The relationship between pain and pleasure is a complex one. Freud defined the pleasure-pain principle as driving satisfaction of basic needs, that man instinctively seeks to avoid pain and discomfort in favour of pleasure and gratification. However it doesn't take an algolagnic to realise that a little bit of pain can also lead to a lot of pleasure.
For the past two days, I've been working 12 hour shifts at Hoxton's Bacchus Restaurant. That's 11 hours 50 minutes on my feet and a 10 minute sit down for a bit of sustenance before service. Physically it's been painful, but each night as I've wandered homewards past the Shoreditch bars filled with clubbers on artificial highs, all I've felt is a natural euphoria brought on by the adrenaline of plating up hundreds of dishes for the diners at the restaurant.
Bacchus is my favorite restaurant in London, the only place I go back to time and time again to sample a menu that changes monthly but always sparkles with originality and excitement. Since it opened a few years ago, the modernist cooking at Bacchus has impressed some of the most respected critics in the country including AA Gill, Jay Rayner, Tracey Macleod and Charles Campion and drawn comparisons with other beacons of "molecular gastronomy" such as The Fat Duck, L'Enclume, and Anthony's in Leeds. To be fair, it has also left the likes of Fay Maschler and Matthew Norman confused. The Chef Patron Nuno Mendes has worked for Ferran Adria at El Bulli and the legendary Jean Georges Vongerichten in New York so it's not surprising that I jumped at his offer to spend a few days in the kitchen when we chatted after I'd had dinner at his restaurant a few weeks ago.
Having been fairly involved in service at The Palmerston running desserts and side orders I wasn't sure how hands on I would be allowed to get at Bacchus given the complexity of the dishes on a menu which includes Red Mullet and Liquorice Toast with Courgette Flowers, Crab, Blood Orange and Saffron. Happily though, within minutes of arriving I was stuffing courgette flowers with crab, assembling the starter of Sashimi of Halibut, Foie Gras and Strawberry, and de-shelling langoustines and scallops all under the watchful eye of the fantastically energetic Melbournian chef Scott who explained everything to me in detail and corrected me with helpful tips throughout my time in the kitchen. I got to see some of the more unusual methods in use at Bacchus such as gastrovac and sous-vide cooking at low temperatures, and spherification using the Texturas products which Trig has written a lot about on his blog.
When it came to service on Friday night things went crazy. The kitchen flew into action to prepare the hundreds of dishes required to serve the five and seven course tasting menus and I was there in the midst of it all helping to plate the halibut sashimi, adding swooshes of puree and dots of red wine reduction. I brandished a gas gun to flash over parmesan toasts for the Onion and Oyster Old But New, and ran back to the prep kitchen to open fresh oysters when supplies ran low. The normally stubborn molluscs must have sensed the urgency as I managed to open four in under a minute, much faster than the earlier the same afternoon. The air was filled with shouts of "hot pan!", "more peas!" and "I need more plates!" as Nuno called the orders from the pass. It was tense, frenetic and exhilirating. Four hours later it was over. Like a sleepy mid-western town following a tornado, calm reigned again. After cleaning down the shift was over and as I raced to catch the last train out of London Bridge I realised that despite being on my feet for 10 hours, I wasn't tired. I was buzzing. I was also smiling.
We had a ton of prep to do for Saturday night so I went in earlier to get started. I spent a good couple of hours shelling individual peas which must rank as the most boring job in the world but also got to make the shallot crisp garnishes, roll and cut out puff pastry shapes, and make chocolate truffles for the petits fours. Then when service came, Spanish Sous Chef Jordi asked me to take sole responsibility for the dessert section, plating and serving to order Sesame and White Chocolate Mousse with Mango Puree, Passion Fruit Gel, Ginger Ice Cream, Pumpkin and Black Sesame Crumbs as well as the petits fours plates containing Crema Catalana Shots, Passionfruit Sponges, Olive Financiers, and Porcini Truffles.
Alone in the back kitchen I wait patiently like a nervous private in the trenches about to go over the top, shelling more peas and watching the front line fly into action as the first courses are called. Four halibut on table 15, another two on 16, three on 24. On they battle through the red mullet, the oysters and onion, the pork collar, the umami special, the sous-vide venison and then bam! incoming, the first order for chocolate hits and I'm pulled into the melee. More dessert orders fly in, punctuated with petits fours plates and the assembly line goes into overdrive. Into the fridge for the mousses, the freezer for the ice cream and the mise tray for a line of passionfruit gel, a squirt of mango puree and a spoonful of pumpkin crumbs. Then an order for 12 desserts and 4 petits fours hits simultaneously, things get a bit stressful and I'm wishing that I'm the multi-limbed Hindu God Shiva with hands full of chocolate, crumbs, and Crema Catalana. As the night continues I feel completely in control. Everything is going according to plan and whenever Jordi and Nuno pop in to see how I'm doing they see a guy enjoying his work. It's been a blast and though I'm nearly fainting with hunger I feel no tiredness at all. At 11.30pm the last orders for petits fours goes out and the battle is over and won.
My two days at Bacchus have been amazing. The chefs have really impressed me with their patient tutoring of a novice like myself and entrusting me with the pastry section on Saturday night. Nuno came up to me at various points throughout my stay to ask if I was ok, if I was enjoying it and learning new stuff and he genuinely seemed to care that the experience would be useful to me. At both The Palmerston and Bacchus the common perception of Head Chefs as ranting meglomaniacs was challenged and instead I saw controlled, efficient, patient dedication to getting the most out of each brigade. I absolutely loved the adrenaline rush of service but longed for the stamina of an 18 year old again. In a week's time I will be 35. In five months' time I will be a father. Do those 12 hour high energy marathons represent a realistic future for me? I guess only time will tell.
To see Nuno's take on a traditional Christmas dinner, click here
