The end of one chapter... and the beginning of another!

Some of you may have known by now, that even armed with a CDI (contrat de durée indeterminé - basically a permanent job offer) I could not convert my titre de séjour étudiant to that of a salarié, due to very vague French bureaucracy, one of the solution was to apply for a work visa back in Singapore, with Hédiard applying as a sponsor from Paris. We agreed they would try and let me know if things went through with the manpower ministry. I bade farewell to the good folks at Hédiard and came back to to Asia in February.

I first went back to my school at LCB to talk to my chef instructors, find out what's happening in the F&B scene, picked up some names and some places to try. Bangkok proved to be quite difficult, I talked to 3 restaurants, Tables was ready to employ me but the HR director later replied that the work visa was not going through. Pl.A. said they would like to take me, but no budget at this moment. Marriott made an offer as well, but we needed to work out the kinks of my package, but by then, the red-shirt demonstrations were picking up speed and we scheduled for a later date for discussion.

Which was just as well, cos' back in Singapore, the Marina Bay Sands was going to to launch a soft opening very soon, and all along I've heard of some of the fine restaurants that were going to open in there even when I was in Paris. I sent in my resume, but it needed quite a bit of jostling to get some attention.

Meanwhile, I attended interviews at 2 local good French restaurants and received offers from both, but I asked to wait a little longer for a confirmation.

In any case, I am glad to let you know that I am now employed in the kitchen at Guy Savoy at Marina Bay Sands! I'm definitely excited by this opportunity, and though I admit I'll have to start at somewhere lower in ranks, but I'm sure there will be chances to do well, and move up along the way. I can't wait to get started in a kitchen again, it has been a while, and my hands (though been cooking for friends this while) are starting to get itchy again! Definitely there'll be incredible things to learn, and build up from my experience and knowledge from Auguste and Hédiard. I remember being fascinated just from reading the menu of the restaurant in Paris, and even that of Le Chiberta. Can't believe I'm in the kitchen and churning those out now!

Allez allez allez!!

First culinary job!

During my internship, I chanced upon a job. Most people know Hediard as a specialty gourmet produce shop, bringing in spices, teas, coffees, jams, vinegars, oils, etc from all corners of the world, but not many people know that at on the 1st floor of the main store at Place de la Madeleine, there is a restaurant and a salon de thé. The main store has been in its current location since 1854, but it's restaurant has only begun in the mid 80's.

So, I began my first culinary job as a commis de cuisine. I am solely in charge of the garde manger section. Under my care are 5 dishes - foie gras mi-cuit served with prune chutney, wild game terrine with red onion confiture, cured salmon with fresh salmon tartare, served with chives cream and blinis, Spanish trevelez ham, and carpaccio of sea bream with mango vinaigrette and coconut and lime emulsion.

During the afternoons, in between service, we serve light nibbles of club sandwiches, quiches, croque monsieurs and salads, while we tackle our mise en place for the dinner service. I dread being on the roster for Saturday afternoons, cos' that's when the orders come flying in. I counted once, I made more than 3o orders between 3-6pm., 90% of club sandwiches (tandoori chicken, salmon or vegetarian), and some quiches/croques, at the same time, having to prepare staff dinner (for abt 18) hot and ready by 6.30pm - entree, main dish and a side dish.

Recently, I have been spending more time on the hot starters station. There are new interns and apprentices coming in from local schools, and while I make a check to see that all's in order, I have been working during evening services at the hot station. 2 soups - chestnut soup with a soft-centred egg (oeuf mollet), cappucino of shellfish bisque; vegetable tarte; golden parcel of lobster (aumonieres); and pan-fried scallops served with Jerusalem artichoke puree.

While Hediard does more of traditional French cuisine, and the dishes are less elaborate than a michelin starred restaurant, it was good to learn to pick up speed during service, organisation, the mise en place, and the functioning of a restaurant, within the kitchen team, and with the wait staff. The chef and the second are open to new ideas, recently, I've introduced them to the some products from the Japanese supermarket and how to work with them - silken tofu, yam, shiso leaves, miso.

Culinary Internship

It's been a while since I updated my food blog. While my course has ended, it doesn't mean that the learning has. If anything, cuisine is a lifetime of learning and experimenting and discovering.

I think it is appropriate to include the various culinary experience I have gathered post-school.

I know I am late in posting them, so some parts of it have been forgotten, I will try my best to jog my memories as I go along.

I took up the internship at Restaurant Auguste after my Continuing Education at Cordon Bleu. I was put under the starters and dessert section with a Japanese girl who has been working there for almost a year now.

Under the starters, we prepared gougieres, we had langoustines wrapped with verveine in brick sheets (feuilles de brick), and served with either carrot or pea bavarois, little droplets of peas, a borage flower and drizzles of light creamy sauce. We have fresh oysters- shuckled, the shells plunged in hot water and scrubbed clean. We put the oysters back into their shells, and fill up the cavity with a red wine vinegar and shallots reduction. They are served in 6's, on little mounds of rock salt, a little dot of whipped horseradish cream on top of each oysters, and a sprig of shiso sprout - green and red shiso. There was also 'canneloni' of celeriac root filled with tourteau (a kind of crab).

We have a cheese course, I liked the l'Arguiole, 2 slices, served with a few (carefully selected) young spinach leaves, and a confiture which looked and tasted like honey.

There're the chocolate, pistachio and vanilla soufflés, served with speculoos, honey, and orange flower water ice-cream respectively. There was a dessert of blancmanger in creme d'amande 'soup'. There was banana tarte tartin as well.

Under the mains, we have seabass with olives persillade, roasted guinea fowl breasts with aubergines. We also introduced a ballotine of hare, and a square of stewed baby pork. Under garnitures, we had fresh tagliatelle pasta in lobster sauce.

Certainly the menu has changed now. It's a good idea to change your menu often, it keeps your customers coming back, and reduce the monotony of work.

Last day of School!

I realised I forgot to update on my last day of school. Like the first week, we're given a mystery basket of ingredients to use. This time, there is no compulsory dishes nor ingredients, but Chef would like us to do 2 good dishes rather than 3 that doesn't work. Of cos' the 2 dishes has to be of .... 'star' standard! I felt it will be necessary to use sous-vide technique, the 'siphon', and include something crispy.

For starters, I used the pig's trotters to make a Thai-style salad "Laab" - it's basically seasoned with ground roasted rice, chilli powder, lime juice, salt (lack of fish sauce!), and some mint leaves in chiffonade. For foie gras mousse, I cooked the foie gras and passed through a sieve to get a puree, mixed with some cream and put into a 'siphon' to be plated at last minute. Some poivrade artichokes cooked sous-vide. Some salad greens with hazelnut vinaigrette. For crispy, oven-dried cured ham brushed with balsamic glaze.

For my main, I flattened a chicken breast and rolled it up with a salmon centre and bell peppers brunoises, with cured ham. This is quickly colorated and put to cook sous-vide. I made some carrots and celeriac puree by sous-vide which retains its colors and flavors very well! The chicken thighs didn't come in useful, but I dug out the chicken oysters, sauteed it in brown butter and finished cooking in chicken glaze. For crispy, oven-dried chicken skin and a slice of salmon skin. Sauce: Red wine with juniper berries and truffles brunoises!

I'm happy with my results. If I were to do it again, the siphon method for foie gras mousse came out very thick, next time I will just whip it with a whisk, with 'siphon' maybe I could add in some... chicken stock? Maybe add 1 more interesting item on the starter plate..tomatoes confits? For my main, I've not much complaints, but the cured ham was salty, so I think I needn't have seasoned the salmon/chicken. Chef was happy with both our contributions. The Spanish girl made some spanish-inspired dish (of cos!), but her portions were a little too large (but that's how they eat in Spain!), but tasty as well.

There ends my formal culinary training. I will be on an internship from next week at Restaurant Auguste in the 7th arrondisement with Chef Gaël ORIEUX. You can read up more on him on the net, he was the second with Yannick ALLENO in Le Meurice (3*) in Paris.

I chose a 1 * place and a smaller kitchen team so that I will be able to have more hands on, and more interaction with the chef.

Thanks for your attention all this while. I hope to put up something interesting time to time in my forage into culinary Paris!

This week in Modern Star Cuisine

I know I haven't been updating this blog for 1 week. Well, it's because I moved out of my friend's apartment where I've been borrowing the camera-computer cable, and I could not download the photos from my camera. Good news is, I got a box from Singapore with my cable in it, along with other stuff, and here I am!

This week, we ran classes in a 'workshop', where basically, we end up cooking the 3 dishes/lesson alongside with Chef.

Modern star cuisine is exemplified by smaller but tasty portions of creative combination of ingredients. Presentation counts a lot. As well as different textures (and colors) of soft, firm, cold, hot, crispy, crunchy whipped into a dish. Less use of butter, cream, which 'softens', 'mellows' the taste in more traditional cuisine, modern cuisine has more stark flavors which comes across very directly to the diner to identify. The technique of sous-vide is widely used. I will explain more in later paragraph. The use of 'siphon' as explained in my earlier posts to create mousses is very popular as well.

Now! Let's go to the dishes!

This is a very unusual combination indeed! Foie gras and marinated sardines escabeche terrine. Somehow the use of 2 rather fatty ingredients made an interesting link to each other's flavors.

Sea bass fillet re-constituted to a darne with truffles centre. Various vegetables cooked to the point, and herb coulis. Very healthy! Fish and some of the vegetables cooked sous vide.

Sous vide, or its English translations means under vacuum, vacuum packed. Indeed the food is placed in a special plastic bag, vacuum sealed, and placed to cook either in hot water or a temperature controlled steam oven. Being cooked in its own juices instead of leaching out to the cooking liquid, or even to air, means that the flavors and moisture are preserved a lot more. Then these can be cooled rapidly (preventing overcooking), and re-heated easily again before serving.

Now, some of you, even myself, will ask, then isn't this just like frozen food packets we get in supermarkets? Yes and no. Well, if you start with raw ingredients and you watch the seasoning and cooking point, you're cooking, not just reheating pre-cooked food. Plus, you ensure the freshness yourself. You normally wouldn't keep food (sous vide or otherwise) more than a day or 2 (although technically possible), while the food on the supermarket shelves are (possibly laced with some preserving substances) intended to last for a much longer period of time, and no guarantees on taste and nutrition there.

Lobster on tomato bavarois and lobster sorbet(!!). Bavarois is a term we use to make dessert mousses, we apply pastry techniques into cuisine to achieve more interesting textures. This dish can be served in a martini glass, small shot glasses for catering, or on a plated dish, with an interesting molded tomato bavarois. Here, I made it into a 'tart'.

Tomato skin can be dried in oven to create a featherly item to catch the eye.

Rack of veal with rolled cabbage and vegetables chartreuse. Look at how pink and juicy, rosé the veal is!!! La cuisson est parfaite!

Ok, back to sous vide. Fine with boiled or steamed food, but how do you prepare roasts?! You'll melt the plastic! Yes, so, the idea is to well-colorate the exterior first, get the sweet caramelised (actually Maillard effect) meat browning juices going, and chuck it into the bag, and cook in a steam oven at precise temperature not going beyond 60C. (You actually have to use a thermometer probe throughout the cooking and remove from heat immediately when cooked to the desired doneness) Why? Because it has been scientifically proven, that most (if not all) proteins coagulate at about 60C. When this happens, your food is cooked, but any further means that the collagen breaks down, and you'll start to get grainy, rubbery meat. When the juices are preserved in the bag, and with the addition of (for e.g. bay leaves, thyme), the flavors goes right back into the meat as it is cooking, and the result is amazing!! We are told to be careful with our seasoning because aromatics are multiplied by about 3 folds (why 3?) when cooked sous vide (due to lack of escape into the air, yes, when you're cooking and it smells so good, flavors chemicals and esthers are being lost in the air, not into your food!) This is part of what molecular gastronomy is about. (So, goodbye to good old fashioned cooking??)

And to get more browning in the end, you can put it under a grill, though, be careful not to cook it further.

Zucchini flower petals lined and cooked spinach flan, pan-fried langoustines.

Pig's trotters with foie gras, Potato terrines with truffles. My presentation above. Chef's below.

Marinated Sea bass Carpaccio on a Crisp tart, Leek cream, Salmon Roe Vinaigrette.

And the de-constructed version below......

What is de-construction? It's basically taking apart to its basic components, and re-match them together again on a different plating.

Potato Tourte and Caviar Sauce.

Veal sweetbread and 'Vin Jaune' fricassé. Plated into a macaroni cake. Morel mushroom sauce. The two mushroom halves aboved are stuffed with chicken filling.

Day 4 of Light and Natural Cooking

Day 4 of Light and Natural Cooking leads us to Desserts! Of course these are nothing compared to the Pastry stuff. But it's quick and relatively easy to put together restaurant desserts.

Yes yes, it's another workshop again. 1 to 1 with chef! And 5 desserts! Lol, I'm getting more bang for my bucks now!

The first you see, is a pan roasted pear (cut in 'pyramid' to have even golden coloration) in a pool of caramel cream (from reduced fat cream).

Here, you will ask, if the cream has less than 30% fat content, one will not succeed in whipping it! That is true! That is why, the caramel cream was placed into a siphon and pressed out right, nice and moussy!! So, here's another advantage of the siphon!

Next is a Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar, Yoghurt with Spice.

We made the yoghurt 2 days ago. It's really simple and delicious! Basically, you bring milk to 42C, not more, and at 38C, add some store-bought

yoghurt and milk powder, let it cool and place in little jars/pots, and place them into a yoghurt-maker (it's like an incubator) which will keep it at a warm temperature overnight, for the beneficial bacteria to grow.

After the overnight incubation, let it cool gradually, before sealing the jars, and place them into a fridge. The first day was a 'drinking yoghurt' consistency, the longer you leave it to mature, the thicker it will become.

Next is French Toast with Wine and Coconut Cream. Red wine and spices are reduced to a nice syrup, day-old bread immersed in it, and topped with some light cream moistened coconut flakes.

These are mini-bananas served with a light flan. That means no egg yolks which are normally in regular flans. We use the eggwhites only, and frankly, it taste like a cooked meringue. I prefer the real flan anytime.

Last but not least, are Duo of Mango and Pineaple, sauteed, and served with yoghurt and Fromage Blanc cream. Looks like a square pineapple!

See you next week for Modern Star Cuisine!!

Day 3 of Light and Natural Cooking

Day 3 of Light and Natural Cooking leads us to Meats and Their Garnishes.

The good news is that, I had a one to one lesson with the Chef!! The Spanish called in sick, and since it's no point having 3 hrs of demo for 1 person, and then 3 hrs of practical, we passed directly to a 'workshop', where basically, I did together whatever the chef was doing! I got to complete all the dishes here!

You may guess the above escalopes to be chicken or veal, but they are actually flattened pieces of quail breasts! They call it 'picata'. Served with pea capuccino (again, using the siphon).

Next is Rabbit Saddle stuffed a la Grecque. Yummy!! Potatoes are cooked in chicken stock.

Next is Duck Breast cooked 'En Papillote', Citrus Jus, Three Savory Vegetable Custards.

The magret duck breasts are seared quickly, escaloper, and placed in a baking paper and wrapped tightly. As it cooks, the steam created puffs up the package and when presented to the customer, the package bursts open with whiff of fragrance.

The close up pics.....

The 3 savory custards are Beetroot, Carrot, and Peas. No, they're not chinese steam buns! No, they're not Raspberry, Mango and Pistachio ice cream! They were nicely 'souffle'd' when it was out of oven. By the time I took the photo, it deflated a little.