12 weeks in London

 Hi again!

Sasha here in London. So I have come to the end of my 12 week placement, but Crispin have decided to extend my trainee ship until the end of August which I am so happy with!

Since my last blog, one of the chefs have left so I have had to step up and really get into my role of Chef De Partie. This role includes, prep, staff food, service and writing prep lists. I have learned so much since being here and I am really enjoying it, especially over the last few weeks as I feel I have become a proper team member and not just an extra pair of hands. I found service quite tough at the beginning as it involves a lot more cooking for each table than what I am used to. For instance if we have 30 covers this means we could do around 60 dishes as some are shared and smaller plates which means there could be more of them. However, I am much more confident now and enjoy service rather than dread it! I am really enjoying seeing many different ingredients and how they change with the seasons and I can't wait to see what the summer brings.

Overall, I am completely settled in London now, living with my sister and have managed to make somereally good friends. Since the place I am working in is quite small, I found it difficult to make friends and kept it mainly as a work relationship. I decided to try Bumble BFF to meet some new people and found it so helpful! It did feel a bit weird and intimidating at first as I haven't had to do this before but once I got over myself and started using it I met some really great people in London from many different countries. So if anyone is finding it difficult to meet people as it can be scary to go up to people in public, I would strongly recommend Bumble BFF and just put yourself out there!

Some of the things I m enjoying London in particular is the architecture, I'm not usually overly interested int his kind of thing but the buildings in London are beautiful, it's so interesting to see the old with the modern ones, this is especially easy to see in Greenwich. I also love how easy it is to travel and how hassle free it all is, much easier than in Ireland! Seeing so many different cultures in one place is fascinating and brings so many different cuisines to try! This is the case in the market close to where I live which has such a selection of cuisines. The picture below is a Malaysian dish I tried with blue rice, which was my first time trying something like this! 

Thanks for reading, all the best!