Chef of the day - part II
Ninaofsouthampton
Fri 30 Nov 2018 20:10
Skip previously wrote a blog about our ‘Chef of the Day’ rotations but I thought I would share my own experience. It is my turn today and after the past few days of culinary delights from my fellow crew members the heat has been turned up.
Starters and puddings have been thrown in by the Doc and Prof and even my own father (who I was relying on to really lower the bar) came out with some hors d’oeuvres and the fluffiest jacket potatoes I have ever had.
This has made me more and more concerned as the days have worn on. My specialities at home, pasta with half a pack of cheddar per person or, when I’m trying to really make an effort, takeaway, clearly aren’t going to cut it. We don’t have enough cheese onboard if I’m going to satisfy my insatiable dairy desire for the rest of the trip and there has been a distinct lack of eateries over the last 900 miles.
I was last ‘Chef of the Day’ on the first day, so was able to cheat with fresh French bread at lunch and fresh vegetables with dinner. Combined with the flat seas and the general positive vibe on board it was difficult to go wrong.
Five days in and it is a different story. Fresh vegetables are in short supply and the waves mean that are rocking cooker is permanently at around 30 degrees (see yesterday’s fascinating blog on waves). Throw in the occasional sudden turn where everything neatly chopped and prepared subsequently slides down into the fridge (we helpfully have a fridge that is basically a well in the worktop, one metre down, who knows what we’ll find when we get to St Lucia). The fridge is so deep that we forgot about a few chicken breasts at the bottom and to ensure they don’t end up as fish food chicken has been designated as our meat of the day.
Having foreseen my potential troubles ahead, on a last minute shopping trip in Las Palmas I invested in some ready made mushroom sauce. A good idea I thought at the time but thinking about it now I can only imagine that it will taste like a milky cup-a-soup.
I have therefore been reduced to making cornflake and chocolate bites to distract from the suspect almost out-of-date chicken à la cup-a-soup I will be serving to my fellow crew. Thankfully due to our progress and the ‘Celebration Event’, I can also palm off some white wine while they wait. The wine combined with the sleep deprivation should hopefully ensure that taste buds are suitably dulled and for my part I’m just hoping that my concoction will at least not cause any serious seasickness/food poisoning.
The next important choice is the music. Here, I was confident that I could be a success. Between Skip’s top ten songs played by Heart radio and Prof’s traditional soothing Scottish tunes, I felt sure that even with my dreadful music tastes I could come up trumps. Sensing the judging looks of my fellow crew as they try to extract the burnt remains of my mushroom chicken from the saucepan I suddenly realised that this was no small task. An hour of scrolling through the random songs I had chosen to panic download prior to slipping our lines later and I felt a bit like I do every time I start these blog posts, absolutely clueless.
I give up, Justin Bieber it is.
*you may think that ‘Celebration Events’ are now coming in plentiful supply and we have expanded the definition somewhat beyond what was initially envisaged. You are right.