Birthdays, Boozey doos and Book launches...

Been a busy two weeks starting with an event organised by The Caterer
called "Chef Eats Out", which gives fellow young chefs the opportunity to eat at Michelin Starred restaurants at a reduced price. So on the 18th and 19th October we had 60 chefs visiting to eat 8 very memorable courses for the measly price of £45 - including champagne and wine!! This worked out as two courses per section with my contribution being a Lemon Parfait with Fromage Frais and Pepper sorbet and the Chocolate Delice with Barley ice cream, two of the most time consuming desserts we make!!!!

Fortunately both days went down well but with 2 extremely long days - starting at 8am and finishing after 11pm with only a 20 min break!!!! Takes me back to the old days at Le Manoir!!

These days kind of took over my birthday which passed in a blur as the weekend was also taken up preparing for my bosses mini-book launch at one of the large national book stores! It was the first and - so far - only (thank god!) appearance he has done and so he felt compelled to produce some of the dishes for the 80 guests attending! Yet again the most time consuming dessert was chosen - the Chocolate Delice, as pictured above! My boss being the kind, generous man he is also roped the kitchen brigade to accompany him and act as waiters for the night, serving and answering the many stupid questions asked all night whilst he sat signing books!! All in all it was a very successful night with many books being sold!

As a thank you my boss has decided to not buy us presents for birthdays but to take us out for lunch to either a restaurant of our choice or depending on availability a choose of his! My choices were either Gordon Ramseys or The Waterside Inn both 3 starred restaurants! Find out later where we ended up!!!