Sustainability is on the menu

Students from Harrogate College are using their culinary and creative skills to come up with a new, sustainable menu for RHS Garden Harlow Carr.

Hospitality students have been asked to devise a hypothetical fresh bill of fare and concept for a new café that is being created by converting the former Harrogate Arms pub.

Harlow Carr, which owns the Grade II Listed property, grows plenty of fresh produce which will feature prominently in the new establishment’s dishes. 

The Harrogate College group, who are being led by seven Level 2 Professional Cookery students, recently visited the site to be briefed on their task. They also enjoyed a tour of the grounds, plus a chance to try their hand at potting.

An exciting collaboration that reflects our values

The initiative represents the start of a closer partnership between the college and Harlow Carr, who worked collaboratively to find the right project.

Harrogate College’s Cultural, Contemporary and Heritage Studies Programme Manager, Jason Parry, said: “This is an exciting project that has a focus on sustainability and working with the produce grown on the site.

“It ticks so many boxes for us in terms of the college’s values and aspirations – sustainability, ‘food to fork’, carbon reduction and seasonality – along with menu and service design, work experience and responding to a client brief.”

Fresh produce at RHS Garden Harlow Carr

Pitching for success

He added: “The project will be followed up throughout the year with Harlow Carr, who will do a progress check with the students in January.

“Ultimately it will end up with the students giving a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style pitch to Harlow Carr staff, with small groups presenting their ideas around the menu, and the service, and showing how they have worked to meet the client’s brief.”

Harrogate College, as part of its wider drive to become a centre of green excellence, recently launched a Sustainability Pledge which sets out its commitment to becoming net zero carbon by 2030.

For more details on hospitality courses at the college click here