Well known for their culinary expertise, Granny Mouse Country House & Spa is perhaps one of the best training grounds for up-and-coming chefs. With an award winning menu and award winning chef, it is easy to see why any budding chef would jump at the opportunity to use the Hotel to sharpen their skills.

Throughout their first, second and third years of culinary school, trainee chefs are required to balance theoretical and practical applications to master their skills, and part of this process is securing six month internships where they hone their trade, and hopefully learn new skills under Executive Chefs.

Granny Mouse Country House & Spa has long undertaken involvement in such programs, offering internships to two trainee chefs at a time, from schools such as The Fusion Cooking School based in Durban, and Prue Leith Cooking Academy in Pretoria, to name just two.

According to Head Chef, Shaun Dampies, “we enjoy assisting trainee chefs with the practical applications of their theory, as we were all learning at some point in our careers.” Dampies went on to comment that he likes to allow the trainee chefs to have input on menus and allows them to bring their ideas to the table, as this creates an atmosphere of reciprocal learning and aids in creating new and fun dishes.

Some interns have been lucky enough to secure themselves permanent positions with Granny Mouse County House & Spa post internship, such as Sphamandla Ndlovu who used to work in the Granny Mouse kitchens on weekends to gain experience, and is now a full time employee.

General Manager, Sean Granger, commented that this is just one area where Granny Mouse feels that they are assisting in making a difference, and that they take pride in offering their trainee chefs one of the best training platforms possible.

For the past few years, the realm of conferencing has truly shifted.  A shift that in many ways has seen corporates evaluating not only the validity and impact that conferences have on their immediate staff teams, but how these conferences can incorporate giving back to the community. At Granny Mouse Country House & Spa, the community is an integral part of the Hotel’s ethos, as much of the labour force comes from the local community, that they’ve restructured their conference offering to cater for the conscious conferencing corporate.

Having been a venue of choice for many a conference over the years, Granny Mouse Country House & Spa General Manager, Sean Granger, wanted to revise the manner in which conferences were run, allowing corporates to not only revive their enthusiasm and refocus their company goals, but allowing them to feel a greater sense of achievement by investing their time and effort into a community service initiative.

With the assistance of his Management Team, Granger implemented a specific conscious conferencing corporate package, which for a small fee, includes the choice of three specific community tasks. Corporates can chose from planting a series of trees, planting a vegetable garden or planting a herb garden in areas of the local community as identified by Granger and his team.

“We began this program, as we have received a number of queries from potential conferencing clients, as to what community service initiatives they could partake in should they choose our venue for their conference,” commented Granger, “and as a team, we thought it would be a great idea to incorporate these sort of elements.”

If your company is truly looking to make a difference, then book your next conference at Granny Mouse Country House & Spa, and give a little something back. Contact 033 234 4071 or email banquetting@grannymouse.co.za