The Fundaments of a Crêperie with Penelope Foster
Down a little alley in the centre of Hastings you can find Crêperie by the Sea serving traditional French buckwheat crêpes and galettes. Owner and chef Penelope Foster explains the fundaments of a good crêperie, and what it takes to spin perfect pancakes
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Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.
Find the transcript below the embed. (autogenerated so please excuse any errors)
[00:00:00] Lucy: This is Lecker. I'm Lucy Dearlove, just behind Priory Meadow Shopping Center in the middle of Hastings, there's a little alley full of brightly painted shop fronts. Down at the end is Creperie by the Sea. Run by Penelope Foster.
[00:00:19] Penelope: It's a great spot in Hastings. I'm happy 'cause lots of people are like, oh, you're so hidden.
[00:00:24] But sometimes people like hidden places. They like to discover things.
[00:00:28] Lucy: On the Monday morning that I came to visit Penelope, she made me a perfect Caffe coffee as soon as I arrived.
[00:00:34] Penelope: Do you want any, um, milk?
[00:00:36] Lucy: No, just black. Fine. Lovely.
[00:00:37] Penelope: Thank you. I just have it as a color. This one, I find this coffee black is just perfect.
[00:00:41] Oh, nice. Because it's just a good. What coffee is it? It's trading post in Brighton. Greed, monkey Blend.
[00:00:47] Lucy: We got straight to talking about a subject very close to her heart: ingredients.
[00:00:52] Penelope: I've tried out a, a few of them, uh, but the one I use is grown in Devon. I could import it from France. But I want to use as locals.
[00:01:01] I can. It's a couple. It's a couple who grow on their farm and they're really sweet. They're the nicest people ever. Do you buy it
[00:01:09] Lucy: from direct?
[00:01:10] Penelope: Yeah, I buy, I just, I send them an email and they just sent, and then they send me some, I think they supply a lot. They supply locally, Devon. It was extensive amount on Googling and I, and I found them.
[00:01:21] I believe that the reason why Buckwheat was used was because of tax reasons. So I don't think. Buckwheat was taxed back in the, this was the middle age. It was like back, back in the day. Right. So people could grow as much buckwheat as they wanted. Right. And they wouldn't have to pay, pay for it, essentially.
[00:01:40] Right. And that's why they would, they would use it.
[00:01:42] Lucy: So that's how the GT became, was that's how the gt
[00:01:44] Penelope: I, I believe might, that might not be the factor, but that is one factor why buckwheat was used. Yeah. I think I've seen an image of the ancient hot plate, and it's quite similar to one of these. Yeah, I guess like a stone maybe.
[00:01:57] Yeah, it was like a stone. Yeah, it was a stone and you could see like the marks of where the
[00:02:03] Lucy: little thing. That's amazing. Oh my God. And it's just not changed that much, I guess. No, it's not
[00:02:07] Penelope: changed that much. I mean, some people put eggs in their buckwheat butter. Some people put milk in still, it depends on region,
[00:02:16] Lucy: town, but yours is literally, it's literally just water.
[00:02:18] Yeah. Flour and salt
[00:02:19] Penelope: because it makes, it, it, it makes it vegan. Oh yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I don't, I, I haven't found the, the need for it. Some people add honey in to make it a little bit darker, but every single cri here has their own recipe. I haven't amended it too much to the, from what I was taught, uh, what I was taught is very similar, I think because the buckwheat's different to the buckwheat we were using there.
[00:02:42] Ah, so I might be using slightly different ratios because Yeah. So it feels different. It feels it. It feels different. It even the, it feels even tastes a little bit different, but
[00:02:55] Lucy: I guess it makes sense if it's grown in a different place, though it's grown different.
[00:02:58] Penelope: It's grown different place, but it's as close to the French buckwheat that as I can find that you found.
[00:03:03] And it was another one of the first things I did because I still had the taste of the buckwheat from being in France that long. So I pre-ordered it. So it was there when I got home and I had lots of different ones. And then this one was the one that stood out to me. I really liked it. It's a very nutty, rich,
[00:03:21] Lucy: yeah.
[00:03:21] Penelope: Taste on its own. You really wanna partner with butter because on its own it's got a very bitterness to it. But as soon as you add thing, as soon as you add food to, it's delicious. So you gotta like round it out a bit. Yeah, yeah. And it's just not the same about butter.
[00:03:40] Lucy: Devon Buckwheat Brighton Coffee. I wondered whether the Cree deliberately uses predominantly British ingredients.
[00:03:48] Penelope: So I use fountain and suns. Oh, what? The fruit and veg. They're on my pathway to work. Nice. So it's honey. So I get my eggs from them and then any sort of specialist fruit vegetables that I need, they can just order them in. Yeah. Oh,
[00:04:05] Lucy: that's really nice. Yeah, so
[00:04:06] Penelope: I use them. Um, I use. The beacon Tell butchers, that used to be very handy at the beginning when I wasn't as quiet, so I would just go, like, walk over there.
[00:04:15] But now I, my mom is my, my ham supplier. She goes and gets my ham, your runner, and she's my runner now, so that's great. But they're really good. They're really nice. That's the fundamental of a Cree is you use you people around you. So everywhere in every Cree in France will have their local produce within that.
[00:04:34] Within inside that gt. Almost
[00:04:38] Lucy: Right. So that's part of the story.
[00:04:40] Penelope: Yeah, and I've, I've noticed that. So I've, in Brittany, they used all, you know, they used the butter from Brittany, they used the milk from Brittany and as local. As local as possible. And then when I travel down south, you would notice the GTS changed?
[00:04:57] Lucy: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. They change.
[00:04:59] Penelope: Um, in the very near where I'm from in the Southwest, we went to the cre and that was like, that was a rich, kind of fatty, greasy, amazing
[00:05:09] Lucy: greasy
[00:05:09] Penelope: gt. And that is part, that is part of the food. Like they just love Yeah. Meats. Yeah. Meat and grease. And that's, I, I, and I felt, I felt that in the gt.
[00:05:18] I did.
[00:05:18] Lucy: So, even though it's like a galati, I mean, you'll find throughout France, it'll be very specific in each different region. I,
[00:05:25] Penelope: I, yeah. I, I believe so.
[00:05:27] Lucy: So where are you from in the southwest? In, very near to lose. Okay, cool. Nice. It's about an hour, an hour away. Big, big for sausages and like fatty sausages.
[00:05:36] Yeah,
[00:05:36] Penelope: fatty sausages. Every time we go there to my grandparents, we always have a sausage barbecue and we have like big twisty sausage.
[00:05:46] Lucy: Yeah. Yeah. One of the big curly guys. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's
[00:05:48] Penelope: made me, um, it's a, i, I love the sausages in England, but I do always want
[00:05:56] Lucy: Yeah, you crave it. Yeah, I do crave it.
[00:05:58] Penelope: So, yeah, so quite specific.
[00:06:00] It's very specific and it's hard to recreate that when we're less so in England because there's a cre, but when we're in France. We drive down. Mm-hmm. We drive down to my grandparents, so we visit lots of different towns and one of the biggest. Not arguments, but sort of conversations we have is where are we going to eat?
[00:06:19] I'm hungry. We need to eat quickly. So the new system now is we Google Crees nearby because you know what you're gonna get, but it's gonna be different in every single Cree. Yeah. So we look within that town and then it reduces the The selection. Yeah. By quite a lot.
[00:06:38] Lucy: Yeah. And yeah, and it's research
[00:06:41] Penelope: and it's also, and it's also research.
[00:06:42] Yeah.
[00:06:43] Lucy: Before opening Cree by the Sea, Penelope trained as a Cree in San Marlo in Brittany. She's described this to me once, chatting after the yoga class where we originally met as like the master chef of Crep making.
[00:06:56] Penelope: It started off with going back a few years, I said to my mom, I said, I just finished university.
[00:07:04] Mm-hmm. I wasn't, I really enjoyed it, but I thought, this is not the pathway I wanna go. What did you study? Film school. I went to film school. No way. Oh my God, I love that.
[00:07:14] Lucy: Okay. But I
[00:07:14] Penelope: learned it was practical filmmaking and Oh wow. I, I think my role in film school was producing, I say,
[00:07:24] Lucy: okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:07:25] Penelope: Not actually a producer, but that was what I studied in. Yeah. And that entails lots of organization. S all those skills. Putting things together. Making things happen. Yeah. And that I, I enjoyed that part of it. So when I finished Uni F four, I've learned all these skills from this, what am I gonna do? And I was sat in the guard with my mom and I said, Hastings could do a cre.
[00:07:48] And then she said, that's a really, really good idea. Mm-hmm. And then we looked up. Cree town, cities in France. Mm-hmm. And we found Saint Melo. And then a few months later, me and my mum, we just went there for a little holiday. Little holiday research trip. Yeah. Just to, just to have a look. Yeah. Sus it out.
[00:08:07] Suss it out. Test the waters. Instantly fell in love with the, the culture, the creps, the gts, the Selo itself. And then a year later, I think, actually, I think my mum might have found it, or she picked up. A leaflet when she was there and she found the, the school, the Crep school, which was called, and then we found that, and then I applied to go there.
[00:08:33] Okay, so
[00:08:34] Lucy: you have to
[00:08:34] Penelope: apply you, you apply, you apply for it. You, you sort of pick what months you wanna do the course and you apply for it. You send over your application and then that was it. Oh my. So did you have
[00:08:43] Lucy: to have experience to do the course? No. Okay. So you could come in complete the college. It could have
[00:08:48] Penelope: been So part, lots of people in my course.
[00:08:52] They were doing it almost vocationally. Okay. There was one woman, she just retired. She wanted to, she just wanted to learn how to bake, make CREs. That's so interesting. In a professional environment. And then four of us were going in there in the mindset of, I'm gonna open a CRE brewery. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And were they French German?
[00:09:12] They were all French, yeah. Yeah, all of them were French. And it was such a mixed age range. I wasn't the youngest either. Oh, okay. There was one guy that was a little bit younger than me. Yeah. He, the course is set up so it, because there are many CRE in France, it gives you the qualification to go and work in a cre.
[00:09:30] So you go to a cre, I've done this course, and then they'll know straight away, oh, you've been trained in this, that, and that. And then they'll be a little bit, they're, they're pre-trained.
[00:09:39] Lucy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The expectations will be high. Yeah. Expectations
[00:09:43] Penelope: are high. So that was the school and it's a teaching restaurant.
[00:09:47] They were only open at lunchtime. They wouldn't ever open in the evenings. Yeah, you would be learning waitress skills, which I enjoyed because I was waitress before that. Anyway, so that was, but the switch up of waitressing from England to France. Oh yeah. So what's the difference?
[00:10:05] Lucy: It's quite different attitude towards service, isn't it?
[00:10:07] Penelope: Yeah. It's really respected that I find people.
[00:10:12] Lucy: It's a career. It's a career. Like you could do it as a career. Yeah. People
[00:10:14] Penelope: see it as a career in England, a little bit less so. Yeah. But I am seeing, but I've never had bad experiences while being a waitress. Yeah. And I thought, I always have felt respected to say, yeah, yeah,
[00:10:25] Lucy: yeah.
[00:10:25] Well that's good. 'cause I think sometimes that can not be the case and people consider it like, um, unskilled work, which is. So wild because it is so skilled. I think
[00:10:34] Penelope: it's really skilled. Yeah. And so
[00:10:35] Lucy: many people aren't good at it. Like, it's not easy to be good at it. It
[00:10:38] Penelope: it's really not. You have to remember, you have to remember things.
[00:10:41] You've gotta be good at multitasking. Yeah. And the, and you have to be good with people. Good with people because you are gonna get asked the most random questions and you have to be precious. You, and you gotta be ready for it. Yeah.
[00:10:52] Lucy: Okay. So you, you, you're at this course, um, it's a teaching restaurant. So how long are you there for?
[00:10:57] Penelope: So the course was. I can't remember. I think it was two months. Okay. The first two weeks you were in the school? Yeah. The first day they made you spin about a thousand pancakes until you get it. Oh my
[00:11:11] Lucy: God.
[00:11:13] Penelope: The first day, the first day I have a picture. I took a picture of all the pancakes that the whole class took.
[00:11:18] How many was there of us? Oh, there was 10 people in my class. Okay. Wow. And, and funnily enough, 'cause they had to ask us if we were left or right-handed. Oh. 'cause of the positions and half the class were left and half were Right.
[00:11:31] Lucy: That's very interesting. Oh no, there was eight of
[00:11:32] Penelope: us. And
[00:11:33] Lucy: that's very high.
[00:11:34] Yeah, it was
[00:11:35] Penelope: really high. Are you
[00:11:35] Lucy: left-handed?
[00:11:36] Penelope: No. Right-handed. Mm-hmm.
[00:11:37] Lucy: So what difference does it
[00:11:38] Penelope: make? It makes a difference because if you are, if you, so you've got your station.
[00:11:46] Lucy: Yeah. So you got, um, so is there a name for this? The thing that you cook the pancake on?
[00:11:51] Penelope: Oh, in French it's a Bili and in England it's a hot plate.
[00:11:56] Yeah, yeah. Hot plate. It's not a specific Okay. But until they've got a pop, they've got a, a, a name for it.
[00:12:01] Lucy: So you've got that. Okay. So it's how that is set up. Ah, yeah. So I'd have, I would do this. So you'd lale your batter with your left hand. With my left hand.
[00:12:10] Penelope: Okay.
[00:12:11] Lucy: Then
[00:12:11] Penelope: if your right, if your, then, if your right.
[00:12:13] No, the. Yeah, for the left hand, you do it the other
[00:12:16] Lucy: way
[00:12:17] Penelope: and because there was one person, two person, three person, yeah. You'd be like knocking el. So because it was, I said 10 people, it was eight people I, my other class. So it was handy because you just have the lefties and then the right side and the, yeah, the, the pupil teaching the class, like this is so handy.
[00:12:34] Yeah, it makes lot easier. That is weird though. Like it was weird all
[00:12:36] Lucy: people to be left. Maybe there's like some predisposition for left handed people to be, it was creepier. Is that the word? Yeah. Cook. Yeah, cook. Yeah. Yeah. It should be noted that there's a lot more to making CREs or opening a Cree than just being good at spinning the course over the next couple of months.
[00:12:54] Focused on a wide range of essential skills and experience to ensure the smooth running of a Cree,
[00:13:00] Penelope: the prep, the heat up, and the time management. That was the, the main element of it. And because I'd never been in a professional kitchen before that. I've never done that. Right. So you
[00:13:09] Lucy: waitress, but you've never been on the other side?
[00:13:11] I've never
[00:13:12] Penelope: been on the other side. I've seen the other side. Yeah. I've sort, sort of helped out a little bit, but never, never properly been in a, in a kitchen. Yeah.
[00:13:21] Lucy: Yeah. So
[00:13:22] Penelope: I needed that, that aid, and I did love it. I, I, I loved every, every part of it. I loved, I loved the rush. Mm. The rush before service. When we were all scrambling around, it's kind of building up.
[00:13:35] You can feel it. Yeah, and it's the same thing here now. It's exactly the same thing. I'm scrambling around before my opening time trying to get everything done, getting all everything prepared because once you are switched on, you want all your, everything in your fridges to be ready. So it's gotta be ready.
[00:13:52] Yeah. Because you want everything to be at arm length.
[00:13:55] Lucy: Yeah. To chop on
[00:13:56] Penelope: your machines. Yeah. You don't wanna be running the back making, chopping onions, grain, some more cheese or something. Grain more cheese. No, that's not gonna work.
[00:14:04] Lucy: So you graduate from the at. Yeah. What did you do after that?
[00:14:10] Penelope: On the ferry.
[00:14:11] I was on the phone call to get this place on the way back. So I, I, I, we took the ferry The day after finishing, it was a two days. It was a two day, and then the day afterwards, I came and saw the, the shop. Oh my God. So it
[00:14:27] Lucy: was immediately after? It was immediately.
[00:14:29] Penelope: There was no, and while I was there, I was designing the logo.
[00:14:34] So you had a vision? I had a vision, yeah. And I was on FaceTime with my mom, and then I said. To her. I was like, oh, what about a little cat? Yeah. And then she drew up the cat and then we went, oh, your mom drew it? Oh, my mom drew it. Yeah. That's lovely.
[00:14:47] Lucy: So
[00:14:48] Penelope: I've got all the, the original sketches. But yeah, this was while we were there.
[00:14:51] And then it was a very, very quick turnaround. Right. So then when did you open up? Because I wasn't expecting it. Yeah. So I got back in. June and I opened in July. Yeah. It was very different when I first opened, so it was takeaway only to start with. Okay. What I did was, because I'd never done this before, so I started off as small as I possibly could.
[00:15:17] So I thought if I throw myself in the deep end, gonna be a flop straight away. Yeah. And you can always grow. Right? So I can always grow.
[00:15:24] Lucy: So you weren't tempted to go and like, I guess work somewhere else? For a bit. First you wanted to get straight in and do your own thing.
[00:15:32] Penelope: I think if I hadn't, if someone hadn't given me the opportunity of being here, then I would've done that.
[00:15:39] Lucy: Mm.
[00:15:39] Penelope: Okay. But I thought if I'm, if I pass up on it, I might, I don't wanna regret it. And I thought, what's the worst thing that's gonna, what's the worst thing that's gonna happen?
[00:15:47] Lucy: I guess you just close it, right? I just, yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
[00:15:50] Penelope: And, and I'm so glad that I did,
[00:15:52] Lucy: oh, I just saw this so that your hot plate says, so that is that, is this the breath on word for crap?
[00:15:59] Because I, I know that because someone told me the Welsh word is really similar. Yeah. They're, because they're like the same language family. It's associated
[00:16:05] Penelope: with, yeah. Yeah. Com s. Because I think I, I heard someone say it in in Breton. I was like, oh, it's the same as the brand.
[00:16:13] Lucy: Ah, yeah. Oh right. So that's the name of the brand.
[00:16:16] That's cool. That's the name of the brand. But I also
[00:16:17] Penelope: think it's associated with, I'll have to double check.
[00:16:20] Lucy: I have to double check. Yeah,
[00:16:22] Penelope: exactly. But I think it is, yeah, it is. I love the Breton language. Yeah. It's really, I know. None of it beautiful. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I know one word, which is. I'm assuming it's little.
[00:16:32] It's kz. Okay. Which is KRAZ. And it's the exact word to describe a crispy pancake. So a lady asked me for a pancake that was kz and I thought, what don't, that I don't understand. And I asked. She said, oh, they just want extra crispy. And having a CS crap is a sign of a good.
[00:16:54] Lucy: Good crap. That's what you're looking for.
[00:16:55] You're looking for the Yeah. The Cs. You're looking for the
[00:16:57] Penelope: Cs. I love that. I love that they've got a specific Yeah. Piece of vocabulary. I, I mean, I'm not, when it comes to language history and knowledge, I believe, I, I believe it might be the only, might not even be a translatable. I mean, I guess crispy.
[00:17:14] Lucy: Yeah. But crispy's not a word. Crispy's kind of a generic word, isn't it? Yeah. I feel like you can translate it, but it's not quite the same. No. Yeah. So there's their
[00:17:22] Penelope: own now. Crap. Crap language out there. Crap language. Yeah. That's how important they are. Yeah, they, they are. They are so important. Well, what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna turn it, let's do it.
[00:17:32] I'm gonna turn it on. The first thing I do in the morning is, so I get my, I've got my, my batters here. So these are. All, all made at least three days in advance. Oh, well. So you can keep them for that long. You can keep them for that long because it's only a mixture of water salt and fuck wheat. Oh, so it does last My brain works in batter batter rotation.
[00:17:59] You're dreaming
[00:18:00] Lucy: of these stacks of Yeah, I'm
[00:18:01] Penelope: dreaming of it, but I know exactly. And then it just even, and you know it's ready when got the little air bubbles on top.
[00:18:08] Lucy: Okay. So it's kind
[00:18:08] Penelope: of
[00:18:09] Lucy: fermenting a little bit cement. It's
[00:18:10] Penelope: fermented. It's nice. Grab that. So this is, so now I'll have to dilute this with water 'cause it's, otherwise it'll be very thick.
[00:18:21] So,
[00:18:29] and this process is completely eyeball. You wanna, you wanna really feel, you wanna really feel the batter mix when you put diluted water. So I'd only do. Little bit, not
[00:18:43] Lucy: this going in.
[00:18:50] Penelope: So here I think I've got a consistency I'm happy with. So it's so, it's thin, but also, but not too, but you don't wanna get it too thin. You don't wanna get it too thick. But it's got a nice dark color and that's. That's a quality in that they look for in GT in France is dark color. Ah. And I was trying to, that's what hap that was part of my buckwheat test trying to find that when we go to CRE in CREs in France, bill, my husband, he's, he says he is not biased, but he says he generally prefers he's, he, he prefers this one, he likes this flower.
[00:19:26] If anything, he's had more than I have. At this point, but I like to go there as much as I can so I can keep on testing it. Yeah. Because I don't, otherwise I'll get Bucky Blindness as I call it,
[00:19:39] Lucy: blindness. Yeah. But it's if you, because you're working
[00:19:42] Penelope: with it every day. Yeah. It's easy, isn't it? To forget. Yeah.
[00:19:45] The, and then the second I'm back, I'll make one and I'll taste it again. I'm like, oh yeah, we're good. We're on track still. It's all right. It's still good everyone. So the temperature wise, I want it to reach to about 250 degrees. Wow, that's hot. It's very hot. That is a secret. I have my preferred, my preferred one.
[00:20:06] This one I prefer for craps. And this one I prefer for golas. Was it what it, what's the name of this? This like tool? This is in French. It's called a, um, and in Engli English, I think. I'd say it's a. It's product.
[00:20:22] Lucy: Yeah. It's not really, because they have
[00:20:23] Penelope: names for things there. They don't have, yeah. Yeah, we don't have it.
[00:20:26] Yeah. It's very handy. It's called, and this is my preferred one for.
[00:20:31] Lucy: Okay. So is that the size or is it like the way
[00:20:36] Penelope: it's, this one's lighter. Okay. And because Creps batter is a lot lighter, I find it easier and you can sort them to spread. It's easier to spread.
[00:20:44] Lucy: When I think about this, I always think of, um, in Emily when she spreads the record.
[00:20:51] Yeah. Is it her? Or maybe it's a person making a crap, but it's like it becomes a record that they're spreading the vinyl and it's just like such a strong image in my head. So that's what I think of straight away. They're really beautiful. They're like, they they would, they are wood.
[00:21:04] Penelope: Yeah. I've got some one there as well.
[00:21:06] My little showcase. Oh, the little collection. My little. My little collection, they are really beautiful. It took me a while to learn the movements. That was the reason why they would make us spin about a thousand pancakes to start with. Yeah. And you'd have the, the teachers behind you being like, no, you're doing it wrong all the time.
[00:21:25] But then eventually you learn and it just clicks it. It, yeah. You have a day where it just clicks. Did it take you long? It took me long. Mm. Because I had a machine at home before did, and I was self teaching. Did you? So I might have been teaching myself some bad habits, was getting myself out of those bad habits, but it, yeah, it, it took me maybe about a week or so.
[00:21:46] Lucy: Okay.
[00:21:47] Penelope: The, I found the creps easier. The creps are easier to spin. Right. The GTS are hard because you have a different consistency every time. Even a, because the buckwheat, it's hand, it's hand milled. Oh. So the texture can vary. So the texture can vary because it's not mass produced. Yeah. They, it might not be as consistent every time.
[00:22:07] Yeah. Do they mill it on the farm? They mill it on the farm in the most beautiful French mill. So this old wooden French mill. It's so nice.
[00:22:14] Lucy: That's so lovely.
[00:22:16] Penelope: And they mail it to order. Of course. So it's really fresh, so it's really, really fresh. But again, yeah, because it's, it, it is slightly, slightly different every time.
[00:22:24] Yeah. And they always say, oh, we want it to be the same every time. I like it. I like that. It keeps it challenging.
[00:22:28] Lucy: Yeah. And if you know how to work with it, that's the thing is that you are not a machine, you're a
[00:22:32] Penelope: human.
[00:22:33] Lucy: Yeah. So
[00:22:33] Penelope: you can adapt. Yeah. You've really got, you've really gotta know your better. You get to, you've become friends.
[00:22:40] And you have good and on on the course. I remember he said, it doesn't matter how good you are, you will have good days and you'll have bad spinning days. Like there's some days where you just can't spin. I use rip seeded oil to grease my pans. In France, they will use lard. So if you're vegetarian, you gotta ask.
[00:22:59] So I'm gonna make the classic complex.
[00:23:04] Lucy: So that is ham, cheese and an egg. Yeah. Ham cheese. Yeah,
[00:23:09] Penelope: ham, cheese and egg. I use M Andal cheese. Some cre use Conte. Mm. And because where is my blue roll? Oh, the essential. Oh, the essential. The Heaven sent Blue Roll. But like every person, the first creps always not the best.
[00:23:29] Lucy: Oh, it's reassuring to know that even professionals,
[00:23:32] Penelope: no, the first one always is never the best one. And here's where I troubleshoot. Not troubleshoot, but I just see if the, the batter's the right consistency before I put food on. Right? So here, grab this. In one hand,
[00:23:49] Lucy: Penelope distributes a.
[00:23:53] Skillfully spreads it across the surface of the hot plate. There we go.
[00:24:02] Penelope: But I'm happy with that consistency. Okay. I think that will work.
[00:24:19] There we go.
[00:24:24] Lucy: Yep. Think we're good. So that's the color that you're looking for. That's the color I'm looking for. Nice. Dark.
[00:24:29] Penelope: So it's nice and dark. But yeah, that's the That is the gt. Oh, it's beautiful, isn't it? So I will pop that one. I'll pop that one there. You can chill there. We'll have that one over here. I'm gonna heat up my butter a little bit.
[00:24:43] Lucy: Oh, that's a good trick. Just putting the bowl on the hot plate. That's probably not good
[00:24:46] Penelope: for the bowl, but handy, it's very handy at work, so I'll just heat up my butter. Um, that's just, that's part of my prep in the morning. I'll just pop it on, make sure I've always got, get it nice and soft. Yeah, there we go.
[00:25:00] And you'll actually, you'll see the, a very big difference between a non buttered one. It'll go, Chris, it'll go cz because of the butter.
[00:25:08] Lucy: Okay, so the butter is the key to the cz. Yeah,
[00:25:10] Penelope: the c. Right. That will do. Normally this one's on, so I'll just leave that and then that one answer. So I've got my ham and cheese Al.
[00:25:20] Always cut.
[00:25:21] Lucy: Yeah.
[00:25:23] Penelope: And we're ready to go.
[00:25:28] Yeah, but rope, seed oil does the exact same job as lard. Right.
[00:25:33] Lucy: And it's vegetarian, so.
[00:25:34] Penelope: And it's vegetarian. Yeah. It is a slight difference.
[00:25:40] Lucy: I mean, I imagine the lard ones are delicious. Yeah.
[00:25:44] Penelope: I've never made a large one here.
[00:25:52] Lucy: Okay. There we're that beautiful like Lacey edges. So nice, isn't it?
[00:25:59] Penelope: Yeah.
[00:26:04] I just leave it a few seconds to cook before I do anything, and then I'll add the butter.
[00:26:08] Lucy: So you brush the butter on the top and then flip it.
[00:26:13] Penelope: I'll fold it instead of flipping it. Ah. So if I'm, if I'm making just sort of spinning them, then I'll flip them. But this will cook enough without needing to flip.
[00:26:23] Here's the butter
[00:26:30] Lucy: eggs going on.
[00:26:34] Ah, so you kind of
[00:26:35] Penelope: spread the white out so it cooks because they, they only take about three minutes to cook, so it wouldn't, it wouldn't cook the, the egg. Mm, the egg white. Just put that.
[00:26:56] Lucy: And the ham. Is this like the classic aesthetic of the complex? Like the ham goes around the egg yolk and then That's right. Yeah.
[00:27:04] Penelope: Yeah. And we, the cheese will scatter there, but we've got right one,
[00:27:15] and then when it starts to fold around the edges, that's when I can just.
[00:27:20] Lucy: You're using your big long spatula to kind of fold it down and it is
[00:27:24] Penelope: the essential. Yeah. I've got, this is an old fashioned Oh, so that's the wooden one? This is the wooden one. So this is what they would've used probably before the metal spatulas.
[00:27:34] Yeah. Um, but I used this. So pri primarily to flick the fuse switch I think goes off 'cause it's wooden, so I'm not gonna get electro. Yeah, my god. So, so it's also an essential, so I look like it's, this is the one thing I could not live about. Because there's so much, it is so small, there's so much electricity.
[00:27:54] Then if the urns on, then the induction on immediately, then it goes off. So I'm like running. So this is always arm's lamp. I love it.
[00:28:02] Lucy: So it's still, yeah, I thank the, um, the GT ancestors for that.
[00:28:08] Penelope: So I've never actually used it for, for one of these. There we go, fold that, and then that just continues to cook.
[00:28:17] Oh, that's so beautiful. And yeah, I'd say the, the four way fold is the classic for the, for the complex.
[00:28:25] Lucy: Yeah.
[00:28:26] Penelope: But some ee will make a nice little triangle. Oh, okay. And equilateral triangles very hard to achieve. Yeah, I bet. I'm very bad. I have no sense of, but I, you like where to fold it, but I get there.
[00:28:44] There we go. And then
[00:28:45] Lucy: more butter of course.
[00:28:46] Penelope: Always more butter. We always would. I get told off not putting our butter. There we go. And butter is very good for you. Yeah, there we go.
[00:28:59] And then the ping there. There we go.
[00:29:02] Lucy: That is gorgeous. The resulting complex was beautiful. The dark golden gt folded neatly into a square, framing the sunny egg yolk strips of ham and melted ental. Seeing it. I was struck by how easy Penelope had made it look and when she offered to let me have my first go at spinning.
[00:29:22] I couldn't resist
[00:29:24] Penelope: first things first. Careful of your arms.
[00:29:26] Lucy: Yes. Okay. Let me,
[00:29:28] Penelope: so this
[00:29:29] Lucy: is
[00:29:29] Penelope: the
[00:29:29] Lucy: occupational
[00:29:29] Penelope: hazard of Yeah. When I, I had no, my spatial awareness has got a lot better.
[00:29:37] Lucy: Yeah. But I imagine you learn the hard way. You learn the hard
[00:29:40] Penelope: way after you've had a few burns, like Right. I'm a bit sick of this now.
[00:29:43] Yeah. Okay. So I'll, before you start, I'll show you, I'll just give you a quick, the, the quick little demo Okay. Of, of the steps. So,
[00:29:54] Lucy: oil first. Oil first, and then you spread it out. You spread the
[00:29:57] Penelope: oil. Are you left-handed?
[00:29:59] Lucy: I'm right-handed.
[00:30:00] Penelope: Oh yeah, that's what I meant. Yeah. So you are going in the same way. So I'll lale with my letter hand.
[00:30:05] Yeah. Yeah. Lady of your left hand. So the, the, the main thing I have to say is you don't want to tilt the spatula upwards. Okay. 'cause that will just scrape the batter up.
[00:30:17] Lucy: It wants to be flat. You want
[00:30:18] Penelope: it to be as flat as possible.
[00:30:21] Lucy: Amazing. And
[00:30:21] Penelope: small little movements. Okay. Small little movements. Um, you'll get to this point where you'll have to flip it around.
[00:30:28] Okay. That's, that's a hard one to, to grasp at the beginning. Um, okay. But do you wanna have a go at spinning it without the bat first? Yeah.
[00:30:34] Lucy: Okay. So you want it to be. Flat. So like that? Yeah, that's it. Oh, it is quite like awkward, isn't it? It's
[00:30:40] Penelope: very awkward. It feels really unnatural
[00:30:42] Lucy: at the beginning. Yeah.
[00:30:43] Oh, but I can see it's easy to kind of tip it.
[00:30:45] Penelope: Yeah. And then if you tip it, it will just, it will just scrape. It'll pull it. It will pull it. Okay. So kind of like that. Like that, but smaller movements.
[00:30:54] Lucy: Smaller movements. Okay. Okay. Like that.
[00:30:59] Penelope: That's it. Yeah. Okay. That's, that's exactly that. Cool. Alright. It's hot as well.
[00:31:04] 'cause like obviously you've got all the heat off plate. It's really hot. You get used to it. You do get used to it in the summer. It's something else. Yeah. Oh my god. I bet. Like I try and wear the least amount of clothing as I can. That's still appropriate. Did you get away
[00:31:16] Lucy: with just an apron? Yeah. So oil.
[00:31:20] So we're going oil. Can I, do I put this, should I put this down for now? Yeah. Pop that down. So we're going oil. You can see
[00:31:26] Penelope: how when you are like reaching, that's when you can easily burn. Oh, yeah,
[00:31:28] Lucy: yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're going oil Just a little bit.
[00:31:31] Penelope: You can put a put, you can put a little bit more because Okay.
[00:31:34] I haven't spun in a few seconds. Yeah, that's perfect. Okay.
[00:31:37] Lucy: So then we go in with the, did I press? Yes, I did. Uh, so then we go in with this. Yeah.
[00:31:44] Penelope: So s movements or, or whatever, whatever is. Comfortable. Whatever's comfortable. Like right to the edges. Yeah, go right to the edges. Cool. Okay. Oh, that's
[00:31:55] Lucy: satisfying.
[00:31:55] Penelope: It is, isn't it?
[00:31:56] Lucy: Yeah. Okay. Like that? Yeah. Alright. That goes down. So now it feels awkward doing this. Do I wanna have my, you wanna have it in your hand already? Yeah. Okay.
[00:32:10] Penelope: It makes it a little bit easier. Yeah. Uh, oh God. And the bat, um, is you, if you, you can, I'd say if you put put around this, put it there.
[00:32:20] Put it there, and then you can spin from that way. Okay. And how much are we talking, like, that's it. A
[00:32:24] Lucy: ladle fall. One fall. Okay. So it's going on. That's it. And straight away you need straight away. That's it. Oh my God. Oh my God. Are you only supposed to spread one way? Oh my God, this is a disaster.
[00:32:41] Penelope: It's, you know, it's not the worst I've seen as first go and, well, now you've got that you can do, um, spread the butter.
[00:32:48] Lucy: Okay. Okay. So we do a bit of butter
[00:32:51] Penelope: and you're gonna put toppings on as well.
[00:32:52] Lucy: Oh my God. Oh my God.
[00:32:54] Penelope: Okay, so do
[00:32:54] Lucy: I put this back in the water? Yeah. Oh my God, it's so thick,
[00:32:59] Penelope: but it will still cook. It'll still be, you made the, it still be ugly. So
[00:33:02] Lucy: easily
[00:33:03] Penelope: look
[00:33:03] Lucy: so
[00:33:03] Penelope: easy.
[00:33:08] More butter?
[00:33:09] Lucy: Or is that, no,
[00:33:10] Penelope: you're good. That's
[00:33:10] Lucy: that. Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. Okay. So we're gonna go in with the, like a nice little
[00:33:14] Penelope: ham and cheese.
[00:33:15] Lucy: Okay, cool. So put the ham on because once you folded it it might, it's gonna be fine. It's, it's gonna look almost like a gt. It's not gonna look like that one.
[00:33:28] Okay. It is, it
[00:33:29] Penelope: is deceiving.
[00:33:30] Lucy: It's so, yeah, I knew it was gonna be harder than it looked, but I did not anticipate. Okay, so now do I get my,
[00:33:37] Penelope: yeah, so you can don, you start off with those, these bits, so you can do any fold you want. You can do a square.
[00:33:44] Lucy: I think it's going to be whatever. Fold. I'm able to do, oh yeah, we've got a bit of a sticking there.
[00:33:49] I'm sorry if I've ruined your hot plate.
[00:33:51] Penelope: No, it doesn't. No, they're extremely
[00:33:54] Lucy: Okay. So maybe I'll just fold this side in. Just hide the worst bits.
[00:34:05] If you had to the LE Instagram, you can see the truly diabolical mess that. My Git turned out as, but was very kind about it, but it was an embarrassment that really brought shame upon her establishment and hot plate, so. Safe to say, I won't be working in a creary anytime soon. Not without some extensive qualifications of the kind that Penelope did.
[00:34:31] If you're local to Hastings or even visiting for the day or longer, you can find Cree by the sea on St. Andrews Muse in Hastings. It's just a short walk from both the Newtown Center and the station. As well as the classic complex that Penelope made here. There's always delicious specials on the menu. You can check her Instagram page for those as well as UpToDate opening times at Cree by the Sea.
[00:34:55] There's an underscore between each word. Thank you to Penelope for taking the time to record this with me. I had a lot of fun and the Gillette was absolutely delicious, and editing this episode has made me crave one to an almost unbearable level. So she's closed for a little bit at the moment. But, um, as soon as she's back open, I'm gonna go in and have one.
[00:35:15] I'm hoping to talk to more people in Hastings in St. Leonards this year because it's where I live now and it has such an interesting history and kind of present food scene. If you know of anyone in the area who you think would make a great guest, let me know. Doesn't have to be people cooking for a living, just anyone with a kind of interesting approach to food.
[00:35:34] I'd particularly love to meet. Passionate home and community cooks beyond the people I already know here. So if anyone comes to mind, let me know. You can find me on Instagram at le, a podcast. I'd love to hear from you. Lcca is an independent podcast supported by listener funding. If you enjoy listening and you're in a position to spare a few pounds every month towards its making, you can become a paid subscriber on Apple Podcasts, Patreon, or Substack Links to find out more is in the show notes.
[00:36:05] The music in this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions. Thanks for listening to Leika. I'll be back soon.