First things first – I walked down to the restaurant at 08.00am this morning from my Airbnb small apartment conveniently located only 10 minutes walk away. Before going into the restaurant I looked across the Harbour and the beauty of the morning grabbed me and said – photograph me !
So (only from a mobile phone) but this was what greeted me :
Good Morning Padstow !
I had met the Head Chef at the Seafood Restaurant Mr.Stephane Delourme when he visited Leiths with his sidekick AJ to give the students a Demo about the wonderful food they were producing in Padstow.
Stephane joined the restaurant in 1998 and is passionate about Fish and Seafood. He was the first to welcome me at 08.30am on my first exciting but nervy day, knowing my shift was to go through to 16.00.
Stephane gave me a whistle stop tour of the kitchens, showed me where to change and then set me up on “Mains” to be Matts sidekick for the day. Matts job was to prep as many things as possible before we would be “all systems go” for the lunch service, which he advised we would need to start to prepare for at around 11.00.
So I was tasked with various random jobs
How many ?
– like halving and juicing a box of Limes
– Helping to prepare butter for a huge pot of 10 kilos of clarified butter :
later to learn almost everything here is pan fried in clarified butter
– bashing up peanuts to run through a Thai salad
– Cleaning and paring a box of Purple Sprouting Broccoli
then blanching and refreshing them in Ice Water
These are all 250g blocks !
– Grating a huge block of Parmesan – brilliant I grated off the top of my thumb and was bleeding all over the cheese and that was in my first half an hour – how to impress and win friends ! Needed a plaster and Glove after that !
– also preparing a huge stockpot of Fishstock
!
A sea of stock !
Thereafter there was a quick break for all the chefs to have a bite to eat from the breakfast leftovers from the restaurant – Yum, scrambled Egg, Sausage, and Mushrooms on Toast – before starting in earnest again.
After clearing down we prepared all the work surfaces with various chopping boards and set up all of the required garnishes so that we could react as quickly as possible to the orders that were about to come through. We were on Mains so as the first Orders started coming through this alerted us to what the main course would be whilst the guys on the Starter section started their cook.
Matt would basically find the ordered fish , which would be in a Refridgerated drawer below our workbench, throw in some clarified butter to a pan, get it really hot, and put the required fish in skin side down and sear this whilst pressing it down with fingers only. The pan has to really hot as none of the pans are Non Stick – most appear to have seen better days- and if not hot enough the skin sticks to the pan and you lose it. Not a good look for the fish ! Then the fish would be out on a small metal tray in a rack awaiting another electronic message to come through advising “ Mains away”. Only then would he continue with the cook , usually back in the pan , more butter and depending on the fish and the size of the cut it would be held over the Hob up high or under the grill to finish off. Rarely in the oven. Always with a Thermometer to check the internal Temp : 50- 55c on the Bone.
To be honest I was not entrusted with the fish cooking and there is no filleting required as all Fish come in prepared : filleted, cleaned, gutted ,scaled and portioned. Quality of each and every piece is A1.
During service I was rather utilised to plate up – when the fish is ready and the assorted Veg and/ or Sauce prepared it is all brought to the service area in its respective pan and someone needs to plate up.
So Ben and I were on this – Ben was the chef preparing all of the Sashami at the bar yesterday and therefore we both recognised each other immediately. Ben is 18 !!! And has just discovered Oasis – he had not heard of them until last week so we were being serenaded to Wonderwall – I told him I saw them at their peak when I was 20 and I could see him doing the Maths in his head 😂
Plating up ! John Dory with Lentils
Anyway Ben is pretty awesome – as is Matt, especially on the Turbot – and we were soon plating up everything that was coming our way. It was a very quiet Lunch Session and the guys were even bored, I was told it would be a lot more frantic at the Dinner service that I would be on tomorrow 16.00 to 23.00.
After service and a clean down I then helped Ben with the Seabass Pollichathu. Matt had already briefly fried off the bass and we needed to lay out 15 Banana Leafs, put the Masala on top followed by fish, marinade into the belly and then more Masala and Chilli plus Curry Leaves on top before rolling together and pinning them closed with cocktail sticks. Here they are finished and raring to go into the ovens for tonight’s service.
What’s inside your Banana 🍌 leaf ?
All in all it was an interesting first day especially seeing how a professional kitchen is run. I was not asked to do anything too demanding and would love to have got my hands a bit dirtier and been allowed to cook some of the fish. I appreciate these are expensive items and they cannot be f**ked up on the way to the customer but I hope to be given a chance to show a little of what I can do tomorrow – even if I have a Ben or Matt angel on my shoulder ensuring I do not ruin a beautiful piece of expensive Fish !