CHASE Hospitality Network September 2014. This month we are pleased to welcome 12 EU Erasmus + and Leonardo da Vinci-funded chef and service students from 4 countries: France, Hungary, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. CHASE is a consortium of 16 hospitality colleges from 14 EU countries and twice a year they send students for practical work experience to any of the member schools.
The group is in Tenerife to do a 22-week hotel internship in different Canary Islands: La Gomera, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, and Fuerteventura. To make sure they are prepared for the experience they are taking a 4-week Spanish for Tourism course at our FU International Academy in Puerto de la Cruz. As well as 20 lessons per week of general Spanish they have 10 lessons dedicated to learning specific vocabulary and phrases needed for the work placement.
It’s not all hard work – in the afternoon they have free activities: a visit to the Botanical Garden, salsa and flamenco classes, culture, surfing, and beach volleyball. At the weekends they have been on excursions to Loro Parque and taken a day trip to Spain’s most popular National Park, Las Cañadas del Teide, it’s a wonderful drive through the fascinating volcanic landscape to see Spain’s highest peak – Mount Teide.
This week they had a cookery demonstration of Canarian food specialities from the Executive Chef of La Victoria Hotel in La Orotava, Richard Etherington. He showed them how to make the typical spicy mojo sauces, garbanzos, a chickpea stew, and of course a tortilla, the famous Spanish omelet. They said it was the best food they had tasted on the island!
We know they will be sad to leave Puerto de la Cruz at the end of the 4 weeks when they go their different ways; then the real hard work begins in the hotels but at least they get to spend the winter in the sun and by the end they should speak excellent Spanish!
