The Culinary Secrets Act

Since mrs pao set up my blog for me a while ago, thus introducing me to the art of blogging, I have been errr browsing, surfing??? anyway going through many a food blog collecting millions of recipes, which I really will put into little yellow computer folders the next time it rains on a Sunday (along with clearing out the larder, filing paperwork, sorting out my aromatherapy draw, tidying the bookshelf etc).  Of course one of these days I  will also try out some of these million or so recipes. No, really, I will.  Especially some of  joythebaker's recipes. In fact the next time AJ, TJ and MG come to lunch they may well get her chicken pot pie - so there. 


Anyway in/on (oh no I have to learn a whole new vocabulary of terminology now!) one food blog I came upon I discovered that they used recipe testers - and what is more they wanted volunteers.   I had no idea such a thing existed, outside the realms professional cooks employed by the likes of Jamie and Delia et al.


And so I applied.


I had to fill in a little box saying a bit about myself so I told them I  had been made redundant after being in a stressful job, rediscovering joys of photography, reading, cooking  etc etc.  And then I had to say why I wanted to be a recipe tester for them........... so I said..........wait for it........'.if I can successfully follow a recipe... then it must be  foolproof, check out my blog'!!! I read it all back, not once but twice - and then I sent it.

I got an email back saying they had enough volunteers at the moment but they were always on the look out for suitable people.  That was it.  No -  and as we consider you to be eminently suitable we will keep your details on file - or - will get back to you when we have a vacancy - or - even thank you for your interest. For a while I was surprised.   Then I remembered.  Ah,  blown it again then.

I now wanted to be a recipe tester more than anything and so spent much, much, much time looking at food blogs but sadly found no opportunities.

So imagine my surprise when opening my email today I found an invitation from the very website I had applied to asking me to be one of their recipe testers. 

I'm so excited!!!   I'm registered already.  Of course it's all unpaid and I have to supply the ingredients at my own cost but I'm a recipe tester. How very, very exciting. There are some  legal bits and one of them is a block on the things  I can actually talk about so until I have worked out what the legalese means I can't say much having already signed the legal agreement which makes me a recipe tester.  I can say(I think) that I have chosen my first recipe (can't say what it is though) and my evaluation  has to be sent in within a week.  The evaluation  'may', if it is well written and interesting enough, be published on their website - they must have an awful lot of testers writing reviews but, you never know.... oh how exciting.

And, someone is going to have to eat some of the things I am going to be cooking so invites may well be abounding in a fortnightly manner..........   Although by the sounds of it we won't be able to discuss the food, or is it just the recipe, I really must get straight in my mind just what it is I have signed up to.

It is an American website so there are a few translation issues that need resolving such as 'how much is a cup of something?', 'what is cilantro?', 'how much is one stick of butter'?, 'is a pie plate the same as a pie dish'? a 'how do I broil something' and 'what on earth  is a Ramp'?.  Luckily for me my friend MO is American so I can ask her for clarification, without actually mentioning what it is I am doing of course.

Me, a recipe tester - imagine that. 

They obviously didn't look at my blog so I shall keep quiet about it I think.