Krimo's Future Celebrity Chefs?

Every Spring and Summer, our 3 restaurants welcome a host of schoolchildren on work placement for one or two weeks. Every year, we seem to be getting more and more.

Most of our kitchen and restaurant staff are now used to catering for these young kids, eager to experience restaurant life first hand.

Whether they embark on a catering career or not, they will have at least got a taste of working in teams, performing under pressure, having a laugh, etc...

Work experience usually means filing, cleaning or making tea among other boring things.

I gather that many of those placed with us tend to go home to show off the skills they have learnt. Making pizzas and pastas, from scratch!
I cannot begin to imagine how pleased their mothers would be at having to clean up the kitchen after them...

Cooking wisdom...

The Poll on Swearing in the Kitchen showed by 80% to 20% that we do not agree with foul language in kitchens and especially TV kitchens.
Thanks to all those who entered, all 35 of you.
Rising to his own defence, Gordon Ramsay pleads: "People say I'm a monster, but I'm not a monster... I just have to maintain a high standard that people are paying a fortune for. I seem to be the only chef in the country who gets upset when things go wrong."

Chefs in their kitchen are like sea captains aboard their ship.
They have to have the last word on what goes on. You can only laugh when they laugh. If they're quiet during service, you'd be a fool to utter a word that has nothing to do with food. I know this because I was a chef!
But when they're relaxed they are very amiable beings, always willing to impart a few pearls of wisdom.
























Delia Smith, our famous TV chef once said: "Football and cookery are the two most important subjects in this country."
Obviously, she has an interest in both. Football being her second love as she is joint majority shareholder in Norwich City FC.

Woody Allen, though not a chef, but a brilliant actor and director said: "I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead. Not sick, not wounded... Dead!"

Miss Piggy, serial dieter has this piece of advice for us: "Never eat more than you can lift."

How often do you eat out?
Please vote now. (Top right hand corner)

Spookery Programmes...

They spook me out!
Cookery programmes that are transformed into a lukewarm foody version of the X-Factor.
Down to the incidental music, the tic-toc, the suspense, the bated breath...
"The chef who is coming back next week isssss..."
Before the name is announced, you have ample time to head for the kitchen, whip yourselves a three-egg omelette, two slices of toast and a cup a tea.

"The chef who is going home this week isssss..."
Fancy a quick pizza? You have all the time in the world to make the whole thing from scratch. Flour, yeast, cheese, tomatoes, anchovies, olives, etc...

Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramshead, Raymond Blanc, Jamie Oliver, Anthony Worrall-Thompson, Michel Roux, Jean Christophe Novelli, Ronald McDonald... The whole lot of them are getting on the bandwagon!

Yesterday afternoon, I flicked to ITV and there was gentle Rosemary Shrager teaching a bunch of budding chefs how to make pastry, ice cream in relaxed, beautiful surroundings.

A breath of fresh air of a cookery programme...

...That is until she got up on her pedestal and put on her X-Factor voice and said:
"The chef who is coming back next week isssss..."

I got up and went to work.