With her kitchen career kicking off as a catering student at Blackpool & Fylde College in 1981, Salford-born but Blackpool-raised Lorraine Pickles has to be one of the college’s true success stories.
Starting as a student
With her 20-year anniversary of working at the college she studied at fast approaching, Lorraine’s passion for feeding, fortifying and helping students build positive relationships with food continues to know no bounds. The college currently has over 13,000 students and 1,100 staff members across five sites with a new £65million multiversity complex in construction and set to be operational in 2027.
“Due to the sheer numbers we cater for, speed of service is key, so we have a variety of concepts for students to choose from,” says Lorraine. “We cater for the halls of residence, cafeterias, we have a Starbucks, a bakery concept similar to Greggs, and various street-eat vendors. Takeaway culture is the clear winner for the students, and it is a challenge to get them sitting down and eating with knives and forks.”
What’s on offer
“We offer free breakfasts for all the students, which includes cereal and muesli, and classic lunchtime snacks such as filled jacket potatoes, sandwiches and a salad bar. Forget lamb, chicken rules the roost and anything in a wrap is incredibly popular. We simply can’t afford wastage, so we try to give the students what they want and if the demand isn’t there, it won’t stay on the menu.”
“We have student reps, forums and feedback cards at all the tills so we’re constantly tweaking the menus and running specials. While we love to be globally creative, we’re also very proud of our northern roots so I’m sharing a proper northern pie recipe. This is a firm favourite with our students and we would be in trouble if we ever took it off the menu.”