Starting out with just ‘kitchen-french’, Tom Aikens managed to become practically fluent in a couple of months of working intensively in a Parisian kitchen under Robuchon.
‘The service, how Robuchon did it, was just nuts! You weren’t allowed anywhere near the pass, you had to remember every single order. Every dinner, every lunch, you’d do sixty covers without fail. You weren’t given a cheque or a docket, and you weren’t allowed to ask again at all. If you messed up one thing, you were out of there.’
Sounds drastic, but that’s how Tom believes such high standards were maintained.
