Piers, what’s on your mind? | lechoux

PIERS, what’s on your mind?

DR - Ok Piers what’s on your mind?

PT - Have we started?

DR - We’ve started.

PT - Uhh Well hello Damian

DR - Hi Piers

PT - We’re almost out of lockdown, we’re beginning to crawl out of lockdown, which I don’t know… there’s a bit of me that thinks it maybe too late for some of us…anyway.

DR - What do you mean?

PT - Well. It’s been quite gruelling the last three months. Even those of us who sailed through the first two lockdowns, there’s been something about this one that’s just dragged on and on and on… Uhm anyway. I’ll be pleased to get out of our current location where we’ve been recording Portobello radio via online apps during lockdown and returning to The Muse with luck, in the not too distant future.

DR - We’re all very excited, we’ve felt amputated without you.

PT - Aw, you’re too kind

DR - It’s too true, I’m telling you.; so that’s exciting and something to look forward to (warning: cheese)

PT - The idea of my life is that although people jab me in the arm on a regular basis, I appear to have caught the common cold. There’s something humiliating getting the common cold in the time of a pandemic, but I suppose I should count myself lucky. Portobello Radio has done quite well over the last two or three months though; we’ve got our house in order, we have a regular schedule for the monthly sets that our DJ’s provide on Saturday and we rewind on Sunday. We’ve had some quite exciting shows including memories of the Beatles, we have Uhhh… which went to number 20 in the community radio charts. And we’re looking forward to welcoming back the Roughler, with a special online version and another radio play, this time by ray Jones. Anymore?

DR - I was going to say do you have any dates in mind when we could look forward to you getting back to normal programming?

PT - We’d like to be back in our spiritual hime as soon as possible. I image it will be a while before we can go back to the open access which is the special element to doing the show out of The Muse.

lechouxlondon.com

I have always loved chocolate and pastries, I take that from my French heritage. Having a French Mother, we would regularly take holidays to Paris and France when we were children. During our trips , I would stare at the windows of the boulangeries and patisseries in awe. I still find it incredible, the choice of bread and stunning pastries you find on every street corner in Paris.

After University, I decided to train as a pastry chef in Paris which I had always dreamt of doing. I made it my mission to train up and then to bring some of this Parisian magic back to my home town of London. I trained in Paris as a pastry chef at a Patisserie school, whilst undertaking an apprenticeship in a pastry shop for two years before working my way up in the most prestigious luxury palace in Paris, Le Plaza Athenee, under chefs Ducasse and Michalak.

On return to London, I worked in an unpleasant male dominated kitchen and was extremely unhappy. I began to wonder if there was truly space for a woman in these kitchens. I reached a very low point, during which the only comfort I found was in baking at home in my kitchen for family and friends.

I missed the classic chocolate religieuse and coffee eclairs in Paris. I decided to make it my mission to bring classic French ‘choux’ to London. After a few weeks of recipe development, I naively convinced my little sister to help me run a market stall in Old Spitalfields. We started selling out every day in Old Spitalfields market, the pastries proved so popular that since, we have been part of London’s booming food scene, taking part in markets and events with Kerb, various pop- ups around London as well as supplying luxurious food department stores Fortnum and Mason and Selfridges.