My Stage at Pied à Terre
Two weeks ago, Michelin Star Pied à Terre on Charlotte Street, London, opened their doors to me. Thanks to Laura Hadfield, they took me on for a two week Stage (French for a chef internship, unpaid experience), and in doing so, they were trusting my ability to contribute, and also helping my growth and development as a chef.
I was terrified and excited in equal measure: I donned my chef whites and apron and in I went into this esteemed kitchen, introduced myself and met Executive Chef Asimakis and the team, and they put me to work immediately!
Wow, what an experience these two weeks have been! Such a joy to work with these incredibly talented, hard-working, high energy chefs! From morning to night they are laser focused on producing the incredible delights dreamt up by Asimakis: works of art on a plate that are as playful, beautiful and precise as they are bursting with layer upon layer of flavour!
Each dish involves so many ingredients and complex processes, executed by the various stations: bread, larder, garnish, meat & fish and pastry. They all come together at the end, on the pass, ready to be served up to the anticipating diners sitting above, in the beautiful restaurant.
I have done so much whilst here, a small example being: harvesting carrot and dill tops, halving piedmont hazelnuts, filling tuille moulds with a seaweed puree, filling parmesan eclairs with liver parfait and dusting them with pistachio dust, using my tweezers to create beautiful paintings on a plate using the best ingredients, quenelling caviar atop veal balls, cooking off risotto and pasta à la minute (just before service), starting up the barbecue for cooking the quail.
It’s been such a delight to dance the kitchen dance across a week: it starts off at mid-pace, always moving, always planning, always determined, punctuated by the relative intensity of a mid-week dinner service. Things move on apace as the we head towards the weekend – the hours of work increase to accommodate lunch service and the number of covers steadily goes up, leading up to a huge crescendo on Saturday night, where we enter a kitchen rave, with MC Asimkas shouting at us to keep it up and go faster as the tickets speed up and all stations synchronise to bring the dishes to the pass faster and faster!
I have learnt so much about how a professional kitchen works, the discipline and order of the people and location of items, the attention to detail, the efficient mise en place, the meticulous cleaning and labelling of everything at night. I have had the joy of experiencing the genius of the chef Asimakis who is all things to all people – his eyes are everywhere, he is constantly talking to the staff to ensure the ship sails in the right direction, ensuring everything is just so, that all produce has been ordered, that everything on the pass is of sufficient quality, that no station goes down! I have also been fortunate to see chef make new seasonal recipes in the kitchen and then brief us all: that has really been a joy and I do advise you to go out there and try his new lamb dish and asparagus dish when they hit the menu!
So thanks to everyone in the Pied à Terre family who I will sorely miss: first and foremost to all those chefs in the kitchen for their superhuman endurance, their attention to detail and ability to plan, for their patient tuition and tolerance when I occasionally didn’t quite get it right: thanks Asimakis, Ben, Aaron, Aylin, Pierre, Milko, Joe – you rock! Thanks also to all those front of house for making me feel so welcome and being so incredible in everything they do: Ciara, Ciaran, Emelyn, Suze, Izzie, Maria, Paolo and the waiters.
Finally, I called Pied À Terre a family, because it is, and that’s a credit to the sartorial David Moore, who has owned this London institution for over 30 years: he is always seen buzzing around, dealing with any issues, teaching masterclasses, making sure all guests feel welcome, special and creating memories.
David: I know that creating memories is what motivates you, so from the bottom of my heart I thank you for giving me memories and experience which is so special and means so much to me and I will never, every forget it!
