Many restaurants will re-open from tomorrow (4.07.20 in England, allowing the public to dine-in again as the government announces lifting lockdown. However, many restaurants won’t be back in business.. Which is a sad period for the hospitality industry and foodies like me. The Ledbury; one of the world’s Top 50 restaurant with Michelin 2 stars award is one of well-known restaurant that will remain closed after lockdown. This is due to seating capacity, making it impossible for restaurant to operates safely with the social-distancing guidelines.
#TheLedbury 02 07-02-2017 #TastingMenu #BrettGraham #SixCourses (declined eight course option, wine flight and cheese cart for partial sanity) #50BestRestaurantsInTheWorldCrawl #London #NottingHill #latergram Two doctors from Milwaukee, two Cornell University graduate millenials from Denver and myself chat at consecutive tables - and carousing ensues (at The Ledbury)
2 months late from my experience at The Ledbury but I can still remember how I got the job, got lost getting there, working and leaving the restaurant. I cannot tell you how fucking tiring yet amazing the experience was! It was an honor to volunteer for them even if it was just for 4 days and I truly felt how hard the people worked to get their 2 Michelin stars and all of that title.
Thank you chefs.
Okay, so. Sitting in the cafeteria with my friends doing our project when our instructor comes in and announces that a 2 Michelin starred restaurant is looking for a volunteer (french word: “stage”) and so while everybody was so quiet, I decided to raise my hand and thought: WHY THE HECK NOT?
Well, that was pretty much it. I was so excited since it was also going to be my 1st ever work experience in London which I have been dreaming to do [work here] for so long not knowing what to expect except the 18 hour shifts my lecturer told me about and the hard work as well. So yeah...
DAY 1:
Got ready. Woke up early, traveled about 40 minutes to get there and got lost in the streets going to the restaurant and worked my fucking ass off from
8AM - 2AM. There goes my DAY 1.
Literally sat down for only 10 minutes at 9:00-9:10AM the entire 18 hours that day which was brunch/meeting, dinner at 5PM while simultaneously chopping stuff too. They let me open up some almonds which were really quite tricky since they were using fresh ones like the actual fruit (nuts) which I honestly haven’t seen it ever in my entire life until that day which was pretty cool you know. This guy was telling me to “push, push” and go faster because I was doing it so slowly and I was just thinking like “DUDE. CALM THE FUCK DOWN, I LITERALLY JUST STARTED LIKE 3 HOURS AGO” but I just said “OK, SORRY” oh well.
I just helped out pretty much whatever the people needed to do. It was a small kitchen and I gotta say, boy, a lot of cute guys there *phew* but besides that, there was literally nowhere to stand and just watch how things happen because EVERYBODY WAS EITHER CHOPPING REALLY FAST OR RUNNING AROUND AND SLIPPING. EVERY SINGLE PERSON COULDN’T STOP SAYING “BACKS” (kitchen term that means “watch your back, I’m behind you.”). So we finished with everything (with cleaning too) at 2AM. I got lost outside again since I didn’t know where my Citymapper was going and I was so tired and couldn’t even be bothered. I almost wanted to cry because I didn’t think I could do it, with the stress of the kitchen, getting lost and going being all alone in the subdivision in the dark. I got my phone out of my pocket and opened my e-mail, ready to bloody text my chef at school I couldn’t do it anymore, I quit. I quit. I quit. but then I saw my father’s text through viber telling me how proud he and mom were of me my brothers for doing things and working hard and all which made me want to break down and sob right then and there on the streets in which in that moment, I knew I had to finish what I started. It’s not typical of me not to finish things anyway but I really wanted to and that message was the only thing keeping me from doing so.. Thankfully after 15 minutes of walking around, I have finally found the bus stop and arrived in my room at like 3:15AM. Call me gross but I just didn’t bother anymore, my body just went down. I just slept with my working clothes on ha ha ha.
DAY 2:
Slept at 3 something, woke up 6AM. FUCK.
I felt like shit but I had to take a whole body bath just to wake myself up and carry on. Same thing happened today as well. 10 minute break in the morning and did some things for people. Got assigned in the pastry section: cutting breads, frying canapes and plating petite fours. IN ALL MY 21 YEARS OF EXISTENCE I HAVE NEVER FELT SO MUCH PRESSURE IN CUTTING BREAD TIL THIS DAY. OH WOW. I COULDN’T EVEN. My cuts were going sideways and shit. The pastry chef was irritated already. Which who by the way, was the asshole among all of them. Seriously. I’m not even sorry I’m saying it (AND I’M USUALLY THE PERSON WHO SAYS “SORRY” A LOT.)
I just asked to went home early at 12AM instead of 2 because my stomach wasn’t feeling good.
DAY 3:
Woke up and almost fell asleep on the Tube today, a guy offered me a seat but I said no because I know for sure I might wake up on the afternoon most probably. So did the same things again and I was alone on the bread/canape/petite fours section this time! It was crazy how I was keeping my shit together and still smiling to people. I drank some coffee and I couldn’t handle it I had to go up the stairs and breathe some fresh air for second. I JUST HAD TO TAKE A “KNEE” as they say and went out of the kitchen. After some time I went back and did some mise en place for them. At service, there was a moment where I just stood their in my section since there were no orders because I wanted to see how things were plated on the hot kitchen- from a distance, well who doesn’t right?!! It’s a big deal for me because I never get to see these things in our country and he goes “Mary, what are you doing?” so I said, “I’m looking at the plating chef” and then he signals this pastry girl to give me something to do. I mean c’mon. So yeah, they made me peel off the skin of the grapes instead. Ended up at 2AM again.
DAY 4:
Oh what fun! LAST DAY. Still did the same things with the pastry team and I still hate the pastry guy who was an ass. Jeez. You know how sometimes you get so pressured and look for things that you didn’t see that it’s just right there in front of you? Well, I did that looking for a plate for the petite fours and he was telling me “it’s right there chef, are you fucking....... blind? I just whispered “well, apparently”. lol
You know what? I had always known being scolded, screamed at comes with the up/downside of wanting to become a chef, it’s just that this guy was really annoying to be honest. And that’s coming from me, an annoying person.
Said my thank yous to the people still and goodbyes.
It was the most challenging 4 days I’ve ever worked in my life so far. I did 66 hours in a matter of 4 fucking days. THAT IS A LOT. I don’t know if that is normal for kitchens in this country but truly I believe that’s a lot.
This is me not complaining okay? I’m just telling my story.
It was the most tiring kitchen work I’ve done so far but it was truly a memorable experience that I’ll always treasure. Learned from my faults of course and learned to push harder to do better and faster yet trying to stay calm as well. And oh, I forgot to mention. THEY HAVE THE BEST STAFF MEALS EVER.
IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME. IT’S ALWAYS A COMPLETE MEAL AND IT’S JUST UGH. MOUTHWATERING TO EVEN BEGIN WITH. I COULD STILL REMEMBER IT. lol
Despite all the stuff I said, WHICH WEREN’T BAD BY THE WAY, EVERYONE!!!! Just want you to know I’m not saying anything bad about it. It’s the kitchen life were talking about, it’s supposed to be rough as fuck. right?!?!
Well, I honestly had so much fun and learned as much as I could in the 4 days I’ve spent there that the only photo I took was the one above. It was such a great and wonderful feeling of having to go through the kind of rush in service for a 2 Michelin starred restaurant/ #14 of the World’s best 50/ 2014′s #1 Restaurant in the UK. It was such an honor. AND IT WAS MY FIRST EVER KITCHEN EXPERIENCE IN FREAKING LONDON. I AM JUST SO THANKFUL. To my lecturer, to my family and bffs for the words of encouragement.
