Student waiters with teachers and Director Paco - on right

Much like they have hair and beauty academies for training, yesterday I discovered that they also have one for the catering and hospitality industry - and right here in Benidorm. No I haven´t decided on a change of career - following my performance on Come Dine with Me I think it would be a rather short lived one! I was invited to lunch by Yolanda Pickett, Head of the Benidorm Tourist Board , along with 20 members of "HELP" to act as "guinea pigs" for the students!

Yolanda chatting to some of the "guests"

The courses run for 9 months, starting in September and they are now at the point where they need to practice what they have learnt on real people - and preferably on Brits, as they are most probably going to be their future customers. We were asked to behave as we would in a restaurant and only speak to the students in English.

The tables had all been laid out as if in a restaurant by the student waiters and I was to discover that the food was cooked by student chefs... I did fleetingly wonder whether I would be rushing home to make a sandwich, but I needn't have worried! I sat on a table with the Director of the college Paco (isn't it funny that almost every Spaniard seems to be a Paco or Pepe), Michelle Baker - editor of Round Town Times and Yolanda.

Last September over 350 applications were made to fill the 20 places on offer - its a very sought after college by anyone that wants to go into the catering or hospitality industry. The courses are free, the only stipulation is that you have to be over 16 years of age and not in employment, although they do offer other shorter part time courses for those that would like to retrain. It is funded by the Generalitat Valenciana and the European Union as it is to do with the tourism sector. You can chose from many occupations including waiters, chefs, patisserie chef,  receptionist and bar staff to name a few.

I must say that the waiters were all impeccably well presented and paid a lot of attention to detail - I would be delighted to be served by any one of them in a restaurant or hotel in Benidorm - which is where they hope to end up once the course is finished.... I think that some of the waiters in a few of the establishments in town would benefit to go on a similar course!

Dessert..... I certainly polished that off!

There was a giant television screen in the room we were in showing what was going on in the kitchen - I think that would be a great idea to have in restaurants actually.... think,  you could watch what happens to your steak when you send it back to ask for it to be cooked a little more!

The standard and presentation of the food was astounding, especially considering that these were students with 3 months still left to go before they complete their courses.

From what we witnessed today I shouldn´t think that any of them will have a problem finding work if they maintain the standard shown today. We were treated to some wonderful artistic tapas type starters, a paella for the main course and chocolate heaven for dessert followed by coffee and petit four.

We were asked to put forward questions and make requests to see that they understood and could deal with any queries that they may come across once they were working in the real world. At the end of the afternoon we were asked to fill out a questionnaire about all aspects of the food and service - and to be very honest.

I wonder whether Mateo from the Benidorm series attended one of these colleges - somehow I doubt it!

We ran a survey asking you about your tipping habits when on holiday - just over half that took part gave a 10% tip and a quarter either never tipped or only gave for exceptional service. It is often a source of real irritation to people who take the view that a service charge is already added onto the bill. Many a time it´s touted that tips make up part of the waiters wage -  well the bosses should pay them a decent amount to begin with and not rely on the customers to make it up out of guilt that they are underpaid!

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