Blog | 200 Kitchens

Thanks to All the Fish

It's almost dawn, the first birds are calling and the smell of fresh coffee rises over the faint saltwater breeze. I get up, pull some...

Gawain Barker

Mar 3, 20194 min read

Let me tell you about a timeless being who just happens to be real. Someone who has brought comfort, joy and satisfaction to a majority...

Gawain Barker

Jan 7, 20194 min read

Butter, like cheese, is a top way to preserve the nutrients in milk. Placed in animal-skin bags, milk morphs into butter by simply...

Gawain Barker

Jan 7, 20194 min read

Thirty years in the making. A whole lot of blood, sweat and beers; a hundred thousand kilometers walked and run in something like 200...

Gawain Barker

Nov 26, 20181 min read

The peace of a morning prep was suddenly shattered by a crackle and bang. The six-slice vertical toaster had shorted out. Dark smoke rose...

Gawain Barker

Nov 2, 20185 min read

With all the section megastars, gun chefs, dessert divas and culinary kahunas it's easy to forget the unsung heroes of the kitchen – the...

Gawain Barker

Oct 18, 20185 min read

Approaching the row of hissing bench-top steamer ovens, I remembered what Lloyd the Sous Chef had said about opening them - be bloody...

Gawain Barker

Sep 16, 20185 min read

One evening, pure evil visited the kitchen. We had cook's knives and they had .38 calibre revolvers. For a gut-wrenching moment it looked...

Gawain Barker

Sep 7, 20185 min read

Spending twelve hour plus days in a noisy, heated, small stainless steel and tiled room sounds like a torture technique designed to break...

Gawain Barker

Aug 25, 20185 min read

Snails, or in Gallic lingo - escargots - were an exotic, but not uncommon dish on 70s and 80s menus. These gastropods shone in the...

Gawain Barker

Aug 9, 20185 min read

The new chef created a stir. A pony-tailed young spunk in a leather motorcycle jacket, wide-shouldered and long legged, with eyes like...

Gawain Barker

Jul 16, 20186 min read