than pre-pandemic and Centrepoint believes many young people are still getting left behind. This, coupled with young people facing a 25% cut to their Universal Credit when the temporary uplift ends in September, paints a worrying picture for youth homelessness.
Commenting on why he decided to work with Centrepoint and develop the course, Tait said: “Since taking part in Centrepoint’s STAY:UP event earlier this year, I knew I wanted to do more for the charity.
“I’ve seen how getting and staying healthy can play a huge part in giving homeless young people the chance to turn their lives around.
“That spoke to me personally because I try to put mental and physical health at the heart of everything I do as a chef so it would be great to share that with the young people Centrepoint supports. This is about more than imparting the skills they need to work in a professional setting – if just one of these young people leaves inspired to cook one nourishing meal a day that’s success for me but I do hope more will be encouraged to do so as well.”
Wendy Gurr, training manager at Centrepoint added: “It has been fantastic to work with Tait on developing this course. He has brought a lot of passion and skills to the table to create a series of practical sessions that will give the young people we support what they need to build up their culinary skills – not just for employability, but also for their own health benefits.
“I look forward to seeing how the young people develop and can’t wait to celebrate what has been achieved and taste the results!”
