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Hearth & Hire — trained hands, ready kitchens
Training

Four days before the first shift

Our pre-placement block runs in a working kitchen, not a classroom. Twelve people, four trainers who have all run sections themselves, and a certificate at the end that an Irish employer recognises.

Start trainingSee where it leads
Cost to candidates
Free — employer funded
Length
4 days, Monday to Thursday
Group size
Maximum 12 per block
Locations
Dublin weekly · Cork & Galway monthly
The curriculum

What each day actually covers

Nothing here is theory for its own sake. Every module exists because a head chef told us new starters kept getting it wrong.

Day one · 09:00 – 16:00

Food safety and hygiene

The legal and practical basics of working with food in Ireland, taught the way an environmental health officer will actually ask about them.

  • HACCP principles and why every kitchen you work in will have a written plan
  • The danger zone: hot-holding at 63°C and above, cold storage at 5°C and below
  • Cross-contamination control — colour-coded boards, separation, hand-wash discipline
  • The 14 declarable allergens under EU Regulation 1169/2011 and how to answer a guest question safely
  • Completing a temperature log and a cleaning schedule so they stand up to an audit
  • Personal hygiene, fitness-to-work reporting and the 48-hour rule after illness

Day two · 09:00 – 17:00

Kitchen workflow and prep

How a brigade is organised and where you fit in it. This is the day that stops a new starter freezing when someone shouts "behind".

  • Brigade structure: who calls the pass, who you take instruction from, how a docket moves
  • Reading a prep list and working to par levels without over-producing
  • Mise en place: what has to be done before the doors open and in what order
  • Knife skills drilled to consistency — brunoise, julienne, dice, chiffonade
  • FIFO stock rotation, date labelling, deliveries put away correctly
  • Waste control, yield, and why a chef notices the peelings before the plate

Day three · 09:00 – 17:00

Equipment and service pressure

Real machinery, then a live simulation. We run a fifty-cover service with real dockets, real timings and deliberate curveballs.

  • Combi ovens, gas ranges, induction, salamanders and deep fryers — safe use and safe shutdown
  • Pass-through dishwashers, slicers, mixers and blenders, including guarding and cleaning down
  • Chemical handling: dilution stations, safety data sheets, what never mixes with what
  • Manual handling, burns and cuts prevention, and what to do when something goes wrong
  • Timed service simulation: call-backs, ticket times, holding your section during a rush
  • Debrief with a trainer on what held up and what to do differently

Day four · 09:00 – 13:00

Documentation, placement and onboarding

The administrative wall that stops a lot of good people from ever starting. We take it down with you, in the room.

  • PPS number application and what to bring to the appointment
  • Revenue MyAccount registration, tax credits and emergency tax avoided
  • Reading a contract of employment: hours, probation, notice, break entitlements
  • Right-to-work documentation and, where relevant, permit and student-hour limits
  • Payslips explained — gross, net, PRSI, USC, holiday accrual, Sunday premium
  • Placement matching interview and your first week check-in scheduled
After the block

Training does not stop when the placement starts

The four days get you through the door. What keeps people in the trade is what comes after — and we fund that too.

  • Month 1 — settling in

    Week-one and month-one calls with you and with the head chef. Rota problems, unclear expectations and pay queries get dealt with while they are still small.

  • Month 6 — HACCP Level 2

    We fund and schedule the certificate, which is the point at which you can hold responsibility for a section's food safety records rather than just filling them in.

  • Month 12 — supervisor modules

    Rota building, delegating a deep-clean schedule, chemical stock control and handling an audit. This is how our pot wash supervisors get made.

  • Ongoing — refreshers

    Allergen updates and equipment refreshers whenever regulations or your kitchen's kit change. Free to anyone we have ever placed.

Pot wash and kitchen porter duties

Employers: train-to-hire

Opening a site or rebuilding a brigade? We will recruit a group and run a dedicated block against your own standards, recipes and equipment, then hand the team over ready to work. Minimum group of six.

Employer options