Yes Chef, No Chef - By Susan Willis Page 0,47
before it was whisked away to the diners.
With a big note pad in front of him he began to scribble all the ideas down he’d had whilst driving and bubbles of excitement ran through him. This was what he loved, and this was what he was good at, and this, no matter what Jack thought, was what he was going to try in the restaurant. He would introduce a couple of new dishes each week and get himself out front to the customers for their feedback. If they were well-received then Jack would have no choice but to let him change the menu. And, by April 22nd he’d be ready to cook the new royal main courses and desserts – he’d call it a royal banquet.
When he explained his ideas to Jessie and Simon she emptied all the cupboards looking for moulds, tart liners, flan cases, and pie tins, and piled them up on the long service bench. She offered to go out shopping for jelly moulds in different shapes, patterns, and sizes while Tim poured over lots of recipes in old books and on the internet.
When Jessie returned with bags full of ingredients he started making champagne, rosewater, and elderflower jelly which he filled into the moulds. There were shapes of shells, rose baskets, pineapples, grapes, and a large Belgrave mould with internal spiral columns. He coloured some of the more basic flavoured jellies and layered the colours in the moulds which looked amazing when he tipped them out onto the large serving plate. The gentle elderflower and rosewater flavour profiles in the jelly were superb and both Simon and Jessie, who should have left for home earlier, stayed on watching in awe at his skill and expertise.
“I can’t believe what fantastic and important looking things you can make just out of a few simple ingredients?” Jessie enthused.
Tim beamed at her adoration. “Neither could I when I first started. But once I’d found my niche, well, it becomes easy after a while, any job does when you love doing it - and creating new recipes is what I love.”
He worked feverously over the next two days developing a custard pastry using an old recipe which he tweaked to enhance the flavour and lined a flan tin that Jessie had found in the shape of the Tudor - Windsor Rose, and then filled another round mould to hold shaped compartments of coloured jellies. Full of excitement Simon offered to look on Amazon to find some old copper pie moulds for Tim’s idea of stuffed game pies, and then Jessie was entranced when he filled a sun and a half-moon shaped mould with a new variety of white custard and Madagascan flavouring. The whole kitchen buzzed with Tim’s enthusiasm and Simon and Jessie were swept along with him. The development carried on through the next three days and by Friday they filled the serving table with all the products they’d made. It was a marvellous sight and Jessie took photographs to download for the menus.
Deciding to try the desserts first he added them to the next night’s menus and just when he was wondering whether to tell Jack or not, he came into the kitchen. Begrudgingly he had to admit that they looked and tasted delicious and although he agreed to try them on the menu he remained cautious.
Thankfully they were a huge success and Tim proudly walked amongst the diners noting their comments about flavours and textures – he was in his element and began work on the main courses for the following week.
Chapter Twelve
Lisa sent a text back to say she couldn’t make it to Katie’s for the drinking session because she had a PR seminar that she couldn’t miss but called the MD a stupid bastard, and then Sarah replied next commiserating with her and agreeing to be at her flat for seven. Katie imagined Sarah upstairs in her studio beavering away working for herself and sighed; she would never be caught in a situation like this where her future had been decided by somebody else, she thought frustratingly. Sarah was in complete control, made all her own decisions about her life and work, and was totally independent.
The feelings of frustration and failure, although everyone reassured her she hadn’t failed at applying for the role, were alien to her and reckoned the last time she’d failed at anything would have been her driving test when she was eighteen. Since then she’d graduated with a first class honours from