A large crowd of students and staff gathered at Forth Valley College’s Stirling Campus recently to hear the owner of the award winning Mountain Café – Kirsten Gilmour – talk about her career.
Organised by FVC’s Learning Resource Centre and Stirling Council Libraries and Archives as part of Book Week Scotland 2017, Kirsten talked about how through hard work and determination, she built up her successful Aviemore restaurant, leading to the publication of her Mountain Café Cookbook: A Kiwi in the Cairngorms.
FVC’s Hospitality students and staff also prepared a selection of snacks on the day taken directly from the book including chowder, stew and blueberry, coconut and lime cake …which the chef herself described as “beautiful”.
Kirsten, said: “This is the first time I have given a talk like this and I was a bit daunted to be honest. But I have loved it and it is great to give one little bit back into the industry and I hope the hospitality students here have been inspired.
“I live and breathe cooking and my advice to students would be to work hard, know that you are going to fail and don’t give up!”
Lisa MacLaren, FVC’s Learning Services Coordinator, said: “This was a fantastic way to complete our celebrations of Book Week Scotland, it was very fitting to have Kirsten visit our Stirling Campus inspiring students from the Hospitality Department. Feedback from Kirsten’s talk has been great and we look forward to running similar events in the future.”
Liz Moffat, Reader Services Librarian for Stirling Council, said: “This is the second year we have worked with Forth Valley College Learning Resource Centre and it is a partnership event we would love to continue with. It was wonderful to reach a new audience and I personally loved seeing the young students and staff so inspired and enthused by Kirsten’s down to earth, feisty and practical tips to working in the catering industry. The food the students and staff produced was also excellent and added to the day.”
The visit of Kirsten was part of FVC’s Book Week Scotland 2017 celebrations which also included a talk at the Alloa Campus on Tuesday 28 November from best-selling Scottish crime fiction author Lin Anderson - who is also an organiser and co-founder of the Bloody Scotland crime writing book festival held every year in Stirling - and a week-long book fair.
