Tuesday morning saw us all arriving in our chef whites for the very first time - nothing like baggy, elasticated blue and white checked pants, white chef jackets with odd buttons that take ages to put in, clogs and an attractive mop-like thing on your head to make you feel like a supermodel, but at least we all looked the same, lots of giggles all round. Armed with our knife bags and a genuine goal not to lose any fingers at least until the second week, we headed into our respective kitchens for our very first day on the job, so to speak.
The morning began with a quick tour of the kitchens, the pantry and larder - we have duties each day that can be anything from picking herbs and salad greens in the morning to milking cows, making lemonade or bread, serving lunch and then, on the not so fun side, wahing up but it's part of life in the kitchen I suppose and our jobs rotate each day so at least I know I'll not be stuck with hoovering for a whole week at a time or something else equally inspiring.
The school has learnt over the years that having the teachers work very closely with us for the first day results in a lot less blue plasters strapped around various body parts and so we largely watched and assisted under close supervision - needless to say everything came out perfectly and looked fantastic.
Lunch comprises of what we make in the morning so that's fairly motivating - the smells coming out of the ovens and saucepans was encouraging and by lunch, I was utterly ravenous - carrot and cumin soup, penne pasta with mushroom a'la creme sauce and summer fruit salad most definitely hit the spot and then it was time for afternoon demo.
Darina gave the afternoon lecture and since we knew that the next day we'd be working much more on our own, the class was rapt with attention, pens were flying across pages with notes and tips being jotted down left, right and centre. One of the dishes that was on the list was a mixed tomato salad with mint or basil, so many different tomatoes, honestly it was a whole new tomato world.
After watching Darina make onion and thyme soup, potato soup with either basil pesto or chorizo, quiche Lorraine, French onion tart, mushroom and thyme tart, summer salad with dressing, blackberry and apple compote and fork biscuits (deadly little butter biscuits dipped in vanilla sugar), lunch felt like aeons ago and the mad rush for the tasting queue at the end of the demo could have had us qualifying for the Commonwealth Games, each of us armed with a side plate (not big enough for sure) and a fork - not a bad way to end the day.
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| Salad greens |
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| Red & yellow tomato salad with basil |
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| Apple & blackberry compote with sweet geranium leaves |
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| Fork biscuits |
Tuesday was my birthday but with it only being the second day and none of us knowing each other that well yet, I'd decided against going in and singing happy birthday to myself in the morning but the horribly efficient office had obviously taken note and at the end of demo, the teachers came out with a birthday cake for me which was so sweet, and everyone sang happy birthday and it was lovely - almond meringue pavlova with cream and berries, so good. We took it home and the residents of White Cottage managed to finish it off with ease in one sitting!
I loved one of Darina's points during demo - selecting an oven is apparently not unlike picking a husband, you'll be stuck with it/him for at least 20 years and if you pick the wrong one, it'll be an uphill battle and fights all the way, sound advice I thought - thankfully I managed to pick an absolutely top-of-the-range model, or perhaps he picked me (and hopefully thought the same thing, probably best not to give that too much consideration) and no problems to date, the only downside right now being that my better half is on the other side of the world which is not fun.
We work in twos in the kitchen so I met up with my partner straight after demo to decide which of the following day's dishes we would each make and I'm stuck with French onion tart as one of mine............not good, I've yet to make pastry that doesn't sink like a stone as you (try to) swallow it, going to be in bright eyed and bushy tailed early tomorrow morning to give it a go and hopefully produce something that won't kill off anyone at lunch, mmmmmmmm .............more on that soon I'm sure.
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