The Profane Chef

I found a job.  I found a job!!!

Actually, it’s been an interesting process.  I’m a foreigner here, and according to my student visa, I’m only allowed to work 20 hours per week.

I have a pretty decent resume and I interview relatively well.  I got my resume out there simply by utilizing Gumtree and actually got a ton of responses.  Loads of restaurants wanted to hire me!  I was even suggested for the position of head chef in a traditional English pub, where I would have my own little brigade of commis chefs reporting to me!  Many, many available jobs.  That is, if you’re able to work full-time.  I’m not.

Don’t get me wrong!  I am completely aware that many people come to England and work full time and get paid cash.  However, I actually do only want to work 20 hours per week!  My focus here is on school; it’s the reason that I chose to come to London, and I plan to make LCB my first priority.  It became obvious that finding a job was going to be difficult.  A foreigner with visa restrictions?  Is it worth training someone in who may not even be in the country for more than ten months?

Slowly but surely, I was running out of options.  Now, I would like to point out that I was being incredibly picky.  I came to London to improve my skills as a chef, and I would be damned if I was going to get a job doing what I already knew how to do!  I needed a challenge!

One company stood out above all the rest.  Young’s  was helpful beyond all hope and expectation.  I had multiple interviews with multiple pubs managed by Young’s, and have never experienced such help and care by any potential employer in my life.  They gave me so much hope for my future here.

Eventually, I ended up interviewing with one of the most amazing people that I have ever met in my life.  Alessandro Cristiano.  From Italy, chef for 25 years, and now working for Young’s.  Warm, helpful, funny, and truly an incredible man.  He made some calls.  He made many calls.  And eventually, through his own personal connections, he found me a job.

I am now working at a gorgeous Italian restaurant.  Possibly the oldest Italian restaurant in London and one of the few restaurants still standing after the end of WWII.  Amazing menu.  Unbelievable wine selection.  And, as a bonus, some of the most amazing and wonderful employees that I have ever met.  Every chef in the kitchen has taken time to teach me absolutely anything and everything that they can.  I have learned more in the last few weeks working only 20 hours per week than I have learned in the last three years of my life!

The menu is an absolute dream.  Daily specials that include venison carpaccio with baby spinach and pomegranate. Catering parties with some of the most beautiful canapes that I have ever seen. Celebrating a good night with a couple of bottles of Prosecco. Everything is brought in from Italy, from the Italian espresso the chefs are served every shift to the bottles of imported Italian water we drink while we cook.

Working here has been an absolute dream.

I found a flat!!!  I can’t believe it!!!  Not only did I find a room for myself, but it’s only two blocks from Le Cordon Bleu!!!!!

It’s technically a room, but it’s spacious for one person, and it has everything that you could ever want in a single room.  I have my own kitchen area with a sink, a mini fridge, and this amazing little Le Cordon Bleu Mini Kitchen (could anything be more perfect?) with a small oven and two electric burners!

Really, the only shared parts of the living arrangement are the bathrooms, of which there are more than enough!

The room is actually furnished!  I have a double bed, a wardrobe, plenty of shelves and storage space, a table, a lamp, and even my own little space heater!

What else is included in a furnished room in London?  Pots, pans, and cutting boards (I have three; two plastic and one wood), a double boiler, an electric tea kettle (well loved),  and an ironing board with a steam iron!  There is also a vacuum cleaner for the building to share!  We have Henry.  I went to the store;  the options really are “Henry” and Hetty!”    They arrive like this!

My location is absolutely unbeatable.  The neighborhood is truly perfect.

This is my ‘hood:

“For serious fashionistas, Bond Street is the place to be seen in and to shop. Bond Street – formed of New and Old Bond Street – boasts one of the biggest and best concentrations of designer shops in the world, including Donna Karan, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Nicole Fahri, Armani, Versace and Ralph Lauren. Quintessentially English style can be found at Mulberry and Burberry’s flagship stores. Bond Street also plays host to Sotheby’s auction house and a number of antique stores and markets have popped up in the area. If you or your other half has a thing for diamonds, you should know that Cartier, Tiffany and Asprey are among the many very exclusive (ie expensive) jewellers on this exclusive, expensive street. New Bond Street is a few minutes walk from Bond Street Station and is linked up by the pedestrian-only South Molton Street. Old Bond Street is the short section at the southern end which joins Piccadilly.”

Right where Old Bond Street meets Piccadilly?  That just happens to be exactly the location of my new job!!

I checked All in London to see a few of my local restaurant options.  All in London lists a mere 119 restaurants within approximately ten blocks of my room.

Neighborhood food options!

There are also, of course, markets, grocers, millions of stores, and everything else that you might be in the mood for!

Things in London are coming together absolutely perfectly.  Great flat, amazing job, all that’s left is LCB!!!

Up next: my phenomenal job!

I might just be getting old, but hostel life just isn’t quite as fun for me as it used to be!  I spent the first five days of my trip staying in a 600 bed hostel.

It actually wasn’t as bad as I’m tempted to make it sound, but it certainly was an experience!  I stayed in a small room with ten beds and one tiny window.  There were small lockers (very small) in which you could lock up your belongings, but most everything else that you own had to be left out in the open.  There was luggage storage available from 8:00-6:00, but after 6:00, each bag cost £5 pounds to store.  Luggage was not allowed to remain in storage overnight.  I got pretty lucky!  Only a couple of my belongings wandered off.  One of the men in my room was not quite so lucky.  He went to take a shower, and when he returned, 70 percent of his belongings and £80 were gone.  He was on his way to Moscow for work, and had finally made it to London after years of attempting to visit.

I think that the best piece of advice that I got from my friends back home after seeing my photos was, “Don’t let the bedbugs bite!”

I did meet some absolutely wonderful people sleeping outside the hostel.  Tyke, the puppy, saved me from some massive homesickness!

No food news at the hostel.  One microwave for 600 people!  I did get lucky, though. There was a Whole Foods directly around the corner!  I had smoothies, iced coffee, fresh produce, and a whole selection of prepared dishes from which to choose!  Grilled salmon, baked tofu, perfect little wedges of Taleggio, potatoes and lentils with celery and chilies. . .  I spent a fortune there, but it was so, so worth it!

After a couple of days of hostel living, it was really, really time to find a flat!

Okay.  So maybe getting your student visa isn’t actually as easy as I made it out to be in the last blog entry.  Actually, it’s a ton of work and you have to be obsessively detail-oriented.  Time got away from me and, due to a couple of points of confusion, my visa letter arrived extremely late.  There was absolutely no way that I could mail in my paperwork, cross my fingers, hoping desperately that my paperwork would be approved, and then wait for my visa to be processed.  I was out of time!

Fortunately for me, there is another option!!!  You can, believe it or not, go directly to your nearest British Consulate, and at exactly the right time on exactly the right day (or even more likely, by appointment), you can have your student visa processed and returned to you on the same day!

This was an amazing option for me.  I wasn’t actually aware of how detail-oriented the application process really is.  Not only do you need to have all of your paperwork and copies from your original online application, you need passport copies, passport-sized photos, bank statements, signed and dated biometric information, and every single piece of documentation that you used to apply for your school.  If you needed transcripts then, you need them now.  In their original envelopes.  Bring everything.  You can’t be over-prepared!  They are not shy about turning applicants away who don’t have every single piece of necessary information.  This is their job.  Just be prepared.

I thought that I was ready!  I really honestly thought that I had everything.  I even went to my bank and had the tellers there print out my bank statements right there in the bank.

Not good enough.

My bank statements didn’t have the stamp on them.  It’s just the stamp that they use to endorse the back of the checks, and I didn’t have it.

Here’s where I got lucky!  The lovely young gentleman reviewing my documentation said that I could go and find a branch of my bank, assuming that there was one in Chicago, and if it existed, I could come back at the end of the day with my stamped bank statements and could, at that point, get my visa.

My bank had a branch in Chicago!  Not only did my bank have a branch, the branch was only two blocks from the Wrigley Building where the British Consulate is located!!!!  I ran over there, got every single page of my statement stamped, stamped, and stamped again multiple times, and ran right back!  The world’s most amazing security guard was working in the front of the building, and not only was he the one who knew right where to send me, he also authorized me to run right back upstairs and resubmit my paperwork!

All that was left was the wait!  A few hours of painful agony, waiting to see if my visa had been approved.  I had purchased airfare for only one day in Chicago (if you’re a student, make sure to check out Student Universe.  I paid less for round-trip airfare than the other students that I was with paid for train tickets!) and would have few options if I was rejected.

Fortunately, I happened to have my mother with me!  She knew just how to distract me.  We had lunch right on the river (I had a truly amazing steak sandwich with caramelized onions and a horseradish aioli with these gorgeous french fries.  Mom had a beautiful BLT.) and then we went shopping.  Approximately twelve iced soy lattes and a brand new pair of boots later, I was ready to face the music.

Back to the Wrigley building! In Chicago, you have a one hour window in which to retrieve your passport.

My application was accepted!!!!!  I am now the proud parent of a beautiful U.K. clearance stamp, authorizing me to follow my dreams, study, work, and become a chef in London, England.

This page is specifically for U.S. students who want to study in the U.K.

Getting your student visa can be just a bit more complicated than you might think, especially if, like me, you decide that you absolutely must go to London a month early, after deciding at the last possible minute to go to culinary school at all, and then you neglect to keep careful track of every single item of paperwork necessary for the completion of your visa.

This is the way the application process is designed to work.

Step One:

Get a school to accept you.  Yes.  I do know that this seems obvious, but there is really no way to get your student visa without having some very, very specific information.

Step Two:

Apply online for a student visa.  (You don’t have to apply online, it’s just incredibly easy to do so.)

This is the official site.  Check here to see whether or not you need to apply!  You can apply online  and you can check here for frequently asked questions, links to other useful sites, and also a link for applications for students already residing in the U.K.

Applying for a student visa does cost a fair amount of money; paying the application fee is just a part of the process.  At the end of the application, you will have the ability to make an appointment for biometric scanning.

Print everything.  Print everything twice!

Step Three:

Pay tuition and start saving money!  You will need a bursar’s letter with an original receipt stating that you have paid your tuition before you will be allowed to finalize your application.

In order to get your visa, you will also have to prove that you have enough money to live in the U.K.  In order to live in London, you need to have the equivalent of ₤800 per month for every month that you will be residing in London.  In advance.  That sum must be in your bank account, untouched, for a full 30 days before your application can be finalized.  You will need to provide bank statements or print-outs from your bank.  If you go to the bank to get your statement printed out, make sure to have your banker or teller stamp the print-outs.  Don’t bother printing your statements yourself; the official stamp must be on your documents.

Step Four:

Biometric scanning.  This is easy.  Go wherever you made your appointment in step two, bring your print-out of the appointment form, your passport, and a good attitude, get your digital photo taken and your fingerprints scanned.  I may have just been incredibly lucky, but I was in and out of that appointment in about five minutes.  Don’t be late!

Okay.  This is what you could do.  Assuming you aren’t me.

Step Five:

Assemble required paperwork, passport sized photos, and copies of your passport and mail them to the appropriate consulate listed on your application.

That’s not me.

Up next:

My trip to the British Consulate in Chicago!!!

Why do onions make you cry?

http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryfaqs/f/onionscry.htm

How to chop an onion

http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/knifeskills/ss/onionchop.htm

How to power an ipod with an onion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfPJeDssBOM

http://science.howstuffworks.com/onion-power-ipod.htm

Honestly. If you put a fried egg on anything, I’ll call it gourmet. I recently had a BLT with Heirloom tomatoes, fresh butter lettuce, great quality bacon from the local farmer’s market, and a fried egg on super easy No Knead Bread (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html) that almost made me weep. I ate at Barrio in Minneapolis (http://barriotequila.com/) and had a red chili enchilada with chorizo and a fried egg that was to die for. (I also strongly recommend the corn chowder and every single margarita on the menu. Tim McKee is a God.) Recently, when I was briefly cooking at Zahtar, my head chef Tony put a gently fried egg on top of a wickedly simple salad (mixed greens, good quality olive oil, coarse salt, and freshly ground black pepper) that made me almost believe that I love salads. When you break the yolk over the salad, it runs over the greens and makes the salad absolutely buttery.

Gotta love a fried egg.