Osip

A full circle moment, a chance to look back and a snapshot into the turbulent start of my career in food.

As I stepped out of my chefs whites school uniform, I stepped directly into staging at a restaurant I’d had a keen eye on since it had opened, in the sleepy hills of Somerset, shortly before I started training.

Living nearby with family, and working in the restaurant for the summer - that was the plan : learning as much as I possibly could about seasonal British fine dining and enjoying the countryside on my days off. Sounds pretty dreamy, right?

It was the summer of 2021, Covid still ruining everyone’s plans, including mine. Life moves in mysterious ways and this was to become a particularly memorable time, for the wrong reasons.

I was one of the unfortunate (and many) to be directly impacted by the grim death rates we were presented with on TV every day. My brilliant dad had been battling with a treatable cancer that year and, when it reached the summer, he caught covid while in hospital for a short stint and didn’t make it.

It was July 2021, a few days before my final exams at Leiths culinary school & straight into a summer stint working in the kitchens at Osip - something I’d been working towards throughout the rollercoaster of lockdowns over the year prior. We received the call that noone wants to receive and life stood still, during a time where I was about to experience so much change.

I decided to push onwards and sit my exams whilst feeling like the ground had been pulled from underneath me. Losing a parent is, of course, hugely profound and devastating, but pushing yourself to perform at your highest possible level just days after, is something I’m still not sure why or how I pushed myself to do.

I started at the restaurant : early starts & long days with new people I didn’t want to burden with my intense current emotional situation. I was “living the dream” apparently, according to my former self - new experiences each day, all of which I would’ve ordinarily briefed my dad on during our daily calls.

The combination of long hours, lack of work-mates to chat to, and the chaos that had set up camp in place of my normal brain meant that my time at Osip drew to a close much sooner than expected.

I feel equal parts astonished I managed to even show up, and ashamed I didn’t soldier on a bit longer.

A few months later, I catered a dinner party for a mutual friend and my private chef career began. 3 years later and I’m catering bigger and bigger events, being my own boss and doing what I love.

Last week I returned to Osip, but this time, experienced the restaurant from the dining room. The food, service & atmosphere were all divine and, needless to say, an opportunity to reminisce and give myself a well deserved pat on the back.