The Glorious Gleneagles: Part Two

 The Dormy clubhouse and the Birnam 

The dormy

The dormy is an Indian restaurant/ club house where we cater to golfers and their families. Starting here I was initially on cold larder to begin. It was mainly starts and desserts from this section. With the layout of the kitchen tandoor, pizza and cold larder were at front of the house, which was cool. Being one of the busiest outlets in the company during service, walkie talkies are used to communicate across the floor, another thing to add to the list of things i've never seen before.

    

I asked to move sections as I felt cold larder wasn’t challenging enough for me. So the head chef put me on curry. This i can say was a handful, prep wasn't too bad as it was just making everything in bulk. But the service was wild. We have this option on the menu called a thali which is 2 curries of choice, 3 sides and protein from the tandoor. Having more than 3 on order is very difficult to get out especially when you have other checks.

 Working in the dormy was so fun, putting out authentic Indian food  and learning about the chemistry between flavours and textures from highly qualified chefs was like a dream come true. I got to learn how to make all sorts of curries properly from scratch. I was completely out of my comfort zone here with their style of cooking, but everyone was so patient with me. This allowed me to reach my full potential. Yet again making friends that helped me along the way, the dormy had such great energy and was by far my favourite kitchen to work in.

The birnam

The birnam is an italian brasserie, it tiptoes around fine dining and casual. 

It's a beautiful open kitchen with a char grill. Sections in the kitchen include pasta, fish/fry, grill, sauce/sides and cold larder. My first week I was put on sauce, this is where some sides come from and sauces for steaks and fish. Next I was on cold larder. This was all the cold starters, snacks and salads. Prep heavy section yet again but simple service. This is one of our starters which is grilled sashimi tuna on bread sauce with caper dressing and parmesan.

I learned alot from others in this kitchen, things like patience, concentration and management. I admire the  birnam.

I also had a week in pastry, this was organised by my manager. It was very calming but not for me. It made me appreciate a lot more what they do as everything sweet in the hotel comes from them, that's not easy. During my time there we had a few functions, a frequent one is afternoon tea.

 

This was for a buffet, it consisted of chocolate and peanut butter choux buns and raspberry rice pudding.

All kitchens have made me into a better chef in their own ways and I am never going to forget my time here, gleneagles is now my home.

Until next time, S.A.