I’m up at 8 for work: as I stated before- I’m not huge on breakfast, so a couple bananas, orange juice, and one of these cereal bars.
Breakfast used to be an almost religious ritual for me growing up, it would always consist of some variation of cereal, without milk, and a glass of juice. I couldn’t possibly leave the house without having had it.
I can’t quite pin down when that all fell apart: but I haven’t had an actual meal before 9 for as long as I can remember.
My first task this morning was prepping these violet artichokes, it’s a time consuming job, but very rewarding. They stain your hands grey and ruin your peeler, but there is nothing comparable to well-cooked artichokes.
For a snack during some of my morning jobs, I grabbed myself a panna cotta from the fridge: this particular one was vanilla with crême freche, we sold a grand total of 5 of these last weekend- they’re super tasty and was probably the pick me up I needed while shelling what felt like a million peas.
These peas are the first of the season, they weren’t great, they didn’t have that sweetness you associate with spring peas- hopefully those kinds start arriving too. Next to it is probably the last couple Delica Pumpkins we’ll receive until autumn, I’ve always thought the red wax stamps they came with were a little overly grandiose, but the flavour and texture is unbeatable, nutty, creamy, almost buttery when you caramelise its flesh.
For dinner I managed to have a little gnocchi left over- it most certainly didn’t look like it does on this plate- it was probably what was left in the pan after plating something that looked like this. One of my earliest food memories was eating a phenomenal plate of gnocchi at my neighbours’ house growing up- they were Italian, and I distinctly remember the concept of gnocchi, being both simultaneously pasta and a potato dumpling blowing my little 10yo brain. It’s a dish I still love now- this dish though still needs much more development, better peas, some Parmesan and possibly some roasting of the gnocchi just to add some contrast of textures.
Jakob Grant (he/him) is a chef living in Kent and working between London and Kent. We are so excited to share his food journals at Fortified Gazette this week. You can find him on his Instagram here.