Miles Collins

It’s a dogs life being a chef…..

Forget the glam on tv, Jamie in his garden, gel haired ready steady’s in daft trousers this is a typical day for a typical Head Chef.

8.30 am. Orders for fresh fish, chilled goods and fresh herbs. Cook hotel owners breakfast.

8.45-9.30 am. Make fresh stocks for dinner service; 25 ltrs of beef, 20 ltrs of lamb, 10ltrs of fish, 10 ltrs each of brown and white chicken, 5ltrs of pigeon, 5ltrs of duck. Cook thirty potato rostis, fifteen portions of provencale vegetable garnish, tapenade, braised cabbage, basmati and girolles.

9.30-10.30 am. Receive meat delivery. Cook ninety chicken drumsticks for buffet, seal fifty chicken supremes for function, trim and roll whole beef fillets, trim and marinade fifteen lamb rumps, prep partridges and pigeons. Cut four kilos of fillet tail for saute, debone whole ducks and salt legs for confit.

10.30-11.30 am. Place orders, e mail employment agency re work permit for new employee, write lunch menu for hotel owners. Clean meat and fish refrigerators, date check produce and label/chill new prep.

11.30-12.00 am. Prep for thirty covers at lunch, organise staff for funeral buffet for sixty.

12.30-2.00 pm. Finger buffet, cook and serve forty covers including owners lunch; lobster, roast pigeon, smoked haddock.

2.00-3.00 pm. Finish prep for dinner service, reduce stocks, prep fresh fish (dover sole, lobster, crab, turbot, halibut)

3.00-4.30 pm. Write dinner menu for hotel owners, prep garnishes for the menu, strip solid top oven for deep clean by kitchen porters, write menu for function in November 2008.

4.30-5.30 pm. Cycle home, wash dishes, iron chef’s jacket, write blog post, answer e mails, shower and cycle back to work.

5.30-6.30 pm. Check all sections for dinner service, speak to sous chef about orders, final check of dinner menu, eat a baked potato.

6.30-7.00 pm. Speak to hotel owners before final dinner.

7.00-9.30 pm. Cook thirty six covers in restaurant. Final check of orders with sous chef, thank staff for hard work. Leave early.

9.30-11.30 pm. Put chefs jackets into wash, shower, put pots away, answer e mails and blog comments, write blog post, download photos from camera and process in Adobe. Take out washing, iron t-shirts for gym tomorrow.

11.45 pm. Bed!