Day 10

Today was cool. After the mornings cooking wchich was pretty uneventful, Almond Tarts. Check. Tomatoe Fondue. Check. It was time to start the afternoon demo.

There had been a big chunk of meat in the fridge the last couple of days, and I was really hoping that we were going to be eating it at some point, but it was better than that. They lugged in half a Lamb, placed it on the table and said that we were going to see how we can butcher a lamb. Nice.

You might think that this kind of thing is a bit grotesque, and it is a shame to see a dead animal, but you must remember that this lamb has been lovingly cared for and protected from its natural predators. The main reason for this course is that when we cook, we cook to the ingredients maximum potential and enjoyment for others, and so not wasting a life.

It's obviously pretty hard to describe how to remove the parts of a Lamb with words, but it doesn't look very difficult. And over the next few weeks, we'll be learning how to do part of it. From a financial point of view, as with chickens, it's far far cheaper to buy meat this way and "process" the food yourself, than buy it in a little plastic tray covered with plastic wrapping with a barcode printed, and just pop it in the freezer for consumption later. I think I might do a short butchery course after this, as it really does strip food down to a basic level, the next step down being only rearing the food yourself. Which I hope find myself a little plot of land to do some day too! Yes Margo, it is the Good Life.

Darina has been in India this week on a fact finding mission so we've had Rory O'Connel (Darina's brother) and Rachel Allen cooking for us. I think everyone knows who Rachel, she's very nice actually, and it should be fun working with her over the next few weeks. Rory is an absolutely fantastic chef, and I'm going to see if I can get some work experience over the remaning 10 weeks in his kitchen at Cork.

That's all till Monday now, and a rest is really needed. I'm going sit myself in front of the fire and chill out for the next few days and wait for next weeks onslught again. You really get to appreciate the weekends I can tell you.

On a sad note i'll be leaving Kitchen 3, and moving to Kitchen 1 next week. Kitchen 3, although small, was a lot of fun.

May the great West Ham fightback begin.