Pluses of Big Companies

Like everything else, working in big companies has its pros and cons. In this blog, I will point out the pros of working as part of a relatively big company. As part of the internship program I became part of the Corbin and King group which consisted of one hotel and six other restaurants. 

The first thing that  I, as well as every new member of the company, was invited to join the induction day. This took up two days but don't worry it is paid. The first day was required to meet up at one of their restaurants and this took up the whole day with free lunch. It was a great way to meet new people part of the company and also experience dining at one of their owned restaurants. 

The second day was called 'The Great Expedition' where only members of the hotel were invited to. This also took up the whole day as we were introduced to Health and Safety, Background of the Hotel and the Head of each consisting teams part of the hotel. We also got a tour of the hotel, as well as the surrounding area. This honestly was a great 'working' day as we were just sitting down most of the time in comparison to working in the kitchen where we can barely get time to go to the loo.

Two months into my internship, I was chosen to visit the Severn and Wye Smokery in Gloucester, just outside London. They are one of our producers for smoked salmon. Every month or so, the company chooses one member of each team from the restaurants to participate in going on a field trip to one of the producers. I was lucky enough to be chosen during my stay. I got to meet different chefs from outside the hotel and experience how the smokery was run. 

 


Marcia Lechoco,
BACA Student

Days off in Edinbugh

So with coming on placement I get two days off a week and can request days off if necessary. Living in Edinburgh has its perks as on those days off you are spoiled for things to do .
For the active people just outside the city centre is Arthur's seat. Its a pretty steep climb, but for those looking for a less active walk there is a shorter climb at the base of the hills through the meadows.  Edinburgh doesn't get much rain and most days are sunny so morning walks are very popular although it does get very cold over here in Winter but not any different from the Irish Winter.

Arthurs Seat Edinburgh

Just outside the city in a small industrial estate is Artisan roast a small Edinburgh coffee roasting company which I went to on one of my days off. It was very interesting to see the roasting process in which coffee went through to give it its lovely flavours and aromas.

Coffee Roaster in Artisan Roast Edinburgh

As well as seeing the coffee roasting process we also had a Barista class which I found to be very interesting. We not only made coffee but also learned about all the flavour and Aromas that go into making a great coffee, balancing all the key flavours and Aromas is down to the barista from their coffee grind settings to the weight of the coffee they put into a shot and of course the quality of the coffee roast they are using.

Coffee Taste and Aroma Wheel

Pouring the coffees was Alien to me and was more difficult to do than I had thought. My first coffee was pretty crap but as the class proceeded I started to get a little bit better but, I wouldn't say I will be competing in any Barista competitions any time soon!

Barista Training

Edinburgh does not lack in things to do. Whiskey tasting and Gin tasting are also great in the city even though Scottish whiskeys and gins have nothing on the Irish versions. These tours are better if you have the day off after too as you can definitely make a day and night out of it and not worry about the sore head the next morning. 

Whiskey Tasting

These are just a few things I did in Edinburgh as well as plenty of shopping, socialising in the many great pubs and bars and eating out in the excellent and diverse selection of eatery's. I can safely say I was never bored or left idol on my time in this vibrant city. I would recommend anyone to do there placement here!!!!!!

Sarah Kehoe

London Over and Out

On first arriving in London, one of the very first things I noticed was the difference in the manners of the London population versus the Irish. They did not have the care free nature that the stereotypical Irish person would, they seemed to not be as polite or apologetic as they were constantly in a rush, no regard for anyone but their own personal lives, which I soon began to understand why. Living in London you must keep up with the pace or you genuinely can’t endure the hustle of the city, I found this out by becoming annoyed at tourists myself, and having no time for them, concentrating on myself and just focusing on arriving to work on time. This is where using forms of public transport like buses and the underground became very important in my life.

Having an apartment so close to oxford street was a blessing, the only con in my opinion was the fact it made you lazy. This was especially evident when it came to using transport like the buses and the underground, you did not really need it, however buses were so easy to use, and they were right outside my door. I was given an oyster card by my Dad as he said I would need it, and I have to say he was right. It was completely different in Ireland where all you need are coins, it was all just based off this card that you would top up by cash and then tap it on this machine in the bus to allow you to travel. Some of the pros were that they were always on time, they were always double decker meaning more room, cheap and they very frequent stops.

Winter Wonderland, in Hyde Park

On the topic of cheap, that was not the case with our apartment. I was lucky that I did not have to go apartment hunting. There were two girls from my class that had already been living in London and they were looking for an apartment at the time that I would have been moving over. Although this seemed perfect at first, there were quiet a lot of negatives, such as: the apartment was not furnished when we first moved over, constructions in the apartment block had just begun when we first moved in, which I mentioned in pervious blogs (hint, hint). We had no WIFI which was a problem because mobile data is very limited, and there were multiple conflicts with our landlord which did make us want to move out numerous times. The reason for our rent being so expensive was due to the area we were living in, which was close to Oxford street and plenty of local amenities.

Speaking of local amenities and what not, there was a college around the corner there were multiple shops, parks, schools and swimming pools. There was always plenty to do, when we had a day off, we were able to do things like see shows on the west end. I had the chance to see two shows: Dream girls and Mama Mia. Tickets can be very cheap as nearly everything is last minute. Winter Wonderland was in Hyde Park it was something that I really enjoyed and went back to several times. It consisted of carnival games, roller-coasters and the food was extremely diverse, it ranged from duck wraps to churros and of course I was loving life. What Winter Wonderland and this blog have in common, is that all good things must come to an end…

-Hope Cuddihy 

What to Know; Home and away

Many of us moved from family homes to residential housings in college while some traveled from home to college. These are two groups of student with different experiences of college life though they might be studying on the same college and course. Those who moved from family homes to college may have a better understanding on how the whole procedure of moving from home to college works. If you have been travelling to college from home, when your international year starts you might want to research everything about your partner college you're thinking of going too to avoid big surprises. I personal think doing your placement in the same country and town of where you will be doing your academic placement is more convenient. It will half the work load for you in terms of finding accommodation twice and familiarizing yourself with place and people. If you opt for different countries or cities with placements, try and find out more about the college you want to study in along with their terms and conditions of everything they apply too. They say the early bird catches the big worm. In order to get the best of everything it best to inquire about everything earlier. When i inquired about the college accommodation I did it way earlier and filled the online application and forgot to check if it was complete and submitted. I spend two months relaxed thinking I had filled the online application form for accommodation but it was not submitted. At the end I had to settle for any available accommodation near enough to what I was looking for and that is not something I wish upon anyone. Worrying about accommodation may be the last priority but it should be the first and don't forget to double check everything. Just as we took time to choose WIT and research about all the aspects of our course, the inside and outside of the WIT. The same efforts should be made in choosing the partner college.




Sindile Vundla

Christmas and New Years in Belfast

So the title is pretty self explanatory but basically I spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Stephens Day, New Years Eve and New Years Day in Belfast. I wasn't overly thrilled about this but eventually I got over it and realised it's part of the job. I had a very hectic few days over this period but I'll start with the lead up to Christmas. On my rare day off I did a bit of retail therapy and some searching through the Christmas markets. Foodies were in there element as at least every second stall was food related. Between unusual cakes and meringues, Bailey's hot chocolates to cuisines from all around the world. Even on my splits I loved to just run in for a look. That part of being up in the north for Christmas wasn't so bad. We had a special Christmas menu for the lead up to Christmas which was 45 pound a head for adults for 3 courses and 30 pound a head for children. We also had Santa Sunday which was a buffet held every Sunday at the same price, the only difference was children got a small present from Santa. I really enjoyed working on that menu on the lead up to Christmas. It was much more beneficial learning as opposed to Christmas as we had a buffet for 3 hours on Christmas day that people paid 100 pound a head for! I was on starters and desserts. I was trusted to come up with my own plating style, I just had to make sure once I came up with it every plate went out the same. I really enjoyed having the responsibility. Then I was informed I was the only member of permanent staff (at least til February) who'd be working Christmas day. Not to mention not even double pay! There was nothing I could do about it so had to suck it up and at least think of the learning experience. Christmas eve was very busy over 300 covers. Wasn't overly difficult though as it fell on a Sunday so we did our usual Santa Sunday. Just had to keep replenishing all the food as it was being demolished!. Christmas day should've been an easy day......but Murphy's law came into play for me, 'Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong'. So I start preping for Stephens Day as we had at least 170 booked for lunch and it was an A La Carte menu. The chef started shouting at me as he was getting very stressed so I start to chop faster and ended up cutting my finger quite badly. ON CHRISTMAS DAY!!! I ended up a few hours later in A&E and got stitches in my finger, which I have to get removed in 2 weeks from now. I certainly won't forget that Christmas. Stephens day was mental, but we got by, even with my gammy finger! Then New Years eve was a buffet so all was ok and New Years Day was dead. Probably because they all had sore heads and didn't stir from the house. So a very eventful Christmas in Belfast but delighted to have had the experience. By Beth Murphy

Packing up and moving home

After finishing my 4 months of placement it was time for me to leave Edinburgh and return home just in time for Christmas. Living in Edinburgh for the past few months has been a great experience, from working in a Brasserie and living the city life I have learnt so much and I have grown as a person and a chef.

Throughout my time in Dine I got to experience working on every section in the kitchen, from this I was able to learn new skills and also helped me to decide the direction I see my career going. I have not only learnt so much from the chefs and staff at dine but I have also made great friends in my time over there. working in a busy kitchen for 14 odd hours 5 days  a week is tiring but also thrilling, being able to enter a kitchen every morning and leaving every night smiling and laughing along with the chefs and knowing that going home you have learnt something new is a great feeling.

The images shown throughout this blog are dishes I helped the chefs to create and design. Working in a small kitchen (4-5 chefs) means that everyone is very close and has to work together in order for a service to run smoothly, everyone's opinion is appreciated and is taken into consideration. Working along side Stuart Muir (head chef and former Michelin star chef) taught me so much about being a chef and about the industry. Stuart is the owner of Dine and he works to only serve fresh, local in produce ingredients which made menu planning a challenge. Every month - six weeks the entire menu would have to be changed/ updated to include new seasonal produce to enhance the menus.

Over the Christmas period the menus would be cut down to allow the chefs to deal with the extreme number of covers during the shift. Groups of 8 or more could not order from the A lá Carte menu as this would be too time consuming and would not allow for a quick turnover on tables. This made it easier for chefs to deal with many large groups ordering at once over the busy period.

Overall the past few months have been a wonderful experience, I will be returning to Dine over the summer to work for Stuart once again and to further my experience in his restaurant. Although I was excited to be moving home for Christmas I was also reluctant to leave the team at Dine and also to be leaving Edinburgh. I look forward to my return during the summer, But more importantly I'm looking forward to Miami in march to study in Johnson and Wales University!!

Emma O'Neill

The Truth About Night Shifts

When I first moved over I was told that I would be doing night shifts for just the first month, and I would be moved to the 'day time' after this, but as the month came to a close, I came to the realisation that I would be continuing the night shifts for the duration of my time in London which was 5 months. when I first started the shifts I used to work from 7:00pm till 6:30am, with the volume of products that we produced such as croissant, pain aux raisin, pain a chocolate, caneles, doughnuts, pecan twists, cinnamon brioche buns ect. With all of this we also had to start doing service which became harder when we had less people on, with the service we had to make special requests on the spot such as: candy floss

which would always come at the same time that we would have to do our first turn for our croissant. Service was one of the easier parts of our night but it did also have its challenges. Service could be from 6:00pm till 12:00am which did mean that one or two people, depending on the night had to spend the night downstairs trying to finish the tourier work.

special request we were asked to do

Trying to adjust to this new sleeping pattern was difficult, although I would consider myself a 'night owl' this was still a challenging task for me because of obstacles such as: construction work that
went on in the building that would begin as early as 8:00am till 6:00pm, finishing work later than usual, spending my days off trying to catch up on sleep and also trying to explore London, but I will keep that for my next blog. although there seems to be a lot of cons with doing night shifts it had so many positives,







because when you work the nights you have a little bit more freedom to experiment with new ideas for pastries, this allowed me to work on bi-colour croissants which I was very interested in,

mini bi-colour croissants

getting to work with a chocolatier helped me to improve my chocolate skills, candy floss also became a big wow factor for the hotel, it was something that many customers started wanting more of, so having time to be able to work on how to master this will be useful later on for me if I ever go into a profession which does sugar work. When you work nights you realise people are a lot calmer, it's a different type of athmosphere than it is during the day, this was adequate seeing as most people did seem to be tired as the nights would go on. Night shifts were an incredible experience that I could never forget, but trust me I would never want to do it again as I do like to sleep!

-Hope Cuddihy

Finished in Belfast

Ham Hock , Pickled Veg , Apple , Sourdough

Thornhill Duck Breast , Winter Fruits , Roast Root , Blackberry Jus

So I have recently finished up my placement in Belfast and beginning to start working again back home and also planning and preparing for my move to Miami in march .I have had my placement visit and I am getting around to finishing off the last bit of my project which is needed to obtain a pass which to be honest I’d rather work for another six months and not have to write it but I don’t think that is going to happen anytime soon. Overall I found the experience great and exiting, obviously it had its ups and downs but it has now come to an end.

I feel as though I have achieved the aims which where set out for the module and in some cases supposed them.  It was a great experience for me to work full time in the kitchen because being a full time college student five days a week I find you cannot really get the hands on experience you would get while in the kitchen. I know most of the student work full time over the summer holidays and part time during the college year but it doesn’t compare to working five to six sometimes even seven weeks, week in week out.

Herb Crusted Halibut, Salt Baked Carrot,  Figs , Beets

I can take a lot away from my time at the Culloden estate and spa. I’ve made friends and meet interesting and new people with different outlooks on food and theories on what good food should be and how it should be presented to the customer. I have also learned a lot more about gins whiskeys and wine because of the time I spent with house sommeliers and front of house personnel which I have done courses with over my time spent in the hotel which comes in handy when selecting wines for menus which needed to be written and planned before I left the hotel to return home.

Pithvier of Smoked Duck , Pomme Puree , Onion , Carrot& Orange

While I was at the hotel there were days during November that were very quiet like ever restaurant before Christmas which were the days where I done a lot of experimenting and tried out new thing for the upcoming menu. A lot of research went it making unmeltable sorbets that could be light on fire and remain cold on the inside and hot where the flame was just light. This idea came about after I watched a documentary on Heston Blumenthal were he made a dish to resemble his grandads sitting room around Christmas were the fire was lighting and his granddad sat in his leather arm chair drinking whiskey and smoking a cigar.

Lobster, Sweetcorn, Fennel, Shellfish Custard Tart

Although I had Heston’s recipe I didn’t want my sorbet to resemble his so I had to tweak and find through trial and error a balance so that the sorbet still held after being light on fire but at the same time have a balance of ice crystallises to a smoothness which all sorbet should have. The recipe which I came up with was for an unmeltable Christmas pudding sorbet great around Christmas time.
Nicholas Murphy 
Culloden Estate & Spa
Mitre Resturant

Heston's Blumenthal The Fat Duck Cookbook

Eating out, Staging and Hard grafting in the kitchen!

Jeruselum Artichoke & King Oyster
Mushroom

Chocolate & Cherries

One factor that made me choose Cambridge over any other city was the fact that it is on London's doorstep while still having low renting & living costs. With London being so close I always had the idea of staging on my mind. The question was; where? I have many friends working in some nice spots such as the Dorchestor, Core, the Royal Society, Tonic etc but I chose to stage with Dave Pigrim at the Royal Society. The kitchen is based in Carlton terrace which is about 3 minutes from Buckingham Palace and as you can imagine everything is very grand in the area.

Apple Martini

The kitchen itself is quite small, mostly because it's space has been taken up by the most amazing equipment you could imagine from 3 pacojets to an uncountable amiunt of thermomix's to even a plate jockey! I was in heaven on this stage. When Dave showed me around the whole building I was amazed by the sheer size of the place and how nice some of the rooms were such as the marble room, as you can imagine is all made of marble. He told me that the rent for one quater is £925,000! Although money is no problem for them they do recieve a 70% discount as they're a charity.

Midsummer House - A 2*
restaurant is in this tiny
house with a conservatory!

While on our placement I celebrated my birthday and as every year Willy, the Jr Sous, and I go for dinner together on our birthdays. We always pick nice places such as Eleven Madison Park, Patrick Guilbauds, Simpsons and added to the list this year was Midsummer House, convieniently located in cambridge about 5 minutes from where I live. Midsummer House is a 2* 5 rosette restaurant owned and run by Daniel clifford. Mark Poynton, chef patron of Aliemtum, was head chef in midsummer for 9 years before opening Alimentum and won their second star. Our current restaurant director Mathew Courtin was also assistant director in Midsummer house, along with my current Head Chef also worked there for 2 years. So with all these connections we knew we would be looked after!

We arrived and before we even mentioned our names Monsieur Imbert was asking us how thungs were at Alimentum and what we would like to drink. What amazed me most was how he knew who we were and where we worked even before i mentioned my name, maybe its obvious that two young guys coming to eat at a 2* are from the industry and thats how he knew but to me it was the most amazing customer service! We went upstairs to what they call the sitting room and relaxed with their suggestion of whiskey, an interesting swedish Hven whiskey.
Then we went to the table, right next to the kitchen with a view into it through a window.  We were blown away by the arrival of the next 13 courses.

To finish off the evening, along with a bill that seemed to cheap to be true, we were offered a kitchen tour, meeting Daniel clifford and Mark Abbot and being showed all around the house was an amazing experience making it maybe just the best birthday so far...

The Team

It was back to the grind in Alimentum after these nice few days out. I have changed sections from pastry, thankfully. Working now on larder and the odd day on sauce, I quite enjoy it. We're a team that's more like a family, the way every restaurant should be,
One Big Family.

Luke McLeod
Alimentum
Cambridge, U.K.

London, The city that never sleeps

When I first came to London I knew that I would be working night shifts, I wasn't exactly sure what this would entail but I knew it's would only be for a month, at this stage I was just happy to finally have placement sorted. So when I started to work in the Beaumont, I found out that I would be working with viennoiserie,

 made in house
 everyday

so this included: croissants, pain au chocolat, pain aux raisins and so much more. This type of work was never something I saw myself doing, but the more time I spent working, the more I started to love this type of work. It's a very specific process.

 We make the same products give or take, every day. It is something that you think would become boring or tedious, however it actually allows you to master the craft. From making sure you can mix the dough, to your turns being all straight
and in line, which you can see from the picture makes the layers look more defined, that your speed is picking up each time you do it, to then moving onto the machine that you need to roll all your pastry on,then, of course the shaping of the viennoiserie and, to finally the baking

process and when it gets to the point of baking. Everything that I was taught from the beginning all started to make complete sense to me, for example, Why your turns have to be even and why it is important for the dough to sit and rest for as long as it does. Working in the Beaumont Hotel has given me an experience that I can say that I am fortunate enough to receive and will never forget.

-Hope Cuddihy