Beginnings

I showed up in London with two suitcases and a raging appetite. So when the internship placement people from Boston University asked me what I wanted to do in London, I couldn't help but to blurt, "Food!" That answer is how I found my way into an internship with Fifteen, a restaurant founded by Jamie Oliver known not only for its fantastic food, but also for its charity work and apprentice program, which you can read about in more detail on their website: http://www.fifteen.net/mission/Pages/default.aspx.

Backtracking a little. Something you should know about me: I eat all day, most days. And when I'm not gorging, I'm usually cooking, planning future meals, or drooling over food blogs and cookbooks. For this reason, I was comfortable at Fifteen London the second I arrived, since all 120 of their employees seem to share that same zeal for cuisine as I do. Just this morning a colleague of mine brought in some homemade chocolate ciabatta for all of us to try. Yum!

It seems almost karmic that I ended up interning at Fifteen. Last Tuesday, as I went online to catch up on the world's latest, most important news--via the New York Times Dining Section, of course--an article about Jamie Oliver caught my eye and fascinated me.
Witchel's article (http://www.jamieoliver.com/news/nyt) introduced me to a philanthropic dimension of Oliver that I was not previously aware of. The piece highlighs the famous chef as a community organizer in the UK and, now, in the US. He campaigns for the "the joy of a home-cooked meal" not only at home, but at public schools, too, as a solution to growing rates of obesity and malnutrition. Amen.

I was ecstatic to read about Fifteen London in the article, a restaurant that combines community outreach, such as involvement in fundraisers and farmers' markets, with meticulously crafted, laughably delicious Italian food: "The lightest potato gnocchettini with a rich Welsh lamb ragù, parmesan and Fontodi olive oil." I knew I had discovered my niche-- the ultimate internship. And with a couple of phone calls, soon enough I found myself being warmly welcomed by the team at Fifteen.