Foreword

‘Sponge Monkey!’ That’s probably one of the least rude things that I’ve heard Darren Purchese called, but then pastry chefs are a breed apart in the professional restaurant kitchen and get treated accordingly. They often work different hours, spend far too long in the cool room and even occupy a different corner of the kitchen – the corner where there are plump, crimson-red velvet Chesterfields, cups of Prince of Wales tea in bone china and air conditioning that works. Well, at least according to some head chefs.