Its true I haven't had time to blog; the lack of internet access and the insane hours that I have been putting in have left me little time to blog also a little sore but I feel as though Im getting much fitter. Every thing seems to be going well in the kitchen, the oppressing silence of living on my own in a small (lets be honest CRAPPY!!) room have left me lots of time to think, about what I want to write, (see article written below, trying to capture the essence of the life of a chef de partie between 6 and 6:35). But it seems now that Im back on dryer land in greener pastures for a short break, I feel detatched from the kitchen, I have forgotten the things that I wanted to write when I left the kitchen angry or sad, even the things I wanted to write when I left elated! It seems everything is going well, the staff have become less nice and more real; the chefs as well. I have been yelled at for the little mistakes and even recieved a few sly, yet rewarding compliments. I have allready started to hate the four walls that surround me, but then who doesnt hate looking at the same thing all day?? Next week I am changing section, away from the meat and on to the garnish section, looks like I will be peeling veg for a week, I hope that does not bother me too much. I have watched the mistakes of the chefs and cryed over the number of customers ordering well-done meat. Finally, I have found a little thing, that can be improved, and maybe its something I can do. Let me set the scene;
Its wednesday in the kitchen; at lunch we cooked for thirty covers; in the afternoon anather thirty sandwiches, the evening is going to be busy a hundred odd covers booked in, and yet I have to cook High Tea for 20 kids aged 1 to 12. Lets be honest, this is the last thing I want to do, I dont have the time or the patience to make chicken nuggest and chips, and if I was a kid I would never have been given the coice of the kids menu, I would have eaten off the normal menu, like an adult. Yet in this nanny-fied land we live in the kids have to eat at 5 and they have a special menu. Well, what a pain in the ass!! and half way through it the owner of the hotel walks in and looks at me and says, "I bet you didnt expect to be doing this." I look down at the crappy white plates with chicken and chips and a cheese omlet with sliced tomato, and I think this is shit!! I smile and say "Not really, its not great is it."
So there it was, an invatation from the owner to make it better!! After a few days of watching the other chefs struggling with it, I have decided to start doing some research and to improve the quality of the foods that they give to the kids. It should be easy, armed with a bit of reaserch Im going back to discuss with my chef the options available Ill follow up next time with what was the outcome, any comments would be greatly appreciated.
A couple of articles on kids food; one from the SanFrancisco times, on hippster kiddy eats and what the customer wants; also here is one from restaurant - hospitality. com with some very interesting figures, Time outs guide to londons top eateries for posh kids nosh, and my rival named blog GASTROKIDS which seems to have a few ideas!!
