The ambition is clear for both of them: "We're going to win"

After last month's historic triumph with four gold medals for chefs and waiters from Treetop, Munkebjerg Hotel's gourmet restaurant, a chef apprentice and a receptionist apprentice are now trying to bring more medals home to the hotel.

It is more precisely receptionist trainee Sofie Karoline Tams and Jeppe Hansen, who is a chef trainee in Munkebjerg Hotel's Panorama Restaurant, who will take part in the DM in Skills in Roskilde from Thursday 18 to Saturday 20 April.

The ambition is clear in both of them:
"I'm going to win and I think my chances are OK. I will fight to the end - both because I am proud of my profession and therefore want to show it off, and because I want to tell the outside world that Munkebjerg Hotel is an absolutely fantastic place to learn," says Sofie Karoline Tams.
Jeppe Hansen is also looking for a place at the top of the podium:
"I hope that I win, and I believe that I have good opportunities to do so, because I have trained hard and purposefully," says 22-year-old Jeppe Hansen.

On the back of historical results
DM i Skills is the Danish championships for vocational education, where the country's most talented EUD students within the various subjects compete against each other.

The competition comes just one month after the Danish championships for professional chefs and waiters, where three Treetop employees brought a historically good result home to the gourmet restaurant: Head chef Bjarke Jeppesen won DM gold for chefs, restaurant manager Andreas Kobs Laursen took care of DM gold for waiters and Finally, Magnus Lund Hansen also got one
gold medal together with the title "Cooking Apprentice of the Year 2024". It became even more historic when, a few days later, Andreas Kobs Laursen was also named the Nordics' best waiter.

"Something to live up to"
With the unique result, Jeppe Hansen feels that he "really got something to live up to":
"Right when they won, it gave me performance anxiety in relation to what I myself can achieve for the DM in Skills, but I've gotten over that, because I've practiced and
trained so much that it now sits on the spine. It has given me a good peace of mind and faith that I deliver a result I can be satisfied with.”
Like Jeppe Hansen, 26-year-old Sofie Karoline Tams is "wildly impressed" by her colleagues' "insanely cool" performance:
"At the same time, it has put a little more pressure on me, but it doesn't matter either - I just think it helps to make me sharper."

Boneless quail and dilemma management.
For the DM in Skills, Jeppe Hansen must compete with the other participants to make the best version of a three-course menu, and they only know in advance the "main items" of the dishes:

"We know that boneless quail must be included in the starter and red sole in the main course, but everything else - sauce, potatoes and greens - we have to come up with ourselves. In addition, we will make a classic version of "Omelet en surprise" for dessert," says Jeppe Hansen.

When Sofie Karoline Tams and the other receptionist students have to go on fire on stage in the large, heated tents at Dyrskuepladsen in Roskilde, they must demonstrate skills within a wide range of tasks such as, for example, booking hotel rooms, checking in and out of guests, processing complaints and dilemma handling:
"A dilemma could, for example, be that a guest approaches reception and says that her phone has been stolen while she was eating breakfast in the restaurant. Here it is important that we also handle the situation legally correctly," says Sofie Karoline Tams.

Same goal
Munkebjerg Hotel's two participants DM in Skills 2024 have the same overall goal of registering for the competition – they want to develop professionally:
"I do it to become even more skilled, so that I can give the hotel's guests good gastronomic experiences. First and foremost, I signed up for the competition to develop myself as a chef, and I have achieved that goal to a certain extent, because I have learned an extremely large amount during the many hours of preparation prior to DM in Skills. I'm really happy about that learning, so even if I don't win, I've already got a huge benefit from having been registered for the competition." says Jeppe Hansen.
He also participates to test himself, and Sofie Karoline Tams shares that ambition:

“It is very much about testing my own abilities and finding out where I stand professionally in relation to other receptionist students. But the most important thing for me is to get inspiration for further professional development, because I am very ambitious and want to
be the best. The better I am, the better experiences I can give the guests, and for me that is what my profession is all about – and what I am passionate about.”

For further info
Sofie Karoline Tams, receptionist trainee, Munkebjerg Hotel: 21567759
Jeppe Hansen, apprentice chef, Munkebjerg Hotel: 30487019