Day 3 – Monday June 23rd, was my first day of my first stage here in London, at the Fishmongers’ Company. As one of the most ancient of the City Guilds, they have spanned 700 years, adapting to the challenges of changing times, and withstanding catastrophic events like The Great Fire of London in 1666, and WWII. The Fishmongers’ Company offers outstanding hospitality services at Fishmongers’ Hall, headed by award-winning Executive Head Chef, Stephen Pini, and cater expertly for all kinds of events.
I started at 7am, and got home around 9.30pm, so that’s not too bad – only a 13 hour day. Actually it didn’t seem like hard work at all, so I felt a little bit guilty! I really gelled quickly with the team, the boys were really fun to get along with in the kitchen.
We did a function for 60 people. First up was an entrée of tuna carpaccio with sea vegetables, cucumber, purple shiso, horseradish crème fraiche, and crostini. The main course was chicken breast, piped with a mushroom truffle mousse, carrot puree, baby carrots, sautéed broad beans and bacon lardons.
For the dessert – this was an upside-down pineapple cake with passion fruit, cream, toasted coconut. It was all delicious, well presented food.
At the Fishmongers’ Hall they do a range of menus, and depending on how many people the functions are booked for, the dishes become more intricate as numbers decrease. Today we served around 60 people so we were able to use more complexity in the menu.
Tuesday we’ve got a booking for 240 people for lunch, so that’s going to be extremely busy, and it’s going to get extremely hot in that kitchen! But the boys all have a really good attitude, and it’s just really great to be a part of their team. I’m already feeling quite sad because it’s only my first day but then at the same time it’s already my last day tomorrow, being such a short time there, so it’s bittersweet really.
Chef Stephen said I can have a job anytime since I’m the only one on his team that knows how to quenelle, so that’s reassuring! At the end of service, we all ended with an in-kitchen ‘tea towel whipping’, which the head chef actually initiated.
When I first arrived at the kitchen, the first thing I heard was the head chef yelling at one of the other chefs with all sorts of colourful language after things had gone astray with the amount prepped. My first impression was – oh my gosh this is exactly how I imagined a UK kitchen, with the head chef just going nuts at everyone and using swear words in every single sentence! But once things settled down, I got to see the other side of the kitchen, all of the boys working really long hours but all getting along, and like I said the day just flew by. It was really cool.
Day 4 – Fishmongers’ Hall – It’s now Wednesday 25th June at 2am. I’m up in the middle of the night finishing Day 3 and 4’s blog post because last night I went to bed at 5pm to ensure enough sleep for a jam packed Day 5 of my trip.
I completed the second day of my stage at the Fishmongers’ Hall yesterday with the St Peters day luncheon for 210 people. It was fast paced, busy, frantic… but so much fun.
We did a three course meal. Our entrée was the Fishmonger’s house-cured salmon with lemon and honey, served with dill mustard and a beetroot quenelle, crème fraiche, lemon oil, baby micro leaves, and a jasmine flower garnish.
We then served a fillet of John Dory with a puree of Asian spiced cauliflower, sautéed samphire and pickled chantarelle mushrooms, drizzled with langoustine and crème fraiche jus.
The dessert was an open summer pudding with verbena ice cream, raspberry coulis, and a shortbread biscuit.
The thing I like the most about the Fishmongers’ Hall is the fact that their food focus is to do these huge functions. It impresses me so much that – even though they’re doing banquet food – they serve it to an a la carte restaurant quality. The Executive Chef, Stephen, has the view that food should always be of the highest standard, whether it’s a function for 5, or 500. This means every dish has got to be identical, down to the very last drop of puree or nip of sauce on the plate. I really respect that high standard, even after experiencing the pressure of completing 210 covers to look like clones.
Going into the function today, I was really apprehensive, because 210 people is quite a lot to cater for and I had all these questions… how it’s going to go out today, how do you keep the food hot, how do you plate it up in time… my mind was doing overtime.
Thinking back to the Cobar restaurant where I work in Wellington, I couldn’t imagine the logistics of plating up for 210 people. You know, you need bench space, you need large facilities, you need heating, all these sort of things. I was really frazzled and confused as to how we would get that done today, but when I was there, I discovered they had a whole room that’s designed just for plating, plating alone and nothing else! And it’s a chef’s dream for functions definitely, there were about 12 long stainless steel benches all interconnecting in a special custom design, they’re all double -tiered and every single tier has heat lamps above it, and they can control the heat with a dial, for every single one.
But boy, that room gets hot! Today we had 210 plates set up, but there was still ample room for another line of plates on each bench so I’m guess-timating they can hold about 300 plates at one time, all staying completely hot while you plate up. It was ridiculous how hot the plates were, you had to pick each one up with a tea towel, they stay hot the entire time. So to have the facilities to be able to send hot food out at that capacity is something I’ve never seen back home.
And for big functions, we plated the entrees straight on the tables for the customers, not while they’re there, but before they come in. Every plate has the main protein added in kitchen but then all the garnishing is done at the table so that every single one looks identical and you don’t have front of house coming and putting it wrong. The chefs take care of it, and make sure everything is set just so, and everything is identical. That was a very different experience for me, I’ve never plated straight at the table before.
I’ll be back tomorrow to tell you about Day 5 – Billingsgate, Borough Market, the Street Kitchen, and another stint at Fishmongers’ Hall… I couldn’t stay away!!
Signing out! #carlitaabroad
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