A Blog by Nanna Vestergaard, Restaurant Sat Bains

On the 30^th of April 2010, I had just been offered my dream job after completing a two-day trial at Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms in Nottingham. I thought the position would begin at the end of the summer, but Sat had been looking for a Development Chef for a while and wanted me to start as soon as possible. So on the 31^st of May I arrived in Nottingham to start work the very next day at 9am.

I left employment, friends, family and home back in Denmark, but was full of enthusiasm and anticipation for my new job. I had lived in England for a year in the late 90’s, so I already had a National Insurance card so that was fine.

What I didn’t have though, was a place to live.

I know a few restaurants have staff accommodation, but when I joined the team here they didn’t have any, as everyone lived locally. Before I left Denmark, I had been looking at accommodation through websites like Rightmove, Gumtree and similar. I found what looked to be a lovely flat and was very excited and arranged to be picked up by the agent as soon as I arrived at the station in Nottingham.

How wrong I was!! The flat was horrible and in the worst neighbourhood in town. I did end up finding a place in the end but luckily I didn’t have to stay there long, as Sat and Amanda organized a staff house where I could live. That gave me a really comfortable base in Nottingham and the peace of mind to find somewhere I really liked. I was there for a whole year before I moved into my own place. No matter how much you enjoy the job, it makes a great difference to have a home you want to go back to after work. For anyone moving to a new town or city in a foreign country, I would recommend asking your new colleagues some advice before scanning websites.

Work life wasn’t so much different from what I knew back in Denmark. This industry seems to be fairly similar all over the world, when it comes to kitchen language, discipline, humour and environment. The main difference is spoken language and dialects. I did learn a lot of new English words in the first few months. I got quite a few lists of very strange sounding ingredients for recipes, that I logged (then later deleted!!) and doing service definitely expanded my vocabulary.

At Sat Bains, we cook modern British food and there are lots of dishes with a long heritage. I tried learning as much as I could about British cuisine and everyday dishes before leaving Denmark. That proved to be really useful and would have been I think, even if I had ended up working in say, a French restaurant. Getting to know the food traditions of the country in which you live and work makes things a lot easier. You understand food references and methods, gain a better understanding of how the other chefs think, how they develop their dishes and you get a knowledge of which produce they use and what is in season.

Working in England has been and still is a great experience and I would really recommend others to try a foreign country. For me, it has broadened my horizons as a chef and I have got to know other cuisines and methods of working. Being with Sat and the chefs here in Nottingham has given me a whole new way of thinking about food and the creative process of dish and menu development. And to top it all, its improved my network, experience and skills and has been a lot of fun too.