Charlotte Pike

So, I managed to have a nice break at the weekend back home. A stomp around Blenheim Palace gardens was just what I needed. I resolved to keep working hard, and make week 5 the best week to date. I was going to get up early and go to the gym in the morning to give me more time in the evenings and so on.

And then, as I arrived at Heathrow on sunday night, I started to feel dreadful. The flight back to Cork was hideous, as a storm was raging, and the landing was the most turbulent I’ve ever experienced. By this time, I was feeling even worse. Goodness only knows how I managed to drive myself back from the airport. As soon as I got in, the sickness started. I’ve spent the last two days feeling dreadful. This morning, I’ve seen the Doctor, and have confirmed I have gastroenteritis.

I’ve been taking my medicine today and I really hope I’ll be well enough to go back in tomorrow, as I’ve missed loads and we have exams next week. So, hopefully my week will properly start tomorrow. I’m done with staying in the cottage, and would you believe it, I’m raring to get back in to the kitchen!

This week has been a real mixed bag. I’ve made my first two sourdough breads and have really enjoyed the process. I’ve also enjoyed a number of our demos this week, particularly today’s, where we focussed on sea food and seaweed, which I found truly fascinating. We spent our theory day on Wednesday going through business principles with Blathnaid Burgin, Darina’s sister. I must admit, I didn’t particularly enjoy the day, but it did reinforce how much I have learnt along the way by starting my own business. If I’d done that course 5/6 years ago, it would have been brilliant.

As the week draws to a close, I have come to the conclusion that I hate cooking at the school. I think the first few weeks really pushed me to the edge and I have not been able to progress from there. I dread going in and end up really worked up and mess up my cooking. But the afternoons buy soma carisoprodol have generally been good and I love learning about food and cooking, and getting to taste so many new things. This afternoon a tried abalone, sea urchin and periwinkles, oh, and Carrageen moss pudding for the first time, for example, which was wonderful. I’m really surprised I dislike cooking so much, as it’s something I get so much pleasure from usually, and was so looking forward to getting to cook every day whilst here.

Next week, I am cooking in Kitchen three, which I hope will be good. It is reputed to be a really nice kitchen to work in, and the teachers are lovely. I keep wishing for a better week – hopefully week 5 will be it – although it is the week we are told everyone is at the verge of breakdown – so we’ll have to see!

Today has been such a busy day. I changed kitchen and am now in the Demo kitchen which is brilliant as there are only 6 people in that kitchen and it is a lot calmer. I was late starting as my sourdough took longer to put together than I anticipated first thing, as the scales were in fact broken, and gave an inaccurate weight for the ingredients. Then I had to get my bearings in the kitchen and get all my ingredients from the other weigh up area as stock production was in full swing in our larder.

I very quickly got massively behind schedule, not helped by the fact that my bread rolls took FOREVER to prove, and I ended up baking them after lunch. Still, Pam, my teacher was absolutely amazing and marked me on my other items to cook – frites and sticky toffee pudding. I was in a bit of a tizz when she marked my dishes, so I wasn’t looking at my marks properly. But I *think* I scored a 10 for my STP (!!) and a 9 for my frites which I believe were marked down as they weren’t even in size. It would have been nice, but I was working with some crazy shaped organic potatoes, so I did my best!

We had a really late finish after demo with Rory today, and I didn’t manage to take any decent photos, so I am sharing a photo of Garryvoe Strand from my walk along there yesterday with Amy.

So, fingers crossed for a better week. Tomorrow is omelette day, so I have omelettes, fritattas and marzipan, of all things to make.