Charlotte Pike

Award-winning cookery writer, teacher and chef

Charlotte Pike

Day Five – Our first day of theory

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Walking at dawn

Today has been a beautiful day. It started with a pre-dawn walk around the gardens with Tim. Despite the squelchy conditions underfoot, it was a lovely way to start the day, and really fascinating listening to Tim who is extremely knowledgeable about all things horticultural and environmental.

We started our day at 9am with a lecture on cheese and wine which was very interesting. I now know a lot more about Irish farmhouse cheeses than I did before. We congregated for a group lunch which featured a mixture of dishes, some of which we had made yesterday and some fresh Ballycotton prawns and some amazing curries. Everyone was so excited to discover we will receive the recipes in due course.

 Lucy making cheese

As the sun was shining, I took a quick walk down to the dairy with Lucy to check on her homemade cheese she started buy soma online with paypal last night. I hope to be able to do give it a go too soon.

This afternoon was not quite as exciting, as we had lectures on fire safety and HACCP. Of course it is necessary to know, but is not the funnest thing to learn about. I’d better get revising though, as I need to renew my certificate, so it will be a good thing to take the exam here.

Tonight, I joined the gym down at Garryvoe and went for a lovely swim. It was just what I needed. I’ve been relaxing with my housemates and have just completed my order of work for tomorrow’s cooking. I’m making bread, a tart and jam.

Fingers crossed my jam works – I have been taught to make jam by Vivien Lloyd, the UK’s leading jam authority – so no pressure!

Day Four – Independent cooking

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Rachel's foodFirst of all, I’m sorry, I don’t have many photos of today. I have just been so busy, the day passed in a blur.

Today started early with chicken stock duty. We arrived at the school just before 8 to get started. Fortunately, I was assigned to onion duty, not breaking up chicken carcasses.

Once that was done, it was time to get into the kitchen and get cooking. I had prepared my order of work last night, and off I set to get on with my cooking. I ran behind as I really didn’t know where to find everything, and the scales were so busy, I had to queue a fair bit whilst I got all my ingredients together. Still, I managed it OK.

I had to make a soup, a salad and some biscuits, which weren’t particularly difficult, but working in a more cramped, busy environment than at home took some getting used to, and I did run behind.

Fortunately, I managed to get everything done and plated up OK for my teacher to taste and mark. Then, as I was waiting for her to come over, having given her a 5 minute warning, Darina walked into the kitchen, over to me and started to conduct my tasting. No pressure!

My soup needed thinning a little with milk, but otherwise the seasoning was good. My salad was “delicious” and my biscuits were good but could have been baked a little more evenly. We were marked out of 10 and I scored a 6 for the soup and 8 for the salad and biscuits respectively, which I was pleased with.

We then had to clear down everything and check all the equipment in our section. I swear to God someone had taken one of our whisks as we spent nearly an hour trying to locate it in the kitchen, whilst missing out on lunch. I was really tired, hungry and in need of a break, and the rules state you can’t leave without having your kitchen straight.

This meant I was nearly an hour late for lunch, and had to wolf my food down before rushing in to demo. I should have had a break to change, so was not feeling great when I went into the afternoon demo. However, as I walked in, I saw that our teacher for the afternoon would be Rachel, which cheered me up no end and we had a really excellent demo this afternoon.

Tomorrow is a theory day – these are the days we focus on cheese, wine and so on.  I haven’t had chance to check the schedule yet, so I will wait and see what’s in order tomorrow.  Tim Allen is running a gardening talk first thing tomorrow, so I will be off to that first thing to see what it’s like. He did a cheese making session tonight, which, sadly I missed. I did make the laundry induction session though!!

Today has been another really tiring day. I’m off for some rest before another busy day tomorrow. Thank you to you all for your support and lovely comments.

Day Three – Into the kitchens

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Today's demo with Darina

Today’s demo with Darina

Today started at around 9am with our first foray into the kitchens. We spent a good hour or so being shown what’s what and where everything is beforehand, and then, mid-morning, we were let loose to make our own lunch.

Today’s menu included carrot soup with various flavourings, a modern soda bread, salad and a pudding. The recipes were simple and straightforward, but did include a number of essential techniques. As students have a great range of abilities, we’re really in the catch up phase for ab initio students at the moment.

We ate everything we made this morning for lunch, and then returned swiftly to the demo theatre for another 3 ½ hours demonstrations by Darina, showing us what we’ll cook tomorrow. The recipes included salads, tarts, soups and loads of delicious dessert ideas. I have so many ideas for great dishes already and even more kitchen kit I am desperate to get, including a large marble slab, a large hardwood chopping board and some lovely Italian pottery bowls. We then tasted everything she made and worked out what we are cooking for lunch tomorrow morning.

Today's lunch

Today’s lunch

It’ll be our first day of independent cooking tomorrow, so this evening, I have compiled my order of work and recipes all ready to take in tomorrow. Our duties have also kicked in today – I didn’t have anything today, but tomorrow I am on stock duty with Peter, my lovely housemate (they all are in fact, I’ve really lucked out with my cottage) and we will be arriving at the school by 7.55 to make chicken stock from scratch.

It’s been a surprisingly tiring day today. We’re all feeling pretty tired, so I’ll sign off for today and try and finish my work and get some rest. Tomorrow will be another busy day.

I’ve managed add a few photos onto Instagram and Twitter – do follow me there @charlottekdiary. Thank you for all your support and lovely comments.