Yesterday I had a much needed discussion with my wife (whilst the kids were jumping around in a softplay castle with hundreds of other little Geordies) about the next step after the end of my time here in Newcastle. There’s a bit more than 1 and a half months to go here in Newcastle before I return to Paris and continue my “apprentissage” as a chef, and overall 8 and a half months before the end of my 11 month sabbatical period from Capgemini.
Our main priorities over the next 9 months / year are to move away from Paris (west of France being the current favourite destination….Atlantic coast or Brittany) and to start the process of buying a house. My wife (and my family) needs the security of knowing that we have atleast bought a house before I throw myself fully into this new chef / restaurant career…..understandable.
So, I have set out the following plans for the coming 8 months…..
move onto the fish section here at Jesmond Dene House (I need to speak with the chef, Pierre, tomorrow)
spend a day (or more) at the North East centre of our fish supplier (and one of the major suppliers in Britain) “M&J Seafoods”
spend a day with one of our meat suppliers to see the different cuts of meat and so on
get into a good fish restaurant when I get back to Paris and aim for chef de partie position in time
rejoin Capgemini for a few months at the end of my sabbatical period in May 2009
That’s where I’m at at the moment.
Just a quick note to let those interested know how I am getting on over here in Newcastle at Terry Laybourne’s flagship restaurant “Jesmond Dene House”.
It’s now been almost 1 month (remember that I’m here for 3 months) and I am now pretty well integrated into the Meat section within the team. There are 3 of us on this section and I am working as the commis chef preparing the different garnishes for the various meat dishes for the lunch and evening menus. Our lunch menu changes every 2 weeks and the dinner menu every season (3 months).
So far so good…..even though I’m a commis, I do all of the cooking for the garnishes for the meat dishes when the orders come in….so I’m finally au fourneau / at the hot plate, and it’s fantastic !! I work 5 days per week, split shifts every one of those days (8h30 – 15h and 17h30 – 11h).
I’ve been out to meet one or 2 of the local suppliers (Steve Ramshaw with his organic beef / lamb / pork, and Anne and Hugh of Ravenshaw Farm with their magnificent middlewhite pigs), but more visits are planned (flour mill, lobster diver, Jersey Dairy cows….amongst others).
I’ll be back soon with a film of where I work so that you can see what a typical day is over here…..but one thing that I can say is that the guys that I work with are passionate about their food / cooking, and the quality is atleast as good here as I saw in Paris.
Dom – 3:32 pm