Photo by Jun Pang
When I was in Oxford, England I worked in a restaurant run and owned by Raymond Blanc, great French born chef cooking traditional French cuisine in England. I learnt a lot at this place. It taught me to be calm under pressure (eventually). It taught me that to survive in such a high pressure kitchen, you must be organised, determined, resilient and passionate. The culture in this kitchen was nothing I had ever been a part of before or now. It was an intense little place with such huge turn over of numbers on a daily basis, the pressure for perfection and the pressure of not letting your chef down or your team mates was huge. The camaraderie was also amazing. We were a tight team that seemed to function like a well oiled machine and with very little words being said to each other. We worked hard together and played hard together. I learnt so much about my trade in Oxford, about my self and of course, cooking.