I'm hoping to give people a glimpse into my life as an aspiring chef, maybe comment on a few things I eat/watch/read and hear other peoples thoughts.
 |
| Me at Noma |
The next thing to do is to tell you a bit about myself. I work at Racine restaurant in Knightsbridge, I've been there for six months now. I live in Camden, where I grow my own veg and have just put the finishing touches on a clay oven - more on that soon I promise... As you may have gathered from the last post I'm soon to be going to Noma in Copenhagen for some work experience. It's the best restaurant in the world donchaknow!
While I was setting up that link I came across something that caught my eye. Long awaited restaurant opens in Copenhagen today. I met the waiter, Kim, he served my girlfriend Caro and me, when we ate there in June. Which brings me on to a good story.
Last year Caro gave me a little surprise party at the local Thai/Cambodian restaurant up the road. It was totally unexpected and I felt very touched. When I heard about Noma from Andreas at work (who did a stage there himself last year, during the bitterly cold conditions of the G20 summit), and saw that there was a good chance of getting a table three months down the line, I thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to plan a little birthday surprise meal of my own.
I booked the table and in the meantime set about booking flights, accommodation, renewing my recently lost passport, organising a party for when we got back (the day after her birthday) and getting her the Friday off work (twice in fact, as she changed jobs). As the months turned to weeks and the weeks turned to days I was bristling with excitement, I couldn't help myself asking her questions like "so... what do you think we might be doing???". She knew something was up and had figured out in the week leading up to it that she might have that Friday off. I teased her and told her all would be revealed.
Eventually the day finally arrived. I told her we were meeting her parents and therefore needed to be at Liverpool Street Station at 10am. So down we went, I picked up her passport as discretely as I could, it was on the radiator as she had got it wet the day before. I couldn't wait to reveal what I had planned, it was almost too much to bear. We got into the main ticket hall and I started acting out a little ruse, pretending that I couldn't find my bankcard and passing her our passports and ticket printouts in the ensuing panic...
She looked at them and said "oh wow!... but why are they for yesterday?"
"HUH???"
What?
Sure enough she was right. I'd booked the flights for the previous day and the return flight was due to be coming back that evening. I was stunned. My cunning stunt had been turned on its head. I looked like a ...
Caro tells me that at this stage I put my hands on my knees and stared at the floor. Recovery mode.
Then I snapped back into life.
I knew I had the Noma reservation on the right day, but what about the hotel, had I cocked that up as well? iPhone out. No, that was ok.Then straight on the phone to the booking agency. Bad news, there was nothing they could do, my return ticket was void, worthless. They would call back with details of alternative flights.
That was a tense few minutes.
"I'm sorry Mr Matthews, more bad news, the cheapest I can find is a flight from Heathrow for £300 per person and a return tomorrow for £555." Ouch! "The only alternative I can suggest is that you go to Stansted and try your luck".
It wasn't the marvellous trip on the Stansted Express I'd envisaged. I told her what I had planned but kept the surprise party up my sleeve.
When we got to Stansted things weren't looking much brighter. We could get there, but it would cost a small fortune. I had my savings but should I? Caro said it was too much, and we couldn't book a return on Sunday with Easyjet. So I did what any self respecting twenty-something young-man would do. I called my mum. As I recounted the events in the station and the predicament I had got us into it was too much for me and I started blubbing like a baby. She knew how much I had been looking forward to it all and sagely said "just go". Those where the words I had needed to hear, I mopped up my face with my sleeve and marched over towards Caro who had been crying as well and said "we're going!"
We had a fantastic time and it was worth it in spite of it all.
 |
| Nothing like a fry-up |
I couldn't bear to tell our friends when we got back so this might come as a bit of a revelation to a few people...
