Fail to prepare or prepare to fail ….
Having spent the most incredible 6 months in Switzerland, drinking far too much, skiing and putting my heart and soul on a plate. I was headed back to the UK.
While I was away, I had been offered a place at 4 universities, everything was getting far too grown up for my liking. I came back to my parents in the Cotswolds, and went about checking out cities for my upcoming uni placement! I decided on Bristol, not too far from home, I could still pop back at weekends, see my animals and family of course. But, now with the certainty of heading off to uni to study law, it was time to save and save some more. Back to a kitchen I go. This time, working in a rural gastro pub.
It was back breaking work, the hours were long, I was the only girl surrounded by middle aged men with the atypical chef attitude. The jokes were crude, the language vulgar, but I learnt so much!! It made me what I am today, completely anal about a tidy workspace (just ask my partner he is not allowed in the kitchen) organised, efficient, focused, and vocal. Mise en place is everything or brace yourself for an appalling service. Fresh and seasonal was at the very heart of the menu. The menu changed daily, we picked from the garden, met the local game keeper for the venison and rabbit, I loved all of it. Random lessons I learnt there include being given a whole deer (it arrived in the boot of a car) and being taught how butcher it… what a skill! I think it was originally a bit of a test to see if I was going to become all girly and squeamish, absolutely not! If you can butcher a deer … you can butcher almost anything, so it was a great day and I remember it well 13 years on!
In the summer we served a banging ploughman’s, with chicken liver parfait (that I had probably made the day before) roasted ham, all sorts of local fabulous cheeses, homemade pickles, jams, breads, salad …. They were the bane of my summer in 2007! On a busy summers day I would make 30 plus an hour and they were fussy, prepped last minute and if you feel behind with one that was your whole service out of sync. I was knackered daily, on split shift I would use my break to ride my mare who was only a mile from the pub, and never be home until the kitchen was deep cleaned at 10pm everyday. It was bloody hard work, but I really did learn so much. I still know the head chef very well, and we chat often (about food mainly). Ill always have a great respect for what he taught me, as without my time here, my education in a professional kitchen, I would not have had a lot of my success.