My favourite time of the day? That’s an easy one. When service is over, and everyone has gone, I exit the kitchen, pour myself a wee nip of sherry and grab the Guest Book. I sit at the bar and, smiling, begin to read the night’s entries. It is, for me, a truly a perfect moment……. 

It’s beautifully quiet, candles are still flickering, and the room has a lingering smell of good food & happy people ( I have an uncanningly sensitive nose, OK? ). If it’s been a exceptionally busy night, the sherry tastes especially good & the bar stool feels extra comfy. Then I open the book….. ( I should interrupt myself  here for a second. We started the Guest Book tradition on my 1st night as Chef, 4 1/2 years ago. We’re now 1/2 way through Book 4!)…….. and start to read the messages from our guests.                                                                                                                                                                            They make me laugh ( I love all the illustrations ), they make me cry ( “You are a Shining Star in a dark, dark world. Well done, Sir”), they make me blush ( There must be over 100 marriage proposals! ), they make me blush part 2 ( “I want to make love to your ice-cream”), they fill me with joy ( “My senses have been awoken from dogmatic slumber. Thank you!”), they make me look at my globe ( Astonishingly we’ve had guests from all 4 corners of the world!), and, finally, they render me speechless ( People comparing their experience here to one’s they’ve had at 3 Michelin starred restaurants around the world……). But they mostly give me the  confidence that I am on the right path…. that I AM doing what I was born to do…and that makes me smile. It also spurs me on, fills me with an intense desire to keep challenging myself, to further heighten the culinary experience. That’s generally when I put down the sherry and fly off the barstool ( not literally…ouch!) and rush back into my kitchen full of vim & vinegar! ( Vim & vinegar? Don’t ask.)So a heart felt Thank You to all who have made my after-service routine such a pleasure! Sometimes a book is more than a book….sometimes it’s a ray of pure sunshine!

I just spotted a 1/2 bottle of sherry on the shelf….hmmm….and an empty barstool……maybe a re-read is in order?

Tastefully Yours, Luke