The past month has been the most mentally challenging month as well as physically but at the same time one of the most enjoyable times as well. Getting the opportunity to work and learn in a professional kitchen seeing how it operates was a true honour and a blessing. The experience as a whole was very insightful and taught me a lot about what it takes to run a successful kitchen.
My role in the kitchen was working at the front starter section where I had to learn how to plate one of the 12 courses of the tasting menu a pork and scallop dish, as well as help with the other dish made on our section which was a quail and langoustine dish. Coming in, in the mornings the most important and main role I had was ensuring that we had enough container prep for the day and sort our most if not all proteins used on our section enough for the day which included cleaning prawn, scallops, langos as well as portioning pork.
My main lessons I took out of the whole experience is that mise en place is extremely important making sure you have everything and enough plus extra for the day and if possible get ahead on prep that you can because if you run out you have to get more and time and service doesn’t wait for any one. Communication is key even from listening to the dockets to other sections if you got a dish going out at the same time to the person that’s next to you on your station. Team is more important than the individual because we one kitchen sending out one meal if one is not up to standard the kitchen gets blamed so help out where you can. Work clean because a mess creates a confusion which leads to a mess of a dish. Consistency is key. Take pride in everything you do. Work fast whilst making sure you consistent, that comes with time as well.
Although it was a challenge it was one of the best experiences being in the kitchen working alongside passionate chefs getting a rush during a busy service and after wondering how did we get that done. My best memory I will take away is being in the open plan kitchen and when gest came up to the chefs table see the dish I platted and chatting a glimpse of the look of amazement and in that moment taking pride in what I’ve put up and knowing that that’s where I belong.
