Friday, 28th February 2014 was officially my last day managing the cafe after the decision was made by the business to close it down. The end of an era and the finish line of a fantastic journey. Although this was incredibly sad, I am so grateful for lessons I've learnt and friends I've made along the way.
This post was going to detail some of what is involved when a small food business needs to close. What happens with stock, suppliers, finances, equipment... but this is now another post for another day. When I learnt that my role had definitively come to a close, I did what I do best, and acted fast to keep myself learning and moving forward.
And I booked myself onto a professional cookery course.
That makes it all sound very easy, and it wasn't. I had been contemplating this as a possibility for some time, and deliberated carefully over what course to do, where to do it and why I should do it. None of this is helped by a rather sizeable degree of uncertainty over what I want my future career to look like. I know that I love food, that I delight in enthusing others about it too, and that I am probably not headed towards opening my own restaurant. I also feel that my experience in food could do with being underpinned by some solid qualifications.
After considering various big-name cookery schools as well as adult learning options, wondering about balancing between time and financial investment and return, I decided to book myself onto the six-week Professional Culinary Certificate at the Ashburton Chefs Academy. This happens to be a half hour drive from where my other half lives, which in itself is rather handy.
So, all paid up, signed up and with forms detailing what size chef whites I will need, the course starts tomorrow. I am a walking cocktail of excitement, trepidation, exhaustion and back-to-school nerves. My plan is to blog about my course every day, so keep an eye on my progress right here!
First day done! Looking forward to results of your latest endeavour . The queue starts here!
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