First Impressions of the Kitchen Life

Recently, perhaps unknown to many of you, I landed my first proper kitchen job. It’s in a small pub restaurant which is being rented out to a husband and wife who are cooking Thai food, though only the wife is Thai and I work in the kitchen alongside her and another helper, who is a friend of the husband. In other words, it is a very small kitchen and the restaurant does not have a high turnout, but I am quickly discovering that working in a commercial kitchen is very different to serving up meals to family and friends at home!

My role is basically as a trainee chef, and until I become fully trained I won’t be receiving a very high pay rate. Their definition of being “fully trained” is to be able to man the kitchen by myself and make anything on the menu which gets ordered, so I still have a long way to go until that happens! But I am slowly learning and making progress: I can now make a pretty good Pad Thai and I have managed to learn all the correct timings for deep frying the starters, such as the satay chicken and spring rolls. The learning curve has so far been quite steep, and I have had the head chef on my case more than once telling me to drastically speed up. But at the same time I feel like I am getting there and I am starting to enjoy the work as of my third shift there.

I always tell people that if I did not have such an intense love of plants and nature that I would most likely be aiming to be some sort of celebrity chef. But I would also be more than happy to have a kitchen career on the side while doing my plants at the same time. This initial stint in the restaurant will either solidify that ambition or destroy it, but so far I am definitely banking on the former. I can’t wait to learn more about working in a commercial kitchen and to finally become fully trained.