new member, new career

Hi All,
Good to be aboard, last week I accepted redundancy from telecomms, this week by good fortune I have secured a position in a Glasgow kitchen as a trainee commis, my first ever kitchen experience, at 31 I showed the head chef my hunger, he is giving me a shot at it. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
The restaurant is listed in the Independent newspapers U.K. Top 50, so it's going to be a challenge. Saturday is D-Day
Cheers Alan

AJ:

Welcome. Enjoy!

Looking forward to getting some input from Scotland.

By the way, they have a very funny advertisement here in the states regarding haggis. Too bad you can't see it because I'm sure you would get a kick out of it.

[cape chef]

Hey Alan,

Congrats and good luck!!
Keep us posted on your progress.
And we look forward to your insights
cc

[Isa]

Welcome Allan. Congratulations on the job. Keep us posted.

[Mezzaluna]

Good luck on your new life, Alan. I was in Glasgow many years ago, in the days before Scottish cuisine had begun to evolve. I understand that some very innovative cooking is being done there now. What's the trend there today?

Hi Mezz

A lot of places play on the ancient political pact with France "the Auld Alliance" so called noveau scottich cuisine,
a mix of olds scots dishes and Classical French, there is an abundance of good italian as well. We do have some great produce on our doorstep, beef, game seafood, dairy products, etc.
The good thing about Scotland is you have two major cities Glasgow and Edinburgh only 40 minutes drive apart, both with a different flavour. Also a short drive north your in the Highlands, where there a great hotels, tiny restaurants, country house hotels and castles, producing beautiful food.

Haggis was mentioned in a post earlier, but you would be surprised to know that Chicken tikka Masala is now Scotlands national dish because of the influence of Indian and Pakistani chefs. Oh and our chip shops deep fry Mars Bars in Batter, yum yum. West of Scotland is heart attack capital of the world, but there is a revolution taking place with the amount of quality and imaginative restaurants springing up in Glasgow. Think its second to London for eating out. Oh well one day to go I'm getting nervous.

[SeattleDeb]

aj! Welcome and congrats on making the move to something you obviously enjoy more than what you were doing. Smart move. I look forward to your posts and learning more about cuisine from your region.

AJ,
Welcome and good luck.

***Deep fried Mars Bar sounds even better that a frozen Snickers

[Papa]

Dear Alan:

Welcome to Chef Talk. Good luck in your new and exciting career!


You are going to love Scotland! I know I did! Don't forget that you can do some great fly fishing there!

Best regards,

[layjo]

Hello and welcom aj! We are glad to have you partake in this great community of food enthusist. I'm sure you will enjoy the commradery.

[Nicko]

Hello and welcome AJ glad to have you!

Hey Papa

Glad you like the country, I am Scottish with a good dose of Irish thrown in. I haven't done much myself, but a friend ties his own, and used to work a fishery supervisor on the Rothiemurchus estate in the Highlands (this estate is owned by the Grant family i,e, Hugh Grants folks) he used to love that gig. Some of the great rivers like the Spey are showing signs of recovery after a few years of over fishing. In fact Salmon have come back to the Clyde since shipbuilding went down the tubes.

Ah well trying to syke myself up for my big day tomorrow, working Saturdays when my beloved Glasgow Celtic are heading for their greatest season in years, the sacrifices you make for you other passion!!!!!

Welcome and enjoy, Lord knows I do!!!!

[Papa]

Dear aj_scotland:

You live in fly fisherman's heaven! I have done one of my best fishing in the Carron. What a season that was! I also had my first attempt to the Haggis. According to a Scottish friend at the time, the first thing you have to do is shoot your Haggis. I remember he recited a poem by Robert Burns but I only remember the last verse. I think it was like this:

Ye pow'rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o'fare.
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware,
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her grateful prayer.
Gie her a Haggis!

What a great country Scotland is!

Hi all

Well those Haggis are so quick off the mark that getting a shot at them is hard. For commercial purposes TNT is used to blast them out of the heather and gorse, but the Estates do get a lot of sport and make a lot of money from haggis shoots.

Well I experienced my first taste of action at the weekend, hot and hard going but not as hot and hard going as all wellwishers had made out, i did mostly prep but was allowed to prepare and cook a Morrocan Tagine, wow.
Ah well here's to more aching feet, back and dried lips.

Papa was it the Carron Valley or the Loch Carron you visited.

If anyone has a sweet tooth I'll post a recipie for tablet, a very sweet Scots candy.
Like fudge but not soft.

Cheers for now

AJ