Different ways of eating

This story might sound on the cute side, a bit cheesy for some, but to me very interesting and eye opening.

It was late spring in Japan, we decided to buy an ice cream, the weather was fantastic; strolling down the streets of Kamakura.

Suddenly, her ice cream caught my attention, the different shape resulting in a very personal way of eating it, mine and hers couldn’t be more opposite.

This showed me how you can’t think small when it come to food, possibilities are endless, it all depends on the mind eating it or creating it. Never think that your way is the best way, for there will surely be another way, it just takes another mind to show it to you.

Have a great day

minds at work

Matsuri (temple related party) Food in Tokyo

Since i manage to find a bit of time to write again, i’d like to share with you an event that happens a little all over Japan, the MATSURI, or the celebration at a local temple.

Its filled with food from hot dog Nihon style to grilled fish on coal, takoyaki (squid ball) to okonomiyaki (vegatable omelette topped with egg and bacon) and so much more !!!! games are part of the celebration for the children, as well as dances and other precession.

here are a few pic of what it is really… enjoy

that one was in Kabukicho

Grilled fish around coal, Japanese BBQ

Tako being inserted in the batter

bacon and egg

Nihon style

different topings, from red pickle ginger, egg, sauce and Mayo

best tako i have seen for takoyaki

Kids fun

The day was great and fun. Today was cooking class with kids, Xmas log making !!! You’re going to say easy, but try to teach the class in English to Japanese kids from 3 to 9 years old !!!! It was, how to say, challenging yet great. The kids were really interested in the whole process. Here are some of their creations.

They did very well, all 27 of them.

Now, after a long and rewarding day, time to relax. A good beer and of to bed.

Culinary yours

And I am back !!!

Play on a Lobster Vol-au-vent

Dear readers,

First I would like to apologies for that long hiatus. New job, new responsibilities and a lot of work.

I am now heading the kitchen of the One Michelin starred restaurant, le Pergolese, in Hilton hotel, Tokyo. The sister restaurant of Le Pergolese in Paris owned by Stephane Gaborieau, MOF and great chef.

My arrival was hell of a lot of fun, wall shattering earthquake making it difficult to properly settle the first few months. But now, all is good, the team is great and the restaurant gaining in popularity since.

Let me give you the link of the restaurant but be warned that it is in Japanese: http://www.lepergolese.jp

 

I will update my blog with some new pictures of dishes and other anecdotes of my japanese life.

 

Thank you all again for your support.

 

Culinary yours

Italian food shot

Al dente pasta with a pesto cream sauce, and a dash of tomato sauce to bring some acidity to the dish.

A classic, flavored with amaretto syrup and topped with a home mdae Cherry Macaroon.

Veal Shank, sliced and braised over 4 hours at low temperature. Served with Gremolata garnish

Layer of potatoes, cucumber, and tomatoes, filled with tuna and cilantro mix.

Hi folks,

I wanted to share with you all a few new Italian dishes that were shot recently.

So enjoy the pictures and I hope that they will make you hungry.

Culinary yours.

What does a Chef really do?

Beside the obvious, cooking, a Chef de cuisine is responsible for a lot more than just produce good food, and even that, he’s not alone to put together the dishes that warm your soul and make your tastebuds dance.

Our work, involves a wide array of skills, let’s start with one of the most important, the financial aspect.

A chef need to be able to establish and control his budget, planing the purchasing of his raw materials, balancing the cost of his manpower and his dishes; all this makes for a succesful restaurant. Knowing how to produce good dishes at a reasonable price (or not) and being able to cost them accordingly. About 30% of the expenses of the restaurant is food !!

The other very important function of a Chef is to be able to connect with the customer, we are both Sales and Marketing. It’s our duty to understand our customers, to find out what they want, how much they’re willing to pay to eat your food and how often would they like to come and visit your establishment. Then, we need connect with our customers, meet them at their table, recommend the food that would suit them best both in terms of taste and price; we have a very short time to assess them, we need them to like us quickly and gain their trust.

Trust is the key to sale, as Chefs, we all have customers that come not only for the food, but for the overall experience that we can provide. It is common for a good customer to not even have a look at the menu, the chef would just come to the table, recommend something special, and the guest will trust his judgement blindly. The downside to that is that you cannot miss the mark, or you’ll risk to lose a guest.

Listening is also key, criticisms are most of the time constructive and leads to a real improvement in our way to cook and serve the guests.

There are no bad comments, there are only opportunities to learn something new and to improve the services that you are offering.

Diplomacy is also a skill that is needed on a regular basis; when I said “there is no bad comments”, I was lying. We all faced an irate customer that wants to look good in front of his friends or other guests, and complain about a particular things that are not justified. The skill to soothe without making them look like fools.

And finally, we are at the heart of the kitchen, orchestrating the ballet that takes place every service around the stove, directing, synchronizing and bringing everyone together to deliver that perfect dish. Keeping our head cool during high stress time, leading by example, gaining the respect of our “troops” by always explaining them, showing them new technic and driving them to always be better cooks.

As you can read, it takes a lot more than creativity, passion and cooking skills to be a chef, we need to be all-rounder, may it be sales and marketing, finance, diplomat or Human resources, we need to always be on our toes to serve you best.

Culinary yours

Ramadan in KSA

Happy Eid Mubarak and Ramadan Karim

 

In 3 weeks time, will start the Ramadan; this month of fast for the muslims all over the world.

But for us, F&B professionals, it has a whole different meaning.

Days will turn into nights, staff will turn into zombies and buffet presentations will be slaughtered by hordes of hungry customers. Nonetheless, we will keep the customers happy, always providing them with an array of food that will make them feel at home, large choice of arabic delights such as Baba ghanoush, Tabouleh, Hummous, Warak enab and so on…

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In fact, we, in the restaurant business, are paying a lot of attention to these particular days, Ramadan being a family affair, we hold a certain responsibility to make their first meal of the day as tasty and as magical as we can. The family must leave happy, satiated and with the intention to come back to us and bring more of their friends and acquaintances.

So for all that to happen, we put aside our lives for a little while, stop smoking during the days, try not to drink either, by respect for the local culture and for our employees.

Ramadan in KSA, a unique event that you might “NOT” want to miss…

culinary yours and Happy eid mubarak.

The Chef is right…Always.

In a kitchen brigade, as an apprentice, there are a few things that you learn the hard way: watch your finger while you use a knife, make sure the baking sheet is cold before grabbing it, cool down our boiled vegetables in iced water…The list is endless.

It took me no more than 4 days to learn the most important rules of all; let me recount you that story.

It was in 1996, at “La ciboulette” I had been there for a few days, watching how things work, learning and trying to absorb as much as I could. I was coming from a catering school, with a bit of an attitude of know it all. That didn’t last…

On that fine day, the Chef asked me to clean the staircase, I can recall his exact word until today:

“Take the Ajax powder, and clean the stairs one by one, rinse and then dry”

A quick and solid “yes chef” came out of my mouth, that was the beginning of my troubles.

So there I was, bucket of water, brush and Ajax powder in hand, scrubbing the stairs one by one, making sure that there wasn’t a single dirty spot on it. The sous chef pass by and asked me if I used the right detergent to clean; me, full of confidence, replied “yes, the chef told me to use that one.”

He looked at me, smiled and got back to work. I didn’t pay attention at the time, didn’t see the helpful smile on his face that was telling me that I was doing something wrong.

After an hour, stairs clean, rinsed and dry, I get back to the Chef to tell him that I was done.

So there we go. Arrived at the stairs, he stopped suddenly, turn around and ask me a simple question: “What did you use to clean the stairs?”. In my inexperienced self-confidence, I replied “Ajax Chef ! what you told me to use !”. The powder had left a white residue all over after drying, and I wasn’t worry, as it was the Chef who told me to use that product, I thought it was normal.

Nicely at first, he told me that he never say such words and cocky me, I insisted, repeated those same words. What a mistake !!!!!!

His face turned red, his mouth opened as never I’d seen it before, the amount of decibel coming out from it was ear shattering. I backed up against the wall, feeling in danger, and got the worst scolding of my life !! I suddenly had new adjectives attached to my name, very colorful ones. French !!!

At the end of it, I got to clean the stairs again, Rinse them again, and dust all the remaining powder that was left. I was angry, I knew I was right, that he made a mistake, not me.

After being done, I put all the cleaning equipment away and I see Max, the sous chef, a smile on his face. He takes me to a corner and tells me this:

” Jerome, there are 2 rules in a kitchen.

Number one, the chef is always right, and number 2, even when the chef is wrong, he’s right.”

From that day forth, I never argued with the Chef; well almost never. I learned to swallow my pride and redo the job if I had to. These rules will always be part of me, and thanks to Max and the chef, a whole new generation of apprentice are learning it now…From me.

The reward of being a Chef.

Today, I am particularly happy. Why? you’ll asked me.

Well, let me tell you.

When I was working in Cyprus, Aphrodite hills in Paphos, I had in my kitchen a staff that was new to this business, hailing from Greece. She was a bundle of energy and a party animal, but she never came late, always worked her ass off, and always had a smile on a face. A pleasure.

So I started to teach her what I know, from organising her station to proper technic of preparation; I was behind her every step of the way, to let her know she did good, or to let her hear me when it was crap and that she had to redo the whole thing. I was firm, but fair, or at least I like to think so.

During that season with her, she got to learn a lot of different things, from making Foie gras to baking proper creme brulee. She must have hated me.

By the way, I forgot to mentioned that we were only 3 staffs in that kitchen, including me. The other cook, Mikael, was my sous chef.

To come back to my story, today I get a message from her, Katerina Tsirmoula and it said: “Chef, thank you!! I got a promotion today and it’s thanks to you.”

There it was, a moment that a lot of chefs expect, the reward after all these hours spent passing knowledge, getting angry, laughing and putting pressure on the staff to get the best of them. I was ecstatic. I now know how my Chef felt when I called him several years back to thank him for his time and patience with me.

So today, I’d like to dedicate this post to Georges Paccard, the one person that I will always refer to as Chef, and to Katerina, the first person that makes me feel so happy to be a Chef.

To both of you, a great thank you.

Oh and Kat, if your read that, keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll be more than OK.

Culinary yours,

She was messy some time, had to remind her to clean her chopping board.

The little Greek, in her whites, always ready to work and learn.

When West meets East, a french chef in the jungle.

Kind of fish paste sausage, boiled, then deep fied and serve with chilli sauce. Very addictive in front of the TV

Satay, chargrilled meat skewers, served with spicy peanut sauce, sooooooooo good!!

The worst fruit on earth, smells bad, taste bad and look bad too. But such a delicacy in South east asia.

The hairy fruit, very close to the litchi, but more fruity and juicier.

Travelling, one of the most important thing a chef should do.

The reason?

Discovering new flavors, new cultures, learning new ways to create and gather enough knowledge to be able to marry two traditions.

Beside the fact that travelling is enjoyable, it will bring a chef closer to people, helping him to understand the roots of a culture, very often, far from our own and difficult to grasp. The longer we stay in a country, the greater the chances to immerse ourselves in their habits by the way of local friendship, taking us on, what is for them, a gastronomical tour.

May it be fried cricket, fermented shrimp paste, Durian (a south-east asian fruit that smells so bad that it’s forbidden to bring some in hotels and airplanes) or a simple curry, their respect for the culture and the food is usually above average.

In Malaysia, I’ve been taken on hour-long ride across country to sample their most famous delicacies, not always to my taste I should say, but every time it was fantastic, the hospitality displayed surpassed by far what I’ve known in Europe. People with little means, opening their door and lying a spread of food fit for a king, by the quality and quantity, sitting you down at the best seat in the house, watching you eat and making sure that you had everything you needed. Pure generosity.

On my opinion, this is the way to discover, and the more you respect their culture, learn their language and traditions, the more they will initiate you to hidden aspect of their gastronomy.

Their attitude started to change towards me when I could speak a bit of Malay; suddenly, invitation for lunches and diners started to pour, they realised that I was interested to know more about, not only their food, but them too. I was then, discovering Malaysia.

These memories, are sealed in my mind, I’ve discovered products, flavors, tastes and sights that forever shaped my way of cooking and enjoying food. If any of these persons read this, I would like to thank you for that, you’ve made me a better Chef and a better human being in the process.

culinary yours