Two days ago I celebrated my first anniversary working as a savoury chef at the Real Patisserie Kemptown. A year ago, from a passionate home cook, I ventured into a professional kitchen without any prior experience. I was expected to start from dish washing but I am grateful that I was given the opportunity to learn to make their signature savoury quiches.
A month of intensive training with Jo, I was given the chance to work on my own for their savoury section making 12 quiches a day. Three days a week...and a year later...I have made at least 1750 quiches! 8 pieces a quiche, so that make at least 14000 customers had eaten my quiches. OK, Maybe 13997 customers! As I know a regular customer who always come for the bacon, leeks and free range eggs pie. Someone so in love with of one of the chicken coriander quiches that I used to make, he came back later that day to buy another piece but unfortunately it was sold out by then and a woman so addicted to the bacon, courgette, mushroom and wholegrain mustard quiche; that is the ONLY quiche she wants to eat!
I am glad that Jo let me go a bit crazy with the decoration of each of the quiches and let me try new flavour combinations and products. I really want our customers to feel that they are giving themselves a special treat (both visually and taste-wise) whether it is for their regular lunch out or for a special occasion.
I have so much fun working there and learned a great deal of how to run a section in the well established local bakery. From morning ingredients stocks check, place daily order with the supplier, make soup, produce the quiches and all the background food preparation.
I was quite comprehensive initially when they offered me a trial to work there. From all those "dramatised" cooking/ restaurant programmes on television, I get the impression that working in the professional restaurant will be quite unpleasant with all the shouting! I am a quiet and calm person, I don't feel I will be able to fit in! But at the bakery, everyone is helpful and working together to make sure things run smoothly. Other chefs, patissiers and bakers are friendly and willing to share their knowledge. I learned so much by observing or just being around at the bakery!
Yes, working at a professional kitchen is stressful, but it is a kind of good stress that keep you motivated. Even though a bakery is different from a restaurant, we do have to keep the schedule of getting food ready for the shop on time. 7am breakfast, 10am for quiches to be on display, 11am soup should be ready for lunch time and all the preparation for the next day.
One year on, I feel that I am no longer a home cook, but a chef! Everything I cook from now will have to be to the professional standards!
Come try our quiches at REAL PATISSERIE Kemptown (Brighton) if you have not done so!
A month of intensive training with Jo, I was given the chance to work on my own for their savoury section making 12 quiches a day. Three days a week...and a year later...I have made at least 1750 quiches! 8 pieces a quiche, so that make at least 14000 customers had eaten my quiches. OK, Maybe 13997 customers! As I know a regular customer who always come for the bacon, leeks and free range eggs pie. Someone so in love with of one of the chicken coriander quiches that I used to make, he came back later that day to buy another piece but unfortunately it was sold out by then and a woman so addicted to the bacon, courgette, mushroom and wholegrain mustard quiche; that is the ONLY quiche she wants to eat!
I am glad that Jo let me go a bit crazy with the decoration of each of the quiches and let me try new flavour combinations and products. I really want our customers to feel that they are giving themselves a special treat (both visually and taste-wise) whether it is for their regular lunch out or for a special occasion.
I have so much fun working there and learned a great deal of how to run a section in the well established local bakery. From morning ingredients stocks check, place daily order with the supplier, make soup, produce the quiches and all the background food preparation.
I was quite comprehensive initially when they offered me a trial to work there. From all those "dramatised" cooking/ restaurant programmes on television, I get the impression that working in the professional restaurant will be quite unpleasant with all the shouting! I am a quiet and calm person, I don't feel I will be able to fit in! But at the bakery, everyone is helpful and working together to make sure things run smoothly. Other chefs, patissiers and bakers are friendly and willing to share their knowledge. I learned so much by observing or just being around at the bakery!
Yes, working at a professional kitchen is stressful, but it is a kind of good stress that keep you motivated. Even though a bakery is different from a restaurant, we do have to keep the schedule of getting food ready for the shop on time. 7am breakfast, 10am for quiches to be on display, 11am soup should be ready for lunch time and all the preparation for the next day.
One year on, I feel that I am no longer a home cook, but a chef! Everything I cook from now will have to be to the professional standards!
Come try our quiches at REAL PATISSERIE Kemptown (Brighton) if you have not done so!
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