Feeling Good In Leather

Well, it was either leather or crystal... or fuchsia. They're all suitable presents for a third anniversary, but leather suits me best. Today is the third anniversary of this food blog and, looking at how far I've come in those three years, it's difficult even for me to believe it.

Back in August 2006 I'd just completed my second year at college and was enjoying the summer holidays. I'd written a letter to "The Father of Fusion" Peter Gordon asking for work experience, and been thrilled to be offered a two-week stage at The Providores. And I was about to experience two polar opposites, with a dreadful day working in the kitchens of Sketch Gallery and a fabulous day working at Zuma. I was getting my first tastes of work in a professional kitchen. A year later, the comfort and security of college dissolved away. My diploma in hand, I was about to set off for Catalunya and a whole new set of experiences as a stagière in Barcelona. By last August that apprehensive, inexperienced stagière had been transformed into a chef de partie in a Michelin-starred restaurant, confident in his ability to run an entire section of a fine dining kitchen.

Now, one year on I'm a chef de partie in a newly relaunched restaurant that is turning out some of the best food I've ever experienced, working under the direction of the man voted Spain's Chef of the Year and - for the first time - able to make some creative input into a fine dining restaurant menu. I'm still blogging away, although it's getting harder by the day to find the spare time. I know that I'm never going to be a famous blogger. But I may well be a famous chef one day... and I'll never forget the experiences, the friends and the pleasure that food blogging has brought me during these three years.