My name is Jim Knight; I’m 25 and live by the sea in Dorset with my girlfriend and our dog. I am the Head Chef of a bistro café currently undergoing a step in the right direction.
Recently back in my native Dorset, I’d spent the best part of the last decade working in some of the country’s best kitchens in and around the Hambleden Valley area of Buckinghamshire. I have been lucky enough to work with some incredible chefs over the years and doubled with some serious graft on my part, have managed to amass a huge amount of experience despite my tender years.
My current kitchen consiting of 6 chaps has been a huge learning curve for me, having come from a restaurant/fine dining background with every dish and component being entirely homemade. I found myself in a ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ scenario. I inherited a terrible TERRIBLE!! menu completely based upon bought-in frozen and dry produce. The kitchen didn’t even have mixing bowls, wooden spoons or sieve’s!? Food wasn’t made it was reheated. A way of working I’m completely unaccustomed to. Months on (far too many) I finally started my own menu, moving the café into a bistro standard and the next step in my master plan. Gone were the flatbreads, baked beans and brakes Jalfrezi sauce. In was my menu based entirely around a specials board system. Local, seasonal and constantly evolving. A chef’s dream, no restraints to honour a printed menu month after month. Things have levelled out now, the boys are getting better and the customers come back again. A concept not previously understood.
Anyway, there’s a little bit about me and where I am now. Hopefully this blog will be a vehicle for me to share my experiences as I move the kitchen into its next stage of development. Lucky for me I have a computer right in the thick of it, so I can keep you updated of all the blood, sweat and tears.
Cheers
Jim
No comments:
Post a Comment