Day 40

What an absolutely fantastic day today was. Back in the kitchen for starters. I love the smell of chicken stock in the morning.^*

Unsheathing my knives ready for the day ahead, I pressed on making my Horseradish mayonaisse for my Filet of Beef Salad with French Fried Onion Rings. I'm strangely attracted to making Mayo now. I seem to have picked up that little technique really well, and where some people can't stand it, or use a food processor. I'll happily get the whisk and bowl out and whisk away.

Can't say the same about Hollandaise. I had made this twice before, and only once had this come out sucessfully, and then it was under heavy teacher guidance. He who dares wins though, and off I set whisking the butter in, and hey presto! Messed it up again. But none the less, I dusted myself down, and set to it again with another load of eggs and butter. With a tasty little tip from my teacher, I pressed on. And you kind of know from an early stage whether something is going right, and this did. From beginning to end it went well. No longer am I standing in the valley of death.

That wasn't the exciting stuff obviously though. The good news was that I 'd put myself down to work in the Ballymaloe House Restaurant that evening. Now it had been a long time since I'd worked in a commercial restaurant, from the days in Pizza Land (RIP) and on Burgh Island. As soon as I walked in there, it felt great though, the noise of pans banging, people hurridly peeling carrots in prepartaion for service.

So in I stepped. And after the inital rush, I realised I looked like a complete tool. There's me in my baseball cap and apron, both emblazoned with "Ballymaloe Cookery School" beaming smile "Hi I'm here to help you tonight". If I was them, I'd have sent me down the shop to buy some tartan paint. After standing around waiting for someone to giv eme something to do, I stepped in and begged for them to let me prepare the scallops, and they let me. Perhaps in my naievity, I was quite chuffed, as Scallops aren't cheap as you well know, so I really didn't want to wipe out their profits by screwing this up. Obviously it's impossible to screw it up. But i'll take a win wherever I can find one thanks very much. To cut a long story short, peeling potoes, making cheese croquettes and mayo eggs followed.

Certainly the highlight of the evening for me though was the tongue. I watched as one of the chefs showed me how to prepare a cows tongue. I've never been so grossed and engrossed at the same time before. I mean this thing is weird. Until you've got one in your hand you'll never know what I mean. Amazingly cheap (4 euros). And apparently taste like corned beef. I'm going to make it one day.

^*A very poor Apocalypse Now referenece