The Westin

In October 2011, I received fantastic news that The Westin Hotel in Sydney will be taking me on as one of their trainees. The only downside to this is that I would not be getting paid, it's something that I didn't mind to begin with as I was in it for the experience. Finally I would be able to conquer my fears of stepping into the real deal - I'll be back in the kitchen once again. This time around it's different though, I'll be in the Pastry Kitchen.

Under the supervision of Head Chef Mark Tok, I began my journey to gain as much experience as I can. Sure there were nerves and there were mishaps along the way and there were insecurities about not being able to perform, but all in all it was an amazing experience! We were able to do absolutely anything we wanted to do to gain skills. The pastry kitchen were filled with very inspiring pastry chefs - Long, Nicky, Thomas, Chris and Paul along with Mark who I would very much aspire to be - extremely skilled, creative, passionate, filled with wisdom and knowledge and hard working. It was exactly where I wanted to be. I had learnt so much working for them for two months and enjoyed myself so much that I would at times even stay longer in the kitchen to play with chocolate, make Zimtsternes and anything and everything else.

Sadly enough as Christmas was approaching and I was juggling studies and two jobs with one of them being unpaid, when an opportunity for a paid job was laid before me I had to take it and bid farewell to The Westin.