Having had my two days off - I feel refreshed and can't wait to get back to work tomorrow!
I had a fun day today - cooking!
 We've acknowledged that we need to develop our pudding menu - so I had a little play at home. The rhubarb in the garden needed cutting, so I made Rhubarb and Vanilla Yoghurt ice cream and it's really delicious - so that's an idea for Peppercorn. We've also made a really delicious Orange ice cream which could go onto the Bank Holiday menu.
 Blackcurrant Leaf cordial sounded yummy, so we tried it, but it's so delicate that it doesn't really bear diluting- so seems hardly worth making again. A shame because it sounded wonderful!
We have also been looking at some new salads to serve as main courses and they seem to be very popular;
Butterbean and roasted butternut squash with  herbs and a sweet chilli dressing has sold really well and the latest new addition is Roasted aubergine with a herb dressing and crumbled feta. I shall post a couple of photos soon to tempt you!

Meanwhile here are some Peppercorn Kisses we are currently giving away with coffee!


We have decided to look at the world of Apprenticeships here at Peppercorn!
Amy - our lovely manager- is with us for another year, which is fabulous news; and Becca will be spending a year with us full time from September.  Becca has worked with us for 4 years now on a part time basis - so we have a couple of really experienced ladies to help us develop Peppercorn as well as our wonderful part timers. Ollie will be leaving us at some stage later in the year to begin a new career, and although we are thrilled for him - we are gutted at the thought of losing him and really don't want to think about it too much! Apart from being charming, considerate, handsome and extremely able - he is also bloody funny!
Anyways - back to the apprenticeships - Amy and Becca are looking at the scheme as a way to develop their front of house and management skills and we are advertising for an apprentice who will work in the kitchen with us and who we hope will have a particular penchant for patisserie......so you can see which way we're headed...!

We leave you with Angela - zesting those oranges for all she's worth!

Wedding frenzy!

Well - the wedding went without a hitch!
 Ludgvan church looked glorious in the sunshine and inside it was awash with anemones. The whole of Peppercorn staff was there (apart from Jordan who was skiing and Emily, who was away with her family) and the party in the evening was great fun - all catering run by Izzy, Becky and Sophie; pizza bases and toppings prepped by Ollie; Amy (our manager) taking the official photos and running around supporting the catering too; the Johanna Graham Jazz Trio wowing us with their music followed by DJ Jack Curnow getting everyone onto their feet later in the proceedings. We will post a couple of photos onto the blog just as soon as I've vetted them!!
Incidentally - if you want an utterly fabulous wedding reception with food to die for - go to Ben's Cornish Kitchen in Marazion. I did - and the family is still talking about it - thank you Ben and staff!

I think Peppercorn is just about ready for Easter, we have some new menu ideas to try out on you. Six main course salads to offer alongside our usual hot and cold offerings. More details in the next blog - but feedback always gratefully recieved. It's lovely that we can begin to use wild flowers in our food again. They look pretty and taste great too!
We are now open from 10am 'til 5pm, and last food orders are at 4pm. We need the final hour to stock take, plan and order for the next day - apart from cleaning the cafe to within an inch of its life!
Alex came to try out a work experience with us last week, and we're all delighted to welcome him onto the permanent staff rota now. Well done, Alex.
We've had some great reviews on Tripadvisor- it's so lovely to hear that what we offer works for our customers. We have also had two enormous ads in the Cornishman as a result of the Accelerate Cornwall competition which we entered last autumn - so check that out if you haven't already seen it.

We have all sorts of staff training in the pipeline - a teambuilding day in the summer, a landscape management walk and talk on April 15th (run by Colin Nankervis of Towednack) and we are about to join the Apprenticeship Scheme which allows us to train staff to gain an official accreditation in areas such as Front of House management, Patisserie etc - how exciting!