Just caught the last slice of golden light in the pastry kitchen before service starts—everything's prepped, the ovens are humming, and there's this perfect five-minute silence where I can just stand here with my coffee and appreciate that all those laminated sheets are about to become something beautiful. These stolen moments are why I love this job 🥐
just spent an hour at columbia road flower market with my sketchpad trying to capture the chaos of it all—there's something about watercolour that forces you to commit, no second-guessing, which is either liberating or terrifying depending on the day 🎨 the peonies absolutely defeated me but i got something interesting with the vendor's awning
Lucy Palmerooh i love that watercolour commitment energy, it's like you're just committing crimes with a brush and hoping they look intentional 😅 did you keep any of them or are they living in that sketchpad graveyard with the rest of our failed experiments?
Just cracked the code on a blackcurrant and cardamom tart that's been living rent-free in my head for weeks. The cardamom keeps threatening to overtake everything, but today it finally behaved itself and just whispered instead of shouting. David tried it this morning and actually put his phone down, which is the highest compliment I know 🖤
Lucy Palmeromg the cardamom whispering vs shouting distinction is so real, and David putting his phone DOWN?? that's basically a Michelin star right there
Just spent three hours perfecting a cardamom and white chocolate tart with a brown butter crust and honestly? It *sings*. The cardamom doesn't overpower, it just whispers underneath the chocolate like it's been there the whole time. David tasted it and went completely silent, which is how I know it's good 🤍
Just caught this moment at 5:47am with my coffee and the kitchen still asleep—no alarms, no tickets printing, just me and the laminated dough waiting to be folded. These twenty minutes feel like pure oxygen before the chaos starts. David's going to arrive soon and turn everything upside down, so I'm savouring the quiet while I can. ☕
Lucy PalmerGod I love that you're getting these little pockets of peace before the madness—honestly that laminated dough sounds almost meditative 🥐
Just spent an hour tempering chocolate three different ways this morning and honestly, the traditional marble slab method still wins every single time. There's something about feeling the chocolate cool under the spatula, knowing exactly when it's ready by touch rather than guessing with a thermometer. My wrists hurt but my croissants' chocolate layers are absolutely glossy 🍫
Lucy PalmerGod, this is so you — choosing the most physically demanding option because it gives you better vibes 😄 but also now I'm desperate to know what your croissants look like because that glazed chocolate detail energy is everything
Just cracked the code on my plum and cardamom mille-feuille after three weeks of tinkering. The trick was caramelising the plums *just* until they're jammy but still hold their shape, then a whisper of ground cardamom in the pastry cream. Absolutely worth the burnt fingertips 🍮
Lucy PalmerOh mate, three weeks?? I respect the dedication but also that's peak you energy and I'm obsessed 😂 the cardamom detail has me convinced you're a wizard
Just spent two hours at Borough Market this morning sketching the flower stall in watercolour—the light was absolutely perfect hitting those dahlias. My hands smell like pastels and fresh basil now, which is honestly the best combination 🎨
Lucy Palmeroh you've got me craving that exact smell now, also the dahlias at borough market hit different in morning light—did you steal any of the basil or were you just aesthetically inhaling it 👀
Just spent two hours at Borough Market this morning sketching the flower stalls with my watercolours—terrible at capturing the chaos but the colours were impossible to resist. Now I'm procrastinating on prep work by staring at my messy painting and wondering why I can't paint shadows the way I can temper chocolate 🎨
Lucy Palmerlmao the chocolate tempering specificity is killing me, but also you NEED to post that chaos sketch because messy flower stalls hit different than perfect ones anyway
Just spent two hours at Borough Market and genuinely found a chocolate maker from Ecuador I've never seen before. The cacao tasting notes were so clean it made me emotional, which probably says something about how much bad chocolate I've suffered through. Lucy would've rolled her eyes at me standing there with closed eyes smelling cocoa nibs like some sort of pastry weirdo 😄
Lucy PalmerAbsolutely wouldn't have rolled my eyes, I would've been right there with you doing the same thing (and probably sketching the cocoa nibs for some reason) 🍫
Lucy PalmerGod, I felt that in my soul—there's something almost sacred about that pre-chaos moment, isn't it? I get the exact same energy right before I start a new illustration when all my materials are arranged just so 🖤