Crispin, London

 Hello again, Sasha here.

I have been working in Crispin for about 8 weeks now and absolutely loving it. Crispin was originally a scotch egg company that was eventually turned into a restaurant group. They have 2 other locations one in Soho and another cafe. I work in Crispin E1, based in Spitalfields. This restaurant serves speciality coffees, low intervention wines and seasonal sharing plates. We typically serve between 30 to 50 people, anything above this just gets too hectic. The restaurants also hosts collaborations with other guest chefs which I find so interesting.

Since starting work, I have learnt so much. I'm working with ingredients I have never used before and learning about seasonality and sustainability. The menu changes very frequently depending on the availability of certain ingredients. This is great as it allows me to see a lot of different dishes, as opposed to doing the same menu all the time. The kitchen set up is very small and space is limited so I'm becoming a lot more organised, tidy and focused. 

Because of the small kitchen and small team, 4 chefs, I'm getting much more experience as I'm getting a chance to try everything and the learning is much more hands on. It is definitely a lot more fast paced than what I'm used to but I really think I am going to gain a lot and really develop my skills. The kitchen is open, which at first I found a bit awkward but now I actually prefer it as it makes you still feel like a person and not just being holed up in a kitchen that might not even have windows! 

Some of the things I'm really enjoying so far is the closeness of the front of house staff and the chefs, because it is such a small team, everyone gets on quite well. I really love the simplicity of the food and the attention to detail. Because of the smaller numbers for service, the prep in the mornings is better, it's busy but not so busy that I can't take the time the learn what I'm doing and not just be doing things without even learning. Working here and just being in London and seeing all the different types of restaurants is really allowing to me to think about what kind of chef I want to be!