"Rolling, rolling, rolling down to the bistro!" - Roly's Bistro, Work Experience

Honestly, I don't know where to begin with this amazing experience. I rememeber this time last year reading the Transition Year's blogs about Work Experience and my excitment and anticipation for my week & I can safely say that it definalty lived up to my expectations! I was working in a gorgeous restaurant - Roly's Bistro in Ballsbridge, Dublin. I really don't think I could have been more pleased with my week!

  I was so anxious the first day; 'Was I dressed appropriatly?', 'Was I going to be spending my week washing dishes?', 'What was the staff going to be like?'. Literally thousands of worries running through my mind. But as soon as I stepped foot into the restaurant I calmed myself. I  couldn't believe how friendly each worker was & even more so my superviser. I was brought to the bakery the first morning, believe it or not! How lucky? The smell was unbelievable and again everyone was so welcoming. It ended up that the baker in there was from the same town as me! I was straight into work - no waiting around! I honestly expected to be treated and seen as a nusance & that I was more in the way than anything else but I was given the responsibility of so many desserts that day - my spcialty was 'Bread and Butter Pudding' which I had mastered on that first day! Warning: This will get your mouth watering!

I also made Cheesecake, Pavlova, Breakfast Compot (which is mixed berries, yogurt, museli & fresh fruit in one small cup) and cute individual Apple Pies to name but a few! I was off at a reasonable time - just 2 O'Clock and so I had the rest of the day to massage my feet!

   The second day I arrived in and went for the bakery again, but I was able to stay a little while longer and have a couple of tasters through out the day! One of my jobs was to sort the "Tapas" & my oh my was I glad I was given that job! They were miniature desserts, like mini cheesecakes, bonoffie pie, eclair's! Yuuuum.
   On the third day I headed to the main kitchen, which was where there prepared the vegetables, soup, casseroles all the foodstuuf that can be prepared in advance. It was a tough day, on the feet and there is so much to be done, you wouldn't believe. For spinach alone there is so much involved - by taking out the stalk from the middle. And it's spinach! Not including the mushrooms, peppers, garlics and the onions (I was blubering the entire time!) Tears were literally falling from my eyes. Onions and I really don't have the best relationship!
    I've been dying to talk about my last day! My most exciting and FAVOURITE day! I was down again in the preparation kitchen and then my all time favourite part of the day - I went up to the serving kitchen. OH MY GOD! That's all I can say. I must admit that it was tough and I felt a little awkward at the start but once I came to terms with the way the kitchen worked I felt so much more at ease. I was put on starters and helped the chef prepare all the starters. It was so thrilling to get the orders in and have to count how many of what dish was needed, any special requests and so on. I couldn't believe how much I loved it! I prepeared dishes such as pigeon, paté, crab cakes.. food that you'd never think of preparing! I was then put onto *drum roll please* DESSERTS! And boy were they delicious :) I got to prepare cheesecake, pavlova, crumble & a knickerbocker glory - something to suit everyone! Delicious delicious food, and I'll be heading back sometime soon because my supervisor have me a gift of a dinner for two (which means people gotta be nice to me and maybe give me a chocolate bar some days!) I was in until 11 o'clock that night, but it was most defaintly worth it. I gained so much experience and now know that I am sure to do something along those lines when I'm older.

Check out Roly's website: http://www.rolysbistro.ie/

and the delicious food!

P.S.! OMG can't believe I forgot to mention this, but the list of celebs that have eaten there is endless - from Colin Farrell to Sarah Jessica Parker! And the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were in the week before me, so dissappointed - did they not know I was going to be there the next week?

I would definalty reccommend Roly's as a Work Expereince placement for anyone interested in that forte :)

Talk soon xo

Dinner Time! For some...

This is a difficult topic! There is just so much you can write about food. It's everywhere, and almost controls our lives. Every holiday revolves around food in some way - Christmas = need I even say anything?
Easter = chocolate bunnies! (Mmm..)
Halloween = Pumpkins (even though we don't eat them, it still counts)

We wake up to food, we deal with food throughout the day and then end the day with food! It's constantly food, food, food! But what if we didn't have this access? What if we woke up to nothing, had nothing through out the day and fell asleep again with an empty stomach? I bring this up because just recently in Religion class we've been learning about the Millennium Development Goals and their importance - and No.1 is to 'Eradicate Extreme poverty and hunger'. The first, and most important goal is to do with food.

Food is our key to survival. We can survive only a few weeks on water alone and after that food must be consumed. But in countries where the 'tesco' isn't our next door neighbour problems are much more severe. The MDGs have high aims to lower the number of people in developing countries, especially, living in disastrous conditions. By the way, if ever you decide you want to educate yourself on some important topic, I would definatly reccommend the MDGs (sounds like I'm reccommending a movie or book!). But they are very interesting and some statistics are absolutely shocking! But here's a link to a brilliant website giving information on all the goals.

But, back to the point I was making before. Food has such a huge effect on people not only physically but mentally. For example, when I need food let's just say you'll know about it cause I might get a little bit crabby! But as well there are many disorders concentrated on the topic of food. People in most third world countries are starved for their entire life - from the moment they were born as their mother was not given enough nutrition through out her pregnancy. There are so many diffirent effects food can have on people. There is a huge contrast to those living in developing countries to developed. The phisical contrast is unbelievable and it's hard to understand how one country can have such a wide availablity of food in comparision to another that result in famine. Some may question is famine even acceptable in the 21sh Century with all the advances in technology? There could be deabtes that would continue on without ending, but the bottom line is - what is going to be done about it?

Food is such a wide topic, there is so much to write about it, but what I wanted to get out of this blog was to highlight the importance of food and it's diffirent effects. The MDGs are very important in the role of improving food levels in some countries and to get rid of death due to starvation. Like many other things, food isn't shared equally in the world which needs to change.

I know some of you might find this a very boring blog kinda "down in the dumps" but hopefully it will show you that the food you eat every day shouldn't be taken for granted and next time you drink your coffee and leave it to go cold think of the poor people in Kenya who slaved for hours and get less than quarter the profit. Or the next time you let the bananas go brown think of young people, school-going age, who have left anf forced to work to earn some money.

Thanks for taking the time to read this! Hope you all enjoyed the blogging today and leave me a comment or link to your piece on food!

Talk soon xo