No nightmare in the World Kitchen

Alice and Mridu in the kitchen, lots more pictures by George Lamb and Euan Wheatley on Flickr

Altogether it was a great experience. But  the night before the event we emerged from the kitchen slightly terrified. When it comes down to it, The World Kitchen in Leith is just a bunch of amateur cooks getting together for the fun of sharing food.   Under the careful coaching of Drill Hall Arts Cafe manager Chris Askham, I think we all realised for the first time the true scale of the task we were facing.

Head waiter, Ellie Casson [Picture by Gordon Peters]

Basically we needed to prepare, cook and dish up 60 meals and then get them out to the tables –  and with the right  food on the right plate!  That’s five cooks in a smallish space and lots of potential for getting it wrong: Gordon Ramsay’s worst nightmare could have been waiting to come true. But somehow it all worked like a dream.

We all had a lovely evening and the food was delicious.
Please pass our thanks on to everyone involved in making it such a great event.
We look forward to the next evening.
All the best
Dianne

So here’s our heartfelt thanks to Isi (Isabel Lohss), cafe training manager, who kept a smooth flow between kitchen and tables. Thanks to Stewart Blaik, our masterly Maitre D (and chair of Leith Open Space along with lots of other local bodies), who met and ushered guests to their tables in style.

Thanks to our fantastic waitresses – Ellie, Ashley and Asha – who kept orders coming and food going and made sure everyone was happy, along with help of cafe trainee Tammy McCormack and staff member Jodie Boswell Out of the Blue.  Thanks to Anny and Dougal from Radio Magnetic for bringing the world music to the World Kitchen. Thanks to Tommy for designing the menu and invitations.

A special thanks to our room full of guests who really entered into the spirit of the night (a meal is only as good as the folk who eat it!). And not least, thanks of course to the cooks: Alice, Celia, Meena, Mridu…and from me, thanks to everyone for a really great experience.  Recipes will follow soon both here and on Out of the Blue website.  World Kitchen will be back again soon – and there is always room for more cooks in WKiL so if you would like to join us just get in touch.

No F words! Going clockwise round the table: Celia, Mridu, Fay and Ashley