It’s 5:30am and my alarm has just gone off. I quietly get ready to start my day in the kitchen. I am a retreat chef and today I am on location at a beautiful farmhouse in northern Wales.
The first thing I do is to check my preparation list for the day – it gives me a good overview of what I need to do when in order to be on track for every meal. I am looking after a group of 14 people with a few extra dietary requirements thrown into the mix, so I need to be focused. I’ve got a beautiful selection of seasonal ingredients and I start by preparing and putting out some snacks and refreshments for the early risers to enjoy before their first yoga practice.
As soon as that is done, it’s on to breakfast. I put the finished touches on the overnight oats I made the day before and then get on to making a savoury second course. As the guests appear after their morning yoga, I put the finishing touches onto their plates – it’s so important that the taste delicious but are also lovely to look at.
This is basically the rhythm of my day: prepping and staying ahead, making a meal whilst already planning the next. In between, there are other jobs to do like clearing tables and making sure the tea station is clean, tidy and always replenished. Or emptying and refilling the dishwasher and making sure we have enough mugs (there are hardly ever enough mugs :)) And every now and again, a “surprise” pops up like a guest who has cut their finger, the hunt for a misplaced item or a change in schedule because the weather has changed and lunch is now required earlier/indoors…you get the picture. A day in the life of a retreat chef is anything but boring.
At the end of the day, with dinner dishes cleared away and the guests enjoying a bedtime yoga nidra, I check my list for the next day: are the snacks ready for 7am? Who needed the gluten-free option? What about breakfast? And then one last clean of the kitchen and turning off the hot water urn. It’s almost 10pm and bedtime for this little chef – after all, I want to be rested and ready for tomorrow. Before I go to sleep, I look at the next day’s menu – I’m excited that I get to feed everyone my favourite dishes again.
