Day in the Life of a WhitePepper Student
You’ve signed up for the course, you’ve got your knives, and you are wondering what on earth you’ve let yourself in for. Will you be in a sweltering kitchen for 16 hours? Will the other people be nice? Will you be woefully unprepared? Hopefully our day in the life will ease your fears and put your mind at rest. So, buckle up and get ready to witness the normal day of a WhitePepper student.
Rise and Shine
WhitePepper classes begin at 930am. A 9am arrival time is recommended so that you can get changed into your chef uniform and organise yourself and your admin (recipes/timeplans). WhitePepper recommend lodge living which is just a few miles away, you can check that out here. There will be plenty of time to get up, have some breakfast and get to WhitePepper HQ on time for a busy day in the kitchen, without having to get up at the crack of dawn.
Morning Session
Into the kitchen! Or first it is time for a coffee… The morning session at WhitePepper will either be a demonstration morning, or a practical one. For the demonstrations everyone will sit and take notes as one of the tutors makes and explains specific recipes. These will often be recipes that will come up in your exams later on so make sure to jot down any top tips or extra bits of information that are imparted. Sometimes you will make what is demonstrated in the afternoon, or you will do it the next morning so it’s important that you are paying attention.
Practical mornings involve rather less sitting around. You will be completing a recipe with the help of your tutors so you can ask any questions you have and get practical advice. This is a really useful active learning environment that helps you hone your skills and put what you know to the test. Food cooked in the morning sessions often become your lunch, although, make sure you plate it beautifully for a photo – both for your culinary portfolio and also social media!
Lunch!!
It’s about 1pm: You have made it to lunch and get you a well earned sit down! By this point you have either been concentrating on a demo for a few hours or cooking for at least three. If you have been cooking you can enjoy whatever you have made for lunch. If not there is plenty around where you can grab something to eat, or you can bring in whatever you like from home. Either way you will need to fuel up for a busy afternoon.
Afternoon Session
Afternoons will more often than not be practical. A lot of the time they will be dessert oriented. Think making pastry, cakes and confectionary. Sometimes you will prep something to complete the next day. This becomes more common the further you get into the course, and the more complex your recipes become. The afternoons are a great time to consolidate what you were doing in the morning and relax into the kitchen. They are also a time to ask any further questions you might have about the recipes you have been doing, or the recipes to come. Afternoons are normally a little shorter than the mornings so you should be finished cooking by about 4pm! It’s a group effort to clear down and closed the kitchen and this should conclude around 430pm. You’ll get a chance between 430-5pm to attend to your chef’s log; uploading your comments and photos on a daily basis is the most consistent way of keeping it up to date. You can also use this time to prepare for the next day by reading-up on the recipes/techniques.
Time to Relax
You made it through! WhitePepper teaching aims to be as concise and efficient as possible. You learn everything you need and more, but we won’t waste your time in the process. There are plenty of things you can do once your day in the WhitePepper kitchen is over. Many will opt for a social decompress in the pub so you can chat about your day and compare notes. Or you can head home for a quiet evening in to prepare to start all over again the next day. Either way you will leave the WhitePepper kitchen a little tired, but very satisfied.
Hopefully this helps your understanding of a typical WhitePepper day but of course get in touch if you have any further questions!
Article by Food Writer Katharine Spurrier, October 2023.
