College Update

You've all seen MasterChef, where you first meet the contestants and the generic comments are ' I love food, I love feeding people, it's the only thing that makes me happy' etc etc.

And they get through to the professional kitchen round and they crumble. It's too chaotic, it's hot, they have a head chef telling them their dish is crap. A 1000 miles from pottering around in their own kitchen, making steak and chips for a dinner party.

Well, last week I felt like that. Previous times in service I had been on the dessert section, I loved the buzz, the pace, making everything from scratch, and the admiration for our dishes from the other chefs. Last week I was put on mains. I hated it. It was chaos.

My head chef will probably say I'm being too hard on myself but I felt like I sank. I know it was my first time on mains but it was awful. I couldn't remember how many mains I had on order, I had to keep asking. It was hot and fast and unforgiving. I felt deflated. There were tears in the locker room.

Next week sees the start of the Christmas Menu. It is going to be bloody busy. I will have no other choice but to step out on mains again. And that's OK.

A journey wouldn't be worth taking if it was easy. No lessons learnt along the way you see. What I have learnt in that it doesn't pay to panic during service. You have to have fun, relax and enjoy it. I knew it was going to be difficult, I knew I would struggle but you never achieve anything if you stay in your comfort zone. I going back on mains and this time I will be focused. I will let you know all about the Christmas menu when I get that information myself.

For now, I am getting ready to do some baking. A little precision needed with measurements but on the whole a relaxing venture. A lot of love will be going into the biscuits, cakes and slices as they will be sent off for action men to enjoy. Ha, I didn't think of it like this before but my cakes will be shipped into a country in conflict, hopefully raising morale for a few moments. Morale Cakes. I'm seeing a window of opportunity here!