In the first of a series on The Food Chain, Nika Jazaee goes to Market.
It looks like a scene from a wartime field hospital: full of men running around in white coats covered in blood.
In fact this is Billingsgate Fish Market at around 4 a.m. I’ve been brought here by Dereck, head chef at the wonderful Crystal Palace Market restaurant in er… Crystal Palace.
Another member of the team, Bashok, was supposed to have brought me, but he’s had to go to the meat market instead. It reminds me that running a restaurant isn’t just about cooking, it’s about buying the best produce; and that is something that has to be done early in the morning!
‘You need to create a good team,’ Dereck tells me, referring fondly to his colleagues as: ‘The Market Family.’
The activity in here is intense, and involves a great deal of struggling to carry around heavy boxes of dead fish. It’s colourful, and smelly.
It’s also highly pressurised. Dereck has to move around as fast as he can to get the week’s orders in, which can then take up to two hours to find their way to his van.
Dereck started working in the restaurant world after he moved here from Poland 12 years ago and took a job as a kitchen porter. He then worked his way up from the bottom, which according to him is ‘the best way to do it’.
When Dereck began he couldn’t speak any English, he tells me, but managed to get by through learning the special kitchen language that he claims is common to all kitchens.
Before taking over at The Crystal Palace Market restaurant two years ago, he worked in a French restaurant, and before that in one of London’s leading sushi establishments.
But the reason he loves The Market is its simplicity. Unlike in the other places he has worked, Dereck tells me, the focus is not on making the food look pretty. It is on making sure that the food is of the highest quality. ‘I’ve never worked with such a simple kitchen,’ he says, ‘but it’s also the best kitchen, and the healthiest.’
And the food is also served up fast! ‘I call it the McDonald’s of healthy food,’ he jokes.
Nika Jazaee’s series, The Food Chain, will document every link in the chain of people bringing our food to the table.
INFO: The Crystal Palace Market, 3-7 Church Road, London SE19 2TF http://www.thecrystalpalacemarket.com