Food is more than what’s on the plate

Food. I love food. Of pretty much every variety. As I age, there are specific things I love more and also things my body rejects.

Food is more than what’s on the plate.

 Love- broccoli- all types with butter and anchovies, cabbage with pancetta or sabrasoda, onion garlic and chilli cooked in butter, sofrito could eat it before it joins anything else, mushrooms in cream and sage, pangritata, cauliflower cheese, bread, butter, salt, spinach with shallots and chill, butter, roast chicken, crispy meat skin, meat fat on a steak or rib of beef, roast potatoes, coffee (it is food for me!), homemade curry paneer, butter chicken, vegetable and beef massaman, keema rice, homemade pasta more the process yet with butter, salt and pepper and parmesan or homemade pesto,

The body rejects- Sugar, cake, alcohol, processed foods.

Dislike- well the only thing I’ve not liked is a green smoothie. I like my greens whole and cooked in butter!

Food is a fundamental part of my life. I am a cook, not a baker or chef. One that cooks from the joy of feeding a husband mostly, and I still get imposter syndrome when cooking for others. I think about food when I sleep, wake and when I am eating my meal, I am planning the next.

My bodily rejection of sugar doesn’t offend me as I am more savoury than sweet, yet still, get sweet pangs or the end of meal desire to complete. Cheese aids this space happily. I ask others what they eat. I enquire how they cook, and I admire bakers, chefs and anyone who love eating.  

Food feeds my soul.

I am happy when I am cooking or eating. It’s a safe space, a calming space, a space that finds my typically busy overactive brain into a place of serenity, watching the pot, chopping, dicing, preparing, mise en place is the most cathartic activity, planning a meal, tweaking, adding, adapting, bastardising recipes

Reading about food is as enjoyable. My cookbook library grows nearly weekly, with over 500 cookbooks in my collection. I read them all, page by page, cover to cover. My food education has mainly come from the page, and I enjoy marinating in the words that food evokes, listening and reading other words on food is a major stimulant to cook more and alas for the waistline eat more. I love cookbooks that give me the stories, the journeys, the history of food. Ultimately food combines many things I have always loved- history, learning new, reading. The recipe of this combination is addictive and one that is never-ending. I don’t watch many (if at all) cooking programs as I don’t get the same emotional attachment from the screen. If I can find a pause, I can fall down the rabbit hole of page-turning cookery books and never get bored.

I tried to cook for others commercially with Deliciuex, and it exhausted me, almost broke me mentally and broke me financially, which took nearly six years to restore! The skill of balancing cooking to the demand of others’ palettes, expectations, the critique was my nemesis.

The story of Deliciuex came pre- and post-The Taste TV show, and when it could have made more for me and my life of food, it gave me loss, grief and most of all sadness for a long time. Its good for my soul to think about my year in the life of casual dining at Delicieux.

My food life came to be on December 29th 2012 and came to rest on December 29th 2013

A year of learning’s, smiles, tears, tantrums, happiness and overall enlightenment that food was my true love and calling.

It took two months of frantic working, stripping floors, cleaning, scrubbing, making it food standard from thought to conception. The goal was creating a quirky, causal dining environment not seen in the town where I lived. 2 months wasn’t enough time, two months didn’t make the right planning from the start, and this created some serious bumps along the way, more about that later.

A lot of people ask the name Delicieux  (De-lis-e-uh), the name is derived from my initials DHE- I wanted something that would have a back story and by thinking of food associated things looked at

Delicious Homemade Entertaining

the crux of what I wanted the deli/diner to be, all about.

A place of homemade, delicious, quality food, relaxed, informal, great quality and ultimately different from anything else and then this sounded to narcissistic my initials, I love the flow of foreign languages and the love of French food and

Delicieux Repas Artisanal

was born a true translation. It was too long and clumsy to say so

Delicieux

was taken as the forerunner and stuck, although one of my gripes was that people couldn’t say it and used the old name of the site before which as a new owner is frustrating. Also, I took way too much personally another colossal learning.

Before the doors opened, we took over an existing site, one that hadn’t achieved its own goals, one that had been deli/café and I had ideas, retail experience and vision that it could be successful.

It was arduous work, not that I shy away from that.  The work was hard graft, painting, stripping, plastering, relocating equipment. Spending money and time was exhausting but exhilarating knowing you were building something that was yours – genuinely understand why people are self-employed and the difference of emotion and impact vs being an employee.

The year saw people come and go, and some customers became friends, we had great, amazing comments we had negative comments.

We got it right so many times, every day had great in it, but although we didn’t get it right all the time.

I can reflect on this I had the sentiment, focus and goal to make it right for every customer and ~I couldn’t please everybody and that hurt personally.

I’m just glad I have written something about my year of entering into the food market and recognising the achievement of it too. The close of Delicieux so emotionally hit me. I ignored the joy it also brought it and could only see the fail, which was the learning and the success.

LEARNING’S AND OBSERVATIONS FROM A YEAR IN FOOD 

I did something’s right; I did something’s wrong. All the learning’s go with me wherever I go and into everything I do every-day. The learnings include better decision making, self-pride and self-worth, satisfaction, exploration and curiosity, skill and competency, continuous knowledge, listening, removing myself from bad situations.

The one thing I can say if it’s what you want to do- do it. Attempt, Take Action. Fail fast.

My moment of reality and food epiphany was when I was told you are lucky to be doing something you are passionate about. I reflected on the experience directly, and even though this list isn’t exhaustive, I can keep adding and adding. I wasn’t passionate about running and cooking to demand. I love food. I love my own rules and control. Passion wasn’t my driver, and that’s the most significant learning. Passion can be misdirected and can be what others want to believe or expect of you rather than being the driver of what one may think is a passion. It’s an over-used word too in society and can push us into choices that may not be the reality. I have one passion, and it’s not food.

Running Delicieux taught me much….

1.     DO NOT RUSH IN -however having strong self-belief is great add a reality check is another essential .Always DO take action though

2.     Finances are critical, and so is a robust business plan (we have a Framework that we use globally now from this too)

3.     PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN and then PLAN some more

4.     Remember why you are doing it.

5.     CUSTOMER comes. First, they pay the bills, yet they aren’t always right

6.     Don’t trust anyone when they say trust me

7.     Have robust operations planning, structure and organization

8.     Do not shy away from anything when it is wrong

9.     Review weekly, daily is too micro

10.  A business isn’t personal, yet it feels like it is. Allow your personality to be the asset.

11.  Any critique is another personal opinion- choose wisely to react or not

12.  Thank the feedback- you choose to act on it or not

13.  Include your team and create business owners

14.  Look after your suppliers

15.  Think Local

16.  Network well

17.  Have reserve funds £ to support you (LOTS OF IT)

18.  Have a budget and do NOT exceed it, it is ok to close a business that isn’t working

19.  Make money before you spend it

20.  Test test and trial in small actions

21.  Tell everyone what you're doing and why

22.  Size doesn’t matter, and you can open a business on a small site and grow.

23.  Recruit the best people you can

24.  Train, coach, support your team

25.  Step away and be ON your business NOT IN it

26.  Stick to your plan

27.  Have the plan in the first place

28.  Don’t keep changing customers like consistency

29.  Be different

30.  Have a USP, believe the USP and Be the USP

31.  Respect your competition

32.  Believe in yourself

33.  Have support and ask for help

Ultimately all of these are life learnings and not just related to Delicieux, and eventually, it has fared well for me. I travelled for a year, said yes to EVERYTHING, and met some of the most amazing people who remain friends. Food is social, connecting, private and personal yet also complete public domain. It's uniting, and dividing, its ability to be the oxymoron is the ultimate attraction for me.

Food feeds the soul, and so much more, it’s never just a plate of food.