@Shelovescake

I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the smell of a walk-in fridge. It’s dead air infused with stored food. A paradoxically stale odour. Working on larder section today, I was in and out of the fridge on repeat, mostly holding my breath. Perhaps I’m not cut out to be a pro kitchen chef. Still, another great day with plenty of learning. I was definitely more tired at the end of the day than yesterday. That could be a cumulative effect or just that larder is a more pacey section than pastry.

The vat of tonnato sauce I made after lunch service nearly finished me off. A very messy business involving tinned tuna, jarred anchovies (both in oil), egg yolks and vast quantities of rapeseed oil. I somewhat mis-understood the verbal instructions (nothing is written down) and the fact that this is an emulsion akin to mayonnaise. Therefore the oil should be gradually dripped into the egg and other ingredients not simply ‘biffed’ in altogether. Oops. Thankfully with some help I rescued it to a smooth salty sauce which looked not unlike one already in the fridge. Phew! Staff meal came immediately after and again I was ravenous having only tried a prosciutto croquette (deeply meaty in both flavour and texture) since yoghurt and granola at 8.30am, and nearly 8 hours on my feet.

Highlights of the day were getting hands-on with the plating at lunch service and really feeling part of the team. It’s tricky when you feel like you’re asking questions constantly but I like learning by observing and copying, for which there is plenty of opportunity. I also helped plate up an elegantly simple platter of picked white crab, brown crab, aioli, and a lemon-dressed fennel and fennel leaf salad. One I might pinch for the future….along with the ricotta mix I prepped for the baby artichoke, broad bean, ricotta salad that became ‘my’ dish to plate. Ricotta is delightfully creamy but bland so needs lots of boosting in the flavour department. For three large tubs, I zested three fat lemons and added plenty of Malden sea salt and many, many cracks of black pepper.

Low point of the day: washing a full harvest of five different types of lettuce in ice cold water. It took several minutes under the hot tap to revive my frozen fingers. One more day to go…