So this was one of my first forays into cooking at camp or being camp cook (and no I don’t mean prancing about wearing a tutu apron!!).

My only previous experience of camp cooking was helping out at summer camp last year where the clientele was less numerous but probably no less discerning – one of the nice / most brutal things about scouts is their complete and utter honesty. So this time it was cooking for the masses, not quite fish, bread and thousands but it felt similar at times!

Owing to the hoards that required feeding the shopping expedition was on an industrial scale and when it came to the bacon some might say Epic scale. A recent scientific study has shown that bacon gives you longevity. Let’s hope so as most of the leaders will need something to counteract the effects of sleeping in a tent for a few hours before being woken by the dawn chorus – otherwise known as noisy cubs!

Back to the grub, yes it was familiar camp food (stop it – stop mucking about) sausages, burgers, beans, chicken fricassee or pasta with vegetable Ragu (ooh la-di-da), all washed down with plenty of custard and hot chocolate – sounds absolutely revolting! I don’t think anyone went hungry, even with the efforts of one of our senior scouts trying to eat everything in sight, as someone might have ordered portions sizes that they are used to rather than scout portions (my bad)- still the vegetable Ragu went to a good home.

I would just like to say a big thank you to all the other leaders who helped / got in the way / demanded tea at inappropriate times; it wouldn’t have been half the experience without you. I’ll leave you with quote of the camp that came from a certain cub leader – at various times throughout the camp a shriek would emanate from the kitchen by the washing up bowl followed by the cry “ooh my plug’s fallen out”