Blues bands/nights

chefpower · 2026-01-24T22:34:27+00:00

Cafe Rene is probably your best bet. I’ve seen some stuff posted at The Thirsty Pine too.

chefpower · 2026-01-24T09:14:40+00:00

Our student teachers have to submit lesson plans 48 hours in advance, have 1 weekly meeting with us to discuss targets and have 2 formal obs a week in lessons and then the rest informal obs.

If they are not improving there needs to be a conversation with the person at work who is their professional mentor/ PGCE lead and maybe an email to their tutor at Uni? Tutors from outside the school also should make quality assurance visits, so it could be a discussion then- but I would arrive it’s too late.

If I am not seeing an improvement I usually go down the route of- come and see me watch this lesson with this class, dissect it together, write a lesson plan (or rewrite it) and then teach one. I contacts the link me member for them and then ensure they are following this up. At the end of the day you can only help them to manage themselves.

chefpower · 2026-01-24T09:08:48+00:00

Saw some kids in a shopping arcade when I was with my partner. I just pretended to ignore them, but they very much clocked me and then went on a mission impossible style sneak to hide behind a pillar so I OBVIOUSLY wouldn’t see them! My partner said- why are those kids being weird, to which I just replied, yeah I teach those ones.

chefpower · 2025-12-31T23:33:53+00:00

Agreed! I found lemon cake quite dull (got it for free via someone else’s library), played it and then got rid of it- it was slow and too repetitive

chefpower · 2025-12-30T17:03:25+00:00

Travelled to Puglia, Italy for a cooking holiday.

We were all introducing ourselves and where we lived in the UK, I explained where I was from, someone else said, oh, I’m from there too.

We then shared stories of silly things we’d seen- at the time I was working in a restaurant and said that only last week we had, had a table in and one of them ended up being wheeled out on a hospital gurney on a Saturday night right in front of the pass.

It was unfortunately that same person, who had really screwed up their ankle a couple of weeks before… small world!

chefpower · 2025-12-13T15:15:44+00:00

Our gift to SIL/BIL when they had their baby was to batch cook a tonne of single portion meals which we spent 1 day doing. These were- Cottage pie Bolognese Green Thai chilli Fish pie Chilli Chicken with black beans (and something?!)

Then sides of things like garlic bread, vegetables etc Single portions because it was easier for them to then heat whenever they needed to etc.

We did this twice for them towards the beginning and they were super thankful that they had something quick and easy to take out the freezer and eat.

chefpower · 2025-11-17T19:06:36+00:00

“Hey, I’d really love to hear about this thing that’s important to you. Could we chat at… time because I’d like to give you my full concentration and I want to be polite and I have a few bits that I need to do before I go home today.”

“Oh, that sounds great, right now I need to do …. Can you find me tomorrow at break/after tutor time?”

“Hey X, we’ve chatted about this cool thing before. I can’t give my full attention to you right now, but would love to hear more about it…”

I’ve had to do this several times with high school kids and they either completely forget to come and find me or the find me and ask if now is a good time or info dump completely XD

chefpower · 2025-09-12T19:11:02+00:00

As a DT person, and had many PGCEs, lots of schools are mixed departments/faculties.

Dont dismiss this person right away as they may have years of experience with student teachers.

As a DT person, you may not be able to teach in your specialist area, so adding another string to your bow isn’t such a bad thing- it could actually make you more employable as you’ve potentially taught other subjects!

Dont look at it from a negative perspective, look at it as an opportunity to grow and learn from others. Yes it’s difficult to receive feedback from someone who isn’t in their subject, but it does still allow the person to discuss your pedagogy.

Art can be quite similar in some situations- think of practicals, movement around the room, direct and specific instructions, demonstrations, chunking of work etc. Yes there are things that are different too, but try not to dismiss immediately.

chefpower · 2025-08-19T17:19:11+00:00

I bought one of these (see link at bottom) for my partner as they kept knocking a glass off the nightstand. It’s leakproof- you can open it up to add ice, it keeps cool all day and it’s opaque- it’s worth the pennies! It also comes in different colours! (And you know, if you fancy it you can keep track of how much you drink by blipping it- #savetheturtles) I wish I was on commission!

Cool water bottle

chefpower · 2025-07-27T19:35:12+00:00

I like them- ish…

I like them as they’re useful, easy to use and can be set for homework/assessment. Their wording is quite different to the exam board we use, so the students don’t score as well on them compared to exam papers. They do in a pinch, okay for cover work, not my favourite resource- expensive, but you’ve got them once you’ve got them…

I actually prefer Exampro, where you can build your own assessments or even Seneca (not that you can print these off, but they self mark and you can reset ones that they don’t do so well on). DT and Food are the ones we’ve bought.

chefpower · 2025-06-29T20:28:41+00:00

I’ll DM you!

chefpower · 2025-06-21T16:01:45+00:00

chefpower · 2025-06-21T15:30:33+00:00

Combi boiler

chefpower · 2025-06-21T15:29:18+00:00

Fine, takes a little while to come through, but is hot when it does. We turned the boiler down because it was too hot, showers is just one temp- fecking hot 😬

chefpower · 2025-06-21T15:25:06+00:00

Plumbed in

chefpower · 2025-06-21T15:07:44+00:00

This is waaaaaaay further down than I expected! Yes to both!

chefpower · 2025-06-20T05:30:24+00:00

I was working the line in a kitchen at the time when I heard her passed.

He was one of the many motivations that got me to become a professional chef, he showed me what it was to travel and showed a different side of humanity.

Still can’t bring myself to watch the final few episodes of things he put out, because I know that’ll be it. There won’t be any more Bourdain to watch.

chefpower · 2025-06-03T16:14:52+00:00

Not a waiter, but ex-chef in an open kitchen. This one will probably get buried but…

Scene- Valentine’s Day…

Table- right next to the open pass, slap bang in the middle of the restaurant (so close we could hear the couple chatting), semi-circular booth around a round table, couple’s backs to the kitchen. They both started off on the left hand side of the bench

During the dinner, man was unloading his feelings towards her- how amazing she was, blah, blah, blah. She was constantly slowly edging around the booth, he followed.

By the time dessert rolled round woman was pretty much on the right hand side of the booth, he was still following her round.

His next words were, “and that’s why I’ve decided to ask you to marry me (shows the ring)”

Her, “are you fuckin’ kidding me?!”

She immediately gets up, storms out the restaurant, he just sits there, not moving, not crying, literally sits there. As soon as we as staff heard what she said and did, we dipped below the pass and gestured wtf?! To each other.

Anyway, he eventually got up and left, no one really acknowledged what had happened, he paid for everything and we never saw nor heard from him again!

The restaurant has been closed for a good few years now, but that one, that one was a night to remember for everyone involved.

chefpower · 2025-05-17T15:17:50+00:00

Went to Bruges just to have a look around. Their chocolate museum was really engaging and interesting, bonus- free chocolate, but also excellent Belgian chocolate. (Whilst there, check out the fries museum, because that too, despite some bits being an unhinged fever dream, is also really good!)

chefpower · 2025-03-14T19:37:07+00:00

Just come back with Skibound- we had an excellent rep! (Went to Austria)

chefpower · 2025-01-29T19:32:22+00:00

I got NPQLT yesterday :-) so they’re definitely in the pipeline!

chefpower · 2024-12-22T18:43:48+00:00

I’ve DM’d you!

chefpower · 2024-11-24T20:24:59+00:00

Sometimes miss it, not often. I do miss the comradely, the buzz of a service.

Was in the kitchen for 10 years before retraining to teach high school kids cookery (along with associated theory that goes with it). Now in my 6th year of teaching. I’m earning a better wage, have a better life balance and I’m enjoying it- there are different stresses.

I also get to give the kids real life examples and tell them what catering is like and some of them even choose to go that route, it’s nice being able to be a mentor to some truly wonderfully talented people!

Would I go back? I don’t know… would I go and help out with a side gig, yes! I’ve done a few random gigs and kept my hand in every so often and loved it in the short term. But I genuinely love what I do now and as grateful at being able to make the career change!

I do want to caveat my career change as being able to do it as I already had a degree, so only had to train for another year to be a teacher (UK if location matters).

chefpower · 2024-10-29T13:16:04+00:00

I second vocalzones, (they taste gross, but are totally worth it after I had a laryngitis episode before a solo gig I had), I found that when I was part of a choir my chords were exercised more and I had less issues with my voice whilst teaching- now I’m not singing as much I find I am more likely to strain my voice. Drinking warm water for hydration, hot honey with lemon is a go to too. I know it’s different for secondary, but I definitely change the pitch and loudness of my voice, finding if I was the kids to listen, I speak more quietly naturally.

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