London, England- WEEK 3

Productivity and more revelations have filled the third week in London.

Firstly the camper van! Meet KERMIT! This green machine will be our home and transport for our incredible journey that begins in a mere seven days time. Unfortunately Matts lack of photography skills don't do our beautiful van justice- so there will be more photographs to come.

This week we found ourselves in Story, a one michelin star restaurant. After almost two years out of the fine dining scene- since Becasse closed- I was returning to the harsh reality that nothing had changed. For those of you who don't know, the fine dining scene is brutal. 80 hour weeks. 15 hour days. No time for food and barely any water. Not to mention the heat. Oh the heat. The food and your passion is what drives you to persevere through all of the harsh conditions in order to work for the best and be the best chef you can be. 

Matt and I have a passion for cooking the highest quality produce sustainably. Nose to tail eating. Utilising all of the animal and every aspect of the land in order to respect the gift of the produce. However, after our latest experience at Story, I fear the fine dining world has lost sight of that. Even those claiming to be "foraging" are wasteful and ignorant. Beautiful fresh leaves cut into tiny shapes and the rest discarded. Beautiful whole produce wasted into ash and oils with very little flavour. I love molecular cooking, but not if altering the original product comprises the flavour, texture and every aspect that made the original product so beautiful. This is the revelation. However, we have not given up hope just yet, still striving to find those restaurants that love and respect food, the way we do. The restaurants that will teach us. That will inspire us. Those life altering moments in your career. These are hopefully still to come with confirmed stagier in Copenhagen's Amass and Relae. 

Other adventures have included reuniting with friends, markets and the boat race. As I have previously stated, it has been five years since I have visited this place I once called home. I have spent years missing London, mostly missing my ACS Egham friends and the person I became here. Reuniting old friends reaffirmed just these feelings and showed myself that I am still that same person I always was (just a few years older haha) and it was a blast. 

Finally on the last day of week three, we found ourselves on an adventure through the streets of Brick Lane filled with market stalls and heavenly food vendors, all the way to the waterways of the Thames at the beginning of the Oxford vs. Cambridge boat race. Rain and all, Londoners love a bustling Sunday and nothing will stop them from having a good time. This place is contagious. I look forward to the last week before we continue our journey!