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She has burnt water, set an oven on fire and scalded her hand on a hob, but can a top chef save our reporter and possibly Kent's worst cook?

We sent Alex Langridge down to The Pumproom in Chatham to get a masterclass in fine dining with only one rule – try not to burn the place down...

Despite being a waitress for six years and getting an A in GCSE food technology, I have never been a good cook and been told by many I could potentially be the county's worst.

If you're wondering how bad it could possibly be, here is an insight into some of my not so finer moments...

At school, I once set the inside of an oven on fire as the baking paper was cut too big and caught light. I didn't burn the building down or even set the fire alarm off but it was close.

I once left water boiling for so long it burnt – still not entirely sure how I did that one.

While at university, I placed my entire hand on a hot hob without realising it was on and my hand came up in blisters– I am all fine now, not even a scar.

There are countless other incidents I have blocked from my memory so when I was offered the chance to learn from a top chef, I thought it was worth a shot. How much worse could it get?

I headed down to The Pumproom at Copper Rivet Distillery to meet with head chef Will Freeman who has worked at the fine dining establishment for two years – including several months preparing for the restaurant opening – and creates the menu.

The 29-year-old explained we would be cooking one of their most popular dishes – the hand-dived Rye Bay scallop with a chicken wing, hazelnuts, grape and chicken gravy.

I don't like fish or seafood, have never tried a scallop, let alone cooked one, but Will reassured me that it was a simple enough dish for a beginner. I wasn't so sure but off we went.

The first thing you do is heat two pans of oil. Once hot, you add the chicken wing, let it cook until it begins to steam, add a knob of butter and move it down the hob where it is cooler.

The chicken is made by salting the wings, removing the upper part – which is then roasted for the gravy – and slow-cooking the meat in fats and oils. They are then de-boned and pressed skin-side down, alternating to get the layers and create its shape.

While that is frying, you start on the scallop. Will explained it usually arrives in a shell and you would run a knife down the back of it to separate the muscle, but thankfully for me the bank holiday affected deliveries so we used a pre-prepared portion.

After seasoning it with salt, he showed me how to look for the "presentation side" – the side where the scallop rises upwards and not down. Once identified, it goes face down in a pan with hot oil.

As it starts to steam, you add a knob of butter and flip the scallop and the chicken. Then you spoon the oil on top of the scallop to make sure all the flavour is absorbed and cooked through.

Will made this part seem extremely easy but with the oil spitting and the heat from the pan, it becomes difficult and I wasn't able to get the speed he had.

After about a minute, you remove it from the heat and start on the sauce. The gravy is pre-made from the discarded chicken from the wings but needs to be heated through.

While it is boiling, you add a spoonful of crème freche and whisk until it is all combined, add a pickled grape and remove from the heat ready to plate up.

The dish takes around eight to nine hours to prepare but only three to four minutes to cook and serve.

Plating up proved hard, especially when you are cack-handed like me as I kept dropping the food off the spatula onto the plate as opposed to neatly placing it.

I was pretty pleased I had managed to make the dish look half-decent with my track record of burning food and no knowledge on how to prepare a scallop, but the multi-tasking was intense at times.

We sat down to eat each other's portion and I felt like I was on MasterChef waiting for his feedback. "Your plating up could use some work but the scallop is cooked perfectly and the rest is good," Will told me.

Saying this, he did say I put too much salt on the scallop in the first instance and it could have been crispier on top. Will also chuckled while he watched me clumsily top the chicken in hazlenuts.

We did need to put the chicken back on the heat as it had started to cool down, because of how long I had taken cooking the other elements, but all in all he said I had done well for my first go. I think he was being kind but I'll take it. There is still hope for me yet!

The starter is one of the restaurant's best-sellers and the scallops are hand-dived in Rye instead of being dredged from the sea floor which makes them more expensive.

Will said: "We try to source everything as local as possible but we do not put locality over quality. But if the quality and location is there, we will get it."

The dad has been in the industry for 12 years, starting as a porter in a local pub before working his way up to head chef.

Talking about the job, he said: "It is high pressure but all of us staff are in the same environment. If you pick your team right you can pick each other up during the 16-hour shifts.

"We are all in the same boat. It is pretty much like a building site, there is lots of lots of banter and we all just get on.

"For me, the best thing is the creativity. I have worked in some places where you are restricted to what you can do, it takes a lot of the fun out of it.

"Food is very personal. All of my dishes are a little bit of me and what I enjoy. You put yourself out on a plate and no one should dictate what there should be. Here, I have full creative control.

"The main thing I wanted to do here was give people that London experience. I am not saying we are better, it is not about competition. It is about doing the best I can and see where that takes us.

"I wanted to offer local people a different dining experience that is not only for special occasions but on people's doorsteps.

"We are very relaxed about how we do it as sometimes in fancier places you feel out of place. Here, you do not need to put on a suit. You can come in and spend as little or much as possible."

The Pumproom in Leviathan Way has been open for just around a year and serves an a la carte and tapas menu.

It is also hosting themed evenings with the first on September 29.

What's for dinner? Plan meals, try new foods and explore cuisines with tested recipes from the country's top chefs.

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