Gnocching 'em out

Time for another status update from our surplus food cafe in Fishguard. Since it opened 2 months ago custom has increased and our reputation is growing. A massive input is required from volunteers who not only cook but collect and  sort the surplus edibles, who woman the front of house and attend to customers, and who clean, manage, monitor, measure, record and document as per the incredibly stringent legal food safety standards we are required to adhere to. For example the temperature of all heated and reheated food has to be checked and recorded before serving, and the probe checked for accuracy once a week. The temperatures of all fridges and freezers have to be checked and recorded twice a day. Anything that has been used for raw egg must be washed separately. And so on.

Few of the volunteers have any background in catering and today, after three days of training, a bunch of us took the Level 3 Award in Food Safety in Catering exam which confers a supervisory capacity. The cafe isn't open to the public on Mondays but some of us come in to prepare food for later in the week.  Sue here, a solicitor by profession,  was in the kitchen making gnocchi while we were chewing our pencils over pathogens, pests and Critical Control Points in the cafe area.

(Because a large proportion of our intake comprises root veg of all kinds, leeks and cabbage,  we rack our brains to ring the changes on parsnip soup, carrot cake, potato bakes and coleslaw.  Any tasty recipes suggestions using these items would be gratefully received.)

Earlier cafe blips here.