A day in a Michelin 2 Star restaurant

My phone rang out at 5:15am and that was the signal, after just 4 hours sleep, to get up get showered, get some Coco Pops down my face and get in the car. My journey was to be 171 miles, and according to the good people over at Google Maps, would take 3hrs 25mins.... TomTom however informed me it would take 3hrs 11mins... who would be right??? I swear you could cut the tension with a knife at this point.

Highlights of this early morning journey were of course the beautiful country side on route to one of the countries top hotels winner of “Hotel Of The Year” in 2009, as well as the unexpected delight of passing Stonehenge at dawn, complete with a few hippies whom were probably wearing all manner of hemp based clothing whilst smoking copious amounts of its illegal cousin no doubt. There was however another reason to be visiting this hotel, and it was mainly due to the awards bestowed upon the restaurant that resides there by a certain tire company that had peaked my interest.

Stonehenge

I was on route for a day in the kitchen of Gidleigh Park, where Executive Chef Michael Caines MBE and Head Chef Ian Webber work to impress diners with their well renowned, modern and innovative cuisine. To say I was excited would be an understatement. Having spent a week in a Michelin 1 Star restaurant during the previous month and been blown away by what I saw, the sense of anticipation of stepping into the kitchen of a Michelin 2 Star kitchen accounted for my paltry amount of sleep the previous night.

Michelin Star Work Experience

So last week I spent every waking hour in the kitchen of The Latymer restaurant at Pennyhill Park, a 340+ room 5 star hotel in Surrey. The hotel boasts an awarding winning spa, golf course and is home for the next 3 years to the England rubgy team whenever they need a base for a home rugby game.

I arrived on my first day and was met by the sous chef who hurried... and I do mean hurried me back to the kitchen, something I felt to be quite rude as at the time I was enjoying the opulent surroundings, log fire, mahogany panelling, candle holders with actual real life candles in, paintings of old people in ornate gold frames etc etc. Quite Lovely.

The Latymer restaurant - one of 4 dining options at the hotel.

I met the head chef who briskly asked if I had whites with me, to which I reported that I did and was told to get changed so we could get started. I felt like maybe I should have turned up in my whites ready to go to save 3 minutes, but not sure what the paying punters whom were loitering in reception would have thought about back room staff being in plain sight. So distasteful don't you know. The time was 09:30 and some of the chefs had been in for 3 hours already since it was Tuesday their first day of the week after closing Sunday and Monday.... lots to be done apparently!

As one could imagine the time before and after lunch are spent with prepping the various components to dishes... and boy are their components, some of the components even have multiple components that needed to be made in order to fully assemble the completed component of components... lost? Welcome to my world!