Life in Mayfair!

Hi, this is Daniel writing my first blog post from London. I am working in a fine dining restaurant in Mayfair called Scott’s. We are part of a group of restaurants called Caprice holdings, it features many great restaurants such as The Ivy, J Sheeky’s and Daphnes. Scotts is about a 130 seater in the heart of Mayfair on Mount Street which is about a 10 minute walk from Buckingham palace and 10 minutes from Oxford Street.

The clientele who dine in Scott’s tend to be extremely wealthy and a lot of famous people everyday. I am on the veg section, its such a busy restaurant. We average about 500 covers a day. The produce I see coming in is nothing like I’ve seen before. Scott’s is a fish and shellfish restaurant but we do various meat dishes as well to accommodate for those who don’t eat fish. The fish comes fresh from boats all over coast of the United Kingdom, it all then goes through Billingsgate Market and delivered to our door. The consistency and quality of the food, considering the amount of covers we do is amazing.

I am really enjoying London, its such a beautiful city with a great food scene. Lots of markets everyday, there is always something to see or do. I am living in South East London in the borough of Lewisham, its slightly rough and ready but suits me down to the ground. Scott’s is in West London so it is about a 45 minute commute to work which is pretty tough. Living with two other Irish chefs from work, really handy and I’ve made a lot of new friends.

I am on the veg section, there is so much to do everyday such as soups, blanching vegetables, making purees for every section in the kitchen, portioning all the veg prior to service. Service starts at 12pm until 11:15pm straight, it gets pretty hectic! I have been there for one the most covers they ever did, we did 302 one Saturday night. Its all been pretty mad and exciting for me!

I would highly recommend anyone to go to London on their placement there is so much to see and do and more importantly great places to eat and the best restaurants to work in.

Above is a picture of our fish display in the bar which is done fresh everyday by the chefs setting up on cold section.