Taiyakah's Story | New City College

OKN1 puts training, community and creativity first. Our collaborative kitchen of trainee and professional chefs proudly serves dishes inspired by our surroundings, our culture and the seasons. Together, our professional and trainee chefs create the perfect fusion of talent and experience. Made with passion, pride and an attitude of progression, expect dialled up flavour and a real respect for ingredients. Come and experience our own hidden corner of Hoxton.

When I was at secondary school my focus was on arts and music, but at home, I started cooking meals for the family and soon realised that it wasn’t a chore. I really had fun cooking and that it was actually a passion where I could express my creativity through the dishes I was cooking.

I decided that this was the career path I wanted to choose and started researching colleges that offered hospitality courses.

After attending several open days at different colleges, I chose New City College as there was a broad range of courses to choose from.

Last year, I enrolled on my first course – Level 2 Diploma in Hospitality Services. This course was a great opportunity to learn about and work both front- and back-of-house. This reinforced my passion for cooking and I just wanted to become a chef more and more.

I found lockdown quite hard as I missed the interaction with my peers, and really missed being in the kitchen and learning new skills. We carried on learning through online lessons and cooking competitions, where we had one ingredient and had to make it the star of the dish, but it just wasn’t the same.

I am really glad to be back on campus, where I have progressed to the Level 3 Diploma in Professional Cookery, which takes a more in-depth look at being a chef and creating more complex, fine dining dishes. One of the things I really enjoy about my course is the opportunity to work in OKN1.

One of the highlights for me is being able to create a six-course tasting menu, to be served to paying customer on the OKN1 Wednesday theme night.

I will be creating two of the tasting menus in March and June. I am really excited to have the opportunity to create not one, but two of the tasting menus. I am apprehensive about customers trying my food, but I hope they love eating it as much as I will love creating it!

Come along and try her dishes for yourself.

Book today:

020 7613 9590 or visit our OKN1 website.

Taiyakah will be sharing her journey with us throughout the year…watch this space for the next instalment.