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About AFW

The Academy of Food and Wine is a not for profit Social Enterprise, membership organisation and is the Professional body for Front of House Service Personnel focusing on improving the quality of personnel and the image of Front of House Service as a meaningful career choice. Affiliated to the Association de la Sommellerie Internationale, the Academy of Food & Wine is the official professional body for Sommeliers working in the UK.

The Academy was formed some 21 years ago, in 1988 and evolved out of the old Guild of Sommeliers with a new mission to develop the level of service skills in both food and wine service in the UK. Since then the Academy has become nationally recognised as the Industry’s leading voice for raising standards and the delivery of food and wine service skills. With the growth and change in food and wine service, the role of training and its importance is constantly in need of being redefined.The Academy’s approach is to work closely with all the key stakeholders in the market and utilise their skills and experience where necessary for the benefit of the industry as a whole, rather than constantly trying to re-invent the wheel and duplicating effort. We at the Academy certainly do not believe in Ego Trips!

UK Guild of Wine Service

We have formed our UK Guild of Wine Service, as the UK Association of Sommellerie, under the Presidency of Gerard Basset, MW, MS (and most other qualifications you can think of)! His committee is made up of the great and good of Sommellerie and they all play a key role in developing and setting new standards of wine service training.

UK Guild of Restaurant Service
A parallel UK Guild of Food Service has also been formed more recently under the Presidency of Silvano Giraldin of Le Gavroche. These committees work as part of the Academy structure ensuring that our training programmes and events are “fit for purpose” and answer the needs of Industry.

Licence to Work™in Hospitality Service
To improve the quality of newcomers into the Industry and with the Olympics in 2012 very much in mind, we have more recently developed a new introductory, entry-level, course – The “Licence to WorkTM in Hospitality Service”.

This entry level qualification is a 60 hour programme covering Food Service; Wine Service; Customer Care; Health & Safety, Basic Food Hygiene and interpersonal skills (appearance, interview skills etc.) and will be initially delivered by the Academy to unemployed adults via a deal with job Centre Plus. Once the course has been put onto the qualification framework then top Colleges of Vocational Excellence across the country will be able to run the course themselves.

Successful candidates will receive no fewer than 4 certificates! A basic Food Hygiene Certificate, a Health & Safety Certificate, a further certificate endorsed by the Academy with the Institute of Hospitality and People1st and finally access to the People1st electronic Skills Passport, to set the successful candidate on their way to a fulfilling career in Front of House Service Skills.

Each successful candidate will also be guaranteed an interview for a job from key employers in the Industry who have signed up to the Academy’s “ACE” programme – Academy Centres of training Excellence, thus creating a constant stream of personnel with the appropriate basic certificate of training, or Licence to Work, for quality service.

Training
These programmes are ideal vehicles for brand owners to present their products in front of the people who will actually be using and selling them.

So all the aforementioned are ways in how we are improving the quality of personnel within the service industry - but what about the image of Food and Wine Service and how to attract and retain people and convince them that Front of House Service is a worthwhile career?

To this end the Academy has developed and runs an ever growing series of high profile competitions and events, positioning key service personnel into the role models to which others can aspire.

Examples of these are the Academy of Food and Wine Sommelier of the Year Competition, the Restaurant Manager of the Year Competition, our new Gastronomy Team of the Year Competition, the Sommeliers’ annual dinner and the Restaurant Managers’ annual dinner - all of which acknowledge quality performance with key industry high profilers participating.

We also run the Wine Quiz and our own Annual Academy Awards which are in the main Wine Travel Bursaries.

The Academy also has a website and publishes an e-zine called Table Service which is packed full of Industry news and information and a web-based magazine called Front of House (www.frontofhouse.net) – both of which keep us closely in touch with our members.

The Academy only comprises three full time staff so we are as they say “Lean and Mean” and we are funded primarily by membership fees (we currently have over 1,000 members and rising); charitable donations (primarily for training development work) and most importantly of all by many Industry benefactors.

If the Academy did not exist there would be NO organisation dedicated to improving quality Front of House service. So we need MORE support from benefactors so we can continue our work such as the development of new training; lobbying the powers to be to recognise and support front of house training on an equal scale to that of cooking; running bite sized training such as our Professional Connoisseur Series, Advantage master classes, skill builds and tutorials and devising and running exciting competitions and events.

As we always say “training is an investment not a cost”. Or to put it another way: “What is the cost to your business of not training your service staff”. We are acutely aware of your need to cut costs in the current financial crunch but please also remember that “NOW is absolutely THE time to Invest in Skills” to ensure you keep your competitive edge. Therefore we would argue it is in every employer and employees interest to support the Academy. After all, our success is also your success!

I do hope you will support our much needed work.

Further information: Quotation from an Open Letter placed in The Sunday Times 28th October 2008 by UK Commission for Employment and Skills http://www.ukces.org.uk/Default.aspx?page=4659

EVENTS
The Academy runs a number of events throughout the year. The purpose of these events is for attendees to network with friends & peers in the industry but also to gain product knowledge from the various sponsors involved and to keep updated with the Academy of Food & Wine.

Academy Dinners
Restaurant Managers Dinner
2005 saw the inaugural Restaurant Managers’ Dinner take place at the Langham Hotel, London. Due to the resounding success of this dinner it has now become an annual event. This annual dinner is supported by peers including Silvano Giraldin, Remy Lyse, Conor O'Leary and Darren Neilan.

Sommeliers Dinner
2005 also saw the inaugural Sommeliers Dinner take place at the Sheraton Park Lane. Again, this has become an annual event now. This dinner is attended by many of our past Sommelier of the Year winners and other industry luminaries who come together to celebrate the role of the Sommelier.

Guests enjoy superb food in a prestigious venue all at a very reasonable price at both these dinners.

National Restaurateurs Dinner

Now in its 22nd year the AFW work in conjunction with the Restaurant Association & the Academy of Culinary Arts to organise this dinner.

It is the prime fundraising event for us all and it raises money for our Education and Training initiatives. The projects, benefiting all, aim to tackle the worst of the problems facing our industry today, namely those of skills shortages and training for young men and women looking for a career in our profession. Over the years the dinner has grown from a Restaurateurs’ get-together to a major gala dinner, which has generated in excess of half a million pounds towards these good causes.

This fundraiser helps us raise money for the continued Education and Training initiatives our three organisations run for the benefit of our industry as a whole.

COMPETITIONS & QUIZZES
The Academy runs a number of competitions and quizzes every year. Our aim is to introduce an element of competition and fun into the industry whilst training and educating the entrants as well as recognising those individuals who attain success.

UK Sommelier of the Year
As the UK branch of the Association de la Sommellerie Internationale, the Academy of Food & Wine has, for the past 20 years been working towards raising the profile of food and wine service staff in the industry. One of our achievements has been the development of an annual competition for sommeliers throughout the UK. This has had a significant impact on the industry as an increasing number of wine waiters and sommeliers have become involved over the years with many of the winners becoming judges. 2009 will see the 30th anniversary of the competition.

The AFW has been successful in attracting many of those wine waiters and sommeliers who wouldn’t usually have the confidence to enter. The competition not only requires the entrants to test their wine knowledge, they must also demonstrate their ability to serve wine correctly to customers.

AFW Awards
These awards are all about on-trade staff having the opportunity to win an all expenses paid overseas educational trip, in the past winners have visited Australia, New Zealand, California, Chile, Spain, Germany and Portugal. There is also an opportunity for awards to be won for the best Company, college and individual in the industry.

By entering employees this sort of activity helps employers to retain their staff and reduce turnover whilst illustrating their support and encouragement for their career and future.

The Knowledge
The Wine Knowledge is a challenging, yet fun, contest and is open to all wine lovers. Entrants need to correctly answer several challenging questions to be in with a chance to be selected to be one of 18 quarter-finalists to battle their way through one of six live, knock-out question rounds, devised by our UK Guild of Wine Service. Only six semi-finalists move on to tasting rounds. Ultimately, three finalists will take part in a nail-biting, final round to establish the winner.

Wines of Roussillon Dessert Trophy
Now in its third year, the Roussillon Dessert Trophy has been devised by the generic body for Wines of Roussillon (CIVR) and is run in association with the AFW. This prestigious on-trade competition aims to seek out the most talented pastry chef-sommelier team in the UK, by inviting them to submit a winning combination of a Roussillon “Vin Doux Naturel (VDN)” dessert wine and their own dessert creation.

Through these competitions the AFWS have been successful in breaking down some of the barriers to developing and recognising the specific skills of front of house staff.

UK Restaurant Manager of the Year Competition
The Restaurant Manager of the Year is a new nationwide competition developed to find, acknowledge and reward the best Restaurant Managers in the UK and will be launched in January 2009.

Gastronomy Team of the Year Competition
New for 2009 a competition devised to identify the food and beverage (Gastronomy) team of the year; uniting kitchen and service professionals.

ON-TRADE EXHIBITIONS
Restaurant Show and Wine +
The Academy supports and exhibits at these on-trade exhibitions annually. Generally, as well as exhibiting at these exhibitions, the AFW organises seminars and tasting sessions which include exciting and interactive sessions allowing you to discover, taste and evaluate in a tutored environment. These sessions bring the learning experience to life.

TRAINING
With the growth and change in the food and wine service industry over the past few years, the role of training and its importance is constantly in need of being redefined.
One of the Academy of Food & Wine’s main areas of activity is training. We believe that ‘training is an investment, not a cost’ but also understand that many businesses are time and resource poor. The Academy’s approach is to work closely with all the key stakeholders in the market and utilise their skills and experience where necessary for the benefit of the industry as a whole.

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With this in mind we have devised, in conjunction with industry, a number of training programmes and materials that give the on-trade the skills they require, but at a fraction of the cost normally associated with such training. This is achieved through donations from organisations such as the Savoy Educational Trust as well as sponsorships from industry suppliers.

The AFW training programmes range from 90-minute masterclasses through to a five-day foundation course in food & beverage service and most sizes in between.

Advantage:
90-minute masterclasses for the on-trade. Give your staff and business an ‘Advantage’. Run by presenters with many years experience, topics include; upselling, customer service, wine list development, creating the ‘perfect’ list and motivating your team.

Designed to meet the need for short, sharp and effective training, these Advantage masterclasses equip delegates with skills they can put into action immediately. These masterclasses are priced at only £75 (£37.50 for members) as they are subsidised by the AFW.

Product Tutorials:
A two-hour long tutorial focussed on a particular country or region’s grape varieties, brands or local produce. Designed for wine waiters, sommeliers, F & B supervisors and others interested in gaining more product knowledge, these tutorials are a great way to immerse your staff in the topic of the day.

Professional Connoisseur Series:
A series of sessions which give craft-level service staff an overview of wine and/or food service skills. These sessions are heavily subsidised and are very popular; we often have to put people on a waiting list. Please note that preference is always given to our members, so why not join? Prices: Beginner £50 (£25 for members). Intermediate £80 (£40 for members). Advanced £250 (£125 for members).

Performance Improvement Programme:
This two-day (12 hour) long programme provides delegates with the knowledge to improve profit performance through customer service. Delegates learn about customer service, upselling and how to get the best from the customer to improve the bottom line. The cost of £200 per delegate (£400 for non-members) is subsidised by the Academy of Food & Wine and is aimed at supervisors and managers, with a view to them imparting this knowledge to the rest of their team.

Licence to Work in Food & Beverage Service:
Created with help from employers and financial support from the Savoy Educational Trust, this is a five-day course designed to equip those planning on entering the industry, or who are about to commence their first job, with the necessary skills required.

The course is subsidised by the Academy of Food & Wine and as a result is a cost-effective way to ensure all your F & B staff are competent at a basic level. The Academy can adapt this training so that it is run in conjunction with your own induction training and kitemark the complete package.

The training covers Food and Wine Service; Communication skills; Customer Service; Health & Safety, Basic Food Hygiene and interpersonal skills (appearance, interview skills etc.).

A 60 hour version of the same programme is also available and has been recently piloted with Job Centre Plus to encourage the unemployed to consider a position in the hospitality industry. Each successful candidate is guaranteed an interview for a job from key employers in the Industry who have signed up to the Academy’s “ACE” programme (www.acfws.org) – Academy Centres of training Excellence, thus creating a constant stream of personnel with the appropriate basic certificate of training for quality service.

Training Packs:
In addition to the programmes we run, we also have a selection of training materials. These packs are designed with the on-trade in mind. We have ensured they can be approached in piece-meal fashion, so can be used in-house when the time allows.
The packs can be used by an individual or (with the purchase of additional licenses) by a trainer to a group of people. Our packs focus on various elements of front of house and include Customer Service (3 levels), Food Service, Wine Service, Meetings & Events Service and Bar Service.