The Student: Meridith Berger

The Day Before

There are moments in life that feel like turning points. Tomorrow is one of mine.

I begin a two-week stage at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. It’s a kitchen I’ve read about, seen its journey and admired. It once felt impossibly far away from where I started; a small-town restaurant in Canada, just a kid learning how to hold a knife properly, dreaming about how far I could take my potential. Since then, I’ve cooked my way from Canada to Europe, stood in Michelin-starred kitchens, training and observing each movement. To now, living in London, studying on the Culinary Diploma, continuously growing and maximizing my life.

Day 1

I arrived at Dinner by Heston at 9am. After a quick health and safety briefing, I was given my uniform, complete with an apron embroidered with Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. That tiny detail made it all feel incredibly real. I met the senior sous chef, James, who showed me around the prep kitchen, which is deep in the basement of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. It’s a maze of narrow hallways, no windows and constant motion. After brief introductions, I jumped into prep with Josh, a chef de partie and helped him cut spring greens for the garnish station.

We then walked up five long flights of stairs to the service kitchen. The space was black, sleek and modern. Floor-to-ceiling glass divides the kitchen from the dining room, allowing guests to watch the action. There’s a massive Josper grill and their iconic Dinner Escapement, where pineapples rotate slowly over a live fire and are basted in caramel, it’s like a culinary carousel. The pineapples are served with their iconic tipsy cake, a dessert made with fresh brioche balls that are coated in butter and sugar, left to rise for a few hours, then baked and bathed in a hot custard cream infused with Sauternes, brandy, vanilla and sugar then accompanied by a full pineapple spiral (it’s incredible).

I stayed with Josh doing mise en place until lunch break at 11:00am. Let me just say, the break room deserves its own recognition. Quite retro with its neon green lights, diner-style booths and a hot food and salad station. The interior vibe was amazing and the food was better than most of the staff meals I’ve had. We returned to the service kitchen at 11:30am, lunch service began at noon. While the tasting menu is offered for lunch and dinner, they serve a sustainable menu exclusively for lunch. I assisted a commis named Archie on cold larder, he was sharp, precise, and obsessed with detail. After service, we went back to prep until 5:00pm, then went for dinner break, and then dinner service ran from 6:00pm to just after 10:00pm. One of my favourite dishes of the night was the cold-smoked salmon with a gentleman’s relish purée (that was incredibly smooth), a lemon gel made from lemon San Pellegrino and sorrel leaves for garnish. The flavours in the dish complemented each other perfectly and the cold smoked trout was a new technique I was fascinated by. After service came cleaning, orders, and the trip home. I arrived home at 11:45pm, exhausted, inspired, and ready to do it all again.

Day 14

Today marks my final shift at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, and it’s hard to put into words just how rewarding and transformative these past two weeks have been. I walked in with excitement and curiosity and I’m leaving with gratitude, growth and inspiration.

One core moment was during a busy dinner service when I was on the hot larder station, responsible for the warm courses just before the main fish and meat dishes. That night, I was trusted to run the station solo, with the chef de partie quietly observing. When the scallop course was sent out, one of the sous chefs asked, “Who cooked these scallops?”
I said, “I did.”
He nodded, impressed.

That moment hit me deeply, not because it was perfect, but because I proved to myself that I belonged there.

Another memory I’ll treasure is the morning I spent prepping brioche in the pastry kitchen. It was quite difficult to get it right, each ball had to be 12 grams exactly or else they would prove at different times and appear uneven. After all the balls were cut from a massive sheet of brioche, the chef de partie, Funi, and I shaped them into perfect balls. The shaping technique was hard, your hand is shaped like a LEGO man’s hand, then you use your thumb to push the dough outward and your top fingers to push the dough under itself. I practised three times and couldn’t get it perfect. I realized just how meticulous, precise and beautifully demanding pastry work is, there’s nowhere to hide when you’re working with dough.

Beyond the food, what made this experience so meaningful were the people. The conversations I had with the chefs and team at Dinner by Heston will stay with me throughout my career. Hearing their stories about where they’ve worked, what they’ve sacrificed, and why they show up to do this hard, relentless work, reminded me that your passion is the fuel that carries you through the long, hard days.

The days were long. Fourteen-plus hours on my feet, four to five hours of sleep each night, seeing the sun for an hour a day, constantly handling food in a hot, high-pressure kitchen. I was physically exhausted but I’ve never felt more alive. There’s something powerful that happens when you commit yourself fully to what you love. It pushes you, it humbles you and it shows you how much further you can go. I’ve grown. And I can’t wait to see where this leads next.