Chef’s Diary

28th April 2008…my son’s 5th birthday, and of course, an opportunity to do some more cooking, though this time more like good ole’ home baking. So, the birthday cake this year was a chocolate version of the classic “fraisier”.

All the usual stuff - sponge cake (square), crème patissière with butter added, butter softened (en pommade), strawberries, syrup (for soaking into the sponge cake - I did orange flower syrup, but whatever you like I guess…couldn’t really taste it anyway !!!).

The different stuff - raspberries (for in between the 2 sponge layers), dark chocolate (70% - grated into chips and sprinkled liberally on top of the raspberries), cocoa powder (for putting in the crème patissière and for mixing with icing sugar and then dusting on top of the finished fraisier).

So…..the end product ??!?

…..any problems ?? Well, since I dusted the cake with so much cocoa powder and icing sugar, the writing (it’s meant to say “Noé, Happy Birthday 5″) simply didn’t stay put, and thus had a tendancy to “slip”……but what the hell, I think that the end result is almost “arty”….anyway, my client was happy, which the important thing (and there’s none left as I write - 1 day later !!).

Our trip to London this weekend (I’ll write about it in another post) started with a visit to the Chelsea restaurant “Tom Aikens” to talk with the man himself,….well, erm….Tom Aikens of course !!

Without going into the details (coming soon in another post), this prompted us all (3 of us bought one in the end) to buy the Tom Aikens “Cooking” cook book….a lovely book, an interesting intro from Tom, nicely organised with a few pertinent comments on certain products all the way through.

Anyway, being back in Paris, being back at school and given that it was Monday I had the morning to myself….so what to do ??? Prepare for my exam on Wednesday, prepare for my cookery class later in the day, go to the gym….or spend a short while in the kitchen trying out some of Tom’s recipies for veg ?

As it happened, there were some artichokes, a butternut squash and 2 parsnips loitering in the fridge which needed to be used up before they started “turning”.

So, after a quick nose around Tom’s book I came up with the following combination….

3 veg and 3 different ways of preparing them….roasted (squash), mash / purée (parsnip) and sautéed / braised (artichoke).

Overall result ?

Squash was good, artichoke would have been good (but for the “chemical” stock), parsnip….well, it was curiously “bitter”…even before adding in the cumin, lemon and thyme. I guess that this was an example of good idea, bad product.

Quite some time since my last post, and since there’s been a few difficult moments, burns, cuts and even managed to stab myself (purely by accident, I might add) ! So, in today’s post I will cover

So, organic food and sustainable fish first of all. For a few months now, I’ve known that what is important to me is the produce, the producer and the quality of the product. Whether it’s because I have some catching up to do, or simply because, like Terry Laybourne, in my opinion it all starts with quality products regardless of the final dish being prepared. As I’ve already said elsewhere on this blog, it’s not only quality, but also the link with “local” produce is important to me….creating the link with the people and identity of a particular region.

I’ve been reading about the seasonality of fruit and veg in France, as well as checking up on what is available in my home region of Northumberland. In addition, at school we’ve been looking at fish, beef, veal (strangely not very available in England, at least not in Northumberland), lamb, offal, veg & fruit. This reading has been backed up by being able to work with good quality fruit, veg, meat and fish at La Fontaine - seeing how the quality is measured by the chefs. There’s a hell of a lot to learn and discover, a journey which is just beginning and should never end - especially when you consider only one particular food source, fish for example, and you touch upon the huge depth of information / variety that exists just in the UK and France….even in France Sea Bass has several different names (Bar or Loup de Mer) depending upon where it is fished, with different breeding periods between Channel / Atlantic / Mediterranean bass.

On the topic of fish, and particularly sustainable fish, I’ve been reading a fair bit these last few weeks (partly in preparation for our meeting with the London chef Tom Aikens who champions this topic). It’s such an enormous topic that it’s all a bit much at times - I’m trying, at the same time, to get to know fish, their names in English & French, seasonality, their availability / vulnerability, adult size (and thus the minimum size they should be when buying them), their cost, the different techniques for catching them and so on….so loads to take in. But fascinating.

With regards to organic food, I’ve been checking out the different shops in Paris which deal with organic fruit and veg - Naturalia, CanalBio (specific to the 19ème arrondissement), Nouveaux Robinsons, La Vie Claire. They’re all more expensive than our local greengrocer and Monoprix, though Nouveaux Robinson seems to be by far the best value - generally not being much more expensive than what we currently buy (unlike La Vie Claire which is outrageously expensive). I still don’t know why BIO is more expensive - maybe because the crops are less “controlled” and thus yield is not always optimal and thus the producer charges more to compensate ? Anyway, as with many things at the moment, I am at the beginning of understanding what BIO is about.

At the end of next week is our trip to London. Really looking forward to getting my French collegues’ reactions to what’s going on in London. I’ll be taking photos and film of the visit so you’ll be able to see what we got up to in a week or so’s time.

I’ll sign off with a short note about my sagging confidence at the moment. I’m not feeling creative, I want to be tested in a kitchen working a service at the hot plate (to prove to myself that I can do it - I know that I can do “cold starters” for 100, but cooking the main courses ain’t the same thing !). Went out to eat last night with my wife at the Ziggothèque in the 13ème in Paris - an opportunity to talk with the chef who is someone that I would like to work for. It was a really good evening - good food prepared by a chef who tries to get good products, who goes to Rungis (Paris’ main market) 2 or 3 times per week, who makes his own stocks and who was available to chat for quite some time. We’ll see what comes of it. I also boosted my confidence by spending today preparing the meal for tomorrow lunchtime when a friend comes to eat. I’ll post the photos in a few days when the final meal is available.

OK, I’ll sign off. I’m meant to be writing more, but shorter, posts…..so this isn’t a very good start….sorry !….and Happy Easter to you all.

http://www.chefsdiary.com/archives/105

They say that a picture is worth a 1000 words….well, the picture below should tell you one thing - whatever it was, it certainly seems to have been enjoyed given that less than one quarter remains.

Anyway, the above picture is infact the remains of a steamed sticky treacle pudding (albeit a slightly “brutalised” one !), and it was lovely…no, gorgeous.

My wife made it today, taking a recipie from the book “The Great British Menu”. We had never made one before, and so we didn’t have a clue if it was going to work…..especially with all of the chat about greaseproof paper, silver paper, putting a fold into both sheets of paper, tying with a string…..deary me, what a “perlarva”, as one could say !!

As it turned out, my French wife managed to produce a marvellous example of traditional British cuisine, and our French guests even seemed to like it.

The trick was…..well, there is no mystery…..it’s dead simple. Just prepare the mix (ingrediants listed below, as per recipie in our book), prepare the orange juice and rind, pour this orange mix into the pyrex / glass dish (pre-buttered), add in the cake mix, place a circle of greaseproof paper on top of the pudding (touching and covering the cake mix), wrap the whole of the bowl / mix / everything in the silver foil and then place this into a steamer (we used our pressure cooker, without using the pressure cook options), and steam for 2 hours.

When ready, take it out of the silver foil, get it onto a plate and onto the table….and into your mouth….hmmmmm

Ingredients

for the mascarpone and vanilla cream….

Reading Aidan Brooks‘ (newly qualified chef) latest article in the Observer Food Monthly blog, I got to thinking about what I have experienced these last few months - notably when eating with either the team from the Zephyr or the Fontaine Gaillon.

Surely, when eating with 15 other “foodies” the food should be pretty decent - and certainly when those foodies are French chefs, non ?

Well, it is not always the case.

Generally speaking, at La Fontaine we eat better than at Le Zephyr, or atleast we eat a bigger variety of things. We eat what is left over from the previous couple of days of work, which in the case of La Fontaine means usually a mixture of line caught sea bass, cod as well as, quite often, either mussels or squid. There’s also a fair bit of lamb (the top end of the ribs) which is left over from preparing the rack of lamb main course for the restaurant menu - this usually goes into a ragout, such as a curry. All of this is served with the ubiquitous pasta / rice / cous-cous / chips.

At Le Zephyr, the staff meal is simpler, and prepared in much less time - usually 15 minutes maximum, consisting of 1 meat / fish with pasta / chips or sometimes rice, accompanied by a salad.

The preparation of the staff lunch at La Fontaine is always left to the saucier / rotisseur, but I often help with the prep, and sometimes I do the whole thing from start to finish (a lamb curry that I did once went down particularly well, much to my relief !). Given that we eat at 11am, this prep starts usually around 10 in the morning and consists of

Whatever is concocted, one must not forget that feeding the staff and keeping them happy is absolutely vital - so, if you are responsable for a meal that has not been well received, you will know about it straight away, believe me !

The challenge of the staff meal is to be able to transform the leftovers into a decent, tasty meal for 15, in 1 hour - pretty intimidating for anyone, but certainly for a trainee English chef !!!

Before starting my training I always imagined that professional chefs would be chatting about food, restaurants, products and food experiences from travelling……well, not at all !!! I very rarely hear my colleagues talking about any of these things. I’ve not been in the business long enough to be able to say why food is almost totally absent from all discussions at the table, but it’s certainly the case.

My Mum died at the end of January this year, quite suddenly, with pneumonia after a period in hospital for a broken hip operation.

Nothing to do with cookery, I know, but I wanted to pay my respects to my Mum by writing down the speech that I made during her requiem mass on Monday of this week.

Thank you for coming today - to start with, and to get a flavour of what my Mum was about, I would simply like to list the things that she liked and disliked.

Her Dislikes :

Her Likes :

When my Mum died 2 weeks ago I was in Paris, as I have been for the last 6 years or so. I got the phone call from my brother Nick, a pretty brief call, him sounding exhausted emotionally and me not knowing quite what I felt. I think that we wanted to be alone with our thoughts.

I was suddenly confronted with the reality of the distance that I’d created between my Mum and I - telephone communication with Mum had been, for a number of years, frustrating and unsatisfactory, lacking in any real contact / content. Instead of getting upset about the lack of real contact with my Mum, I took the option of creating an emotional distance between us. My trips to Newcastle to see my parents were always double-edged - delighted to be home and with my Mum and Dad again, but also very concerned about how my Mum would be and never really at ease.

My first question for my Dad whenever ringing my parents would always be “How’s Mum ?”.

So, when my Mum died, there were a whole mix of emotions - deep sadness with a certain amount of relief. But I certainly didn’t want to leave it at that - despite creating a distance between Mum and I, I knew that she deserved to be remembered in a much more positive way.

As a result, these last 2 weeks I’ve spent a lot of time talking about Mum with my Dad, mainly, and with my brothers Nick and Adam, Sonia (Nick’s wife) and my wife - trying to create a contact with my Mum again, to rebuild the positive images of this incredible woman. I have also read the many deeply felt wishes of sympathy from the numerous people who were touched by Mum during her relatively short life.

Out of all of these exchanges, are a multitude of stories and anecdotes, but more importantly, a number of characteristics that shine through time and again.

Over and above these key characteristics, whenever I think of my Mum, I invariably think of Dad as well. The “couple“. I think that it’s pretty fair to say that over the last 10 years or so, Mum and Dad have been almost a single entity, in “fusion”, inseparable. However, often people can make the mistake of thinking that Dad has been a great chap putting up with and looking after Mum. What a great support he has been and how wearing that must have been on Dad.

Well, even if recently Dad has been giving most of the physical support, Mum has for many, many years played a pivotal role in this family, giving support to all of us, none more so than to my Dad.

To close this brief hommage to my Mum, I would like to say to Mum that you live on in us, even if physically you will no longer accompany us in our many adventures over the next 10, 20, 30….years. As far as I am concerned, she has passed on her loyalty and her unconditional love to me, as well as the capacity to “feel” emotions and sense things very quickly - even if I don’t always know how to interpret the feelings straight-away or at all, sometimes.

So, as my Mum and Dad would say to one another every night before turing to go to sleep, regardless of the events of that day…..

“Good night, God bless and sleep tight”.

Je t’aime Maman.

2008 hardly started and I have had 2 trips back home already to see my family in Newcastle Upon Tyne. One visit was for pleasure, the other for more personal and painful reasons (which I will cover in another post when the time is right).

During this extended time in Newcastle I have been able to set in place the initial “stones” upon which I hope to build my first “post-CAP Cuisine” culinary experience. As I have said in earlier posts (I think), I have an overall plan to

All of this is being planned by myself at the moment, even though I would greatly appreciate advice from an experienced chef - someone who could play the role of my “mentor“. My general strategy (for gaining the experience that I will need to prepare me for setting up and running my own restaurant / kitchen) is to get a varied experience, in several different kitchens with different chefs and different styles of cooking. I am particularly interested in learning about the “products” - be they French or English. I will also make sure that I spend time delving into the accounts and running of a restaurant.

So, my first step along this “post qualification” road will be to spend 2 months working in Michelin star chef Terry Laybourne’s English kitchen back home in Newcastle. Terry was the first Michelin starred chef in the North East of England, and is now so well known and respected that he even has an OBE (special award given by the Queen), to go along with his 5 restaurants. Most importantly for me, this is the chef who feels so passionate about the importance of quality, local products that he states

“everyone assumes that the chef is an artist. Let me tell you something. If the guy who supplies my asparagus does his job properly, and it arrives in perfect condition, all I do is sling it in a pan of boiling salted water, take it out when it’s ready, put it on a nice plate with a dish of melted butter and a wadge of lemon…and people fête me as a magician…..90% of good cooking is good shopping…..write a book about the asparagus grower. He’s the artist”

I couldn’t agree more.

The original idea was to spend 2 months, during the summer 2008, in his Jesmond Dene House kitchen - especially interesting since it is 5 minutes from my Mum and Dad’s house ! Take my wife and kids over for their summer holidays - me work as much as possible, they get out and about with their grand-parents and speak English as much as possible. The famous Ségolène Royale “Win-Win”, non ?

Why so interested in Terry Laybourne ? Essentially because

So, we met with Terry (I really wanted my wife and kids to meet him, create a contact and make sure that they are fully with me on this first step - which they most certainly are, I can happily confirm !) at Jesmond Dene House to talk about me working there. We finished with the suggestion that I work in several of his restaurants, notably :

So, with a “gentleman’s agreement” achieved about working during the summer, I set about learning about the products from the region - being a formerly industrial (coal and ship building) region, this might not have been easy, one would have been forgiven for thinking. However, using Terry Laybourne’s book “Quest for Taste” (a beautiful book which talks about 13 different types of products within the North East region, focusing on 1 particular supplier in each case) as a starting point, I took off with my wife and kids to see various producers (oysters, kippers, flour and honey). As it happens, no one was open (well it was Jan 2nd, snow was lying on the ground and the festive period was coming to an end). But simply driving around the region and talking with some locals, I started to appreciate the richness of our local produce. For an idea of some of the great products that can be sourced on our own doorstep - well if I was back home in Newcastle rather than in Paris !

For a look at other products and suppliers in the NorthEast region, take a look at the Northumbria Larder website.

During my latest visit to Newcastle I spent an afternoon discovering the little fishing port of North Shields. I’ll complete this post with some photos, but suffice to say that I was able to see “first hand” how the fishing industry is suffering because of “over fishing” by the big trawlers which stay out for 5+ days and use nets of over 1km in length ! Only 3 boats work out of North Shields, even though boats from other cities / countries stop to sell their fish. The locals complained particularly of Spanish and French boats, but from what I understand, overfishing is something that we are all guilty of - regardless of the nationality (even if some countries are suspected as being worse culprits than others !). The local fishmonger (Taylor’s of North Shields) confirmed that things would never be like they used to be - however, he also confirmed that he still has daily fresh fish coming in from small and big boats. When I was there I bought a lovely 1,8 kg Turbot (well, my Dad did !) and, at £15 per kilo, it was quite a lot cheaper than the turbot that I bought in Paris just before Christmas (approx. £19/kilo). During our visit, my Dad and I went to eat at a local restaurant - Sidneys - which takes its fish directly from the Norht Shields market, and which has a “bib gourmand” along with a recommendation in the latest Michelin guide (no star but “one to watch out for”).

That’s it for now - got to get on with my revising for my exams which take place this week.

At the end of my second period at the Fontaine Gaillon, working with Chef Audiot and his team, I’m feeling more at home there, understanding better the relationships that exist within the team, seeing more calm in the chaos of the midday service.

I’ve spent all of this time “au chaud”, as I explained in my end of year post a few weeks ago, working with the saucier / grillardaire for much of the time. My 4.5 hour pre-service work invloves any of the following,

During the 2 hour service (essentially from 12H30 to 14H / 14H30) I look after serving the mashed potatoes, cooking and serving the ravioli (with its beurre fondu), plating the scallops and their sauce and cooking some vegetables and sauté the chicory before serving with the scallops. My main role during the service is to watch and learn. See how the different fish is cooked, how the different chefs organise their production….

The main thing that I have learnt so far is to see beyond the initial chaos that seems to be taking place during the service. Infact their is a strong organisation within the team which allows the 4 chefs who work around the oven and the hot plate (a space of 1 metre by 5 metres, approx.) to get the meals out for the 100+ covers. I am now starting to be able to make the link between what orders come in, the fish that is being taken out in anticipation of a dish to send out in 10 minutes time, the plates that are being taken out ready to receive the fish which is now in the pan / oven / under the grill…and, most importantly (but this is the part that I currently find the most difficult…maybe because I don’t always understand the French which is zapping around the kitchen) I’m starting to listen to the chef (who calls out all of the orders when they arrive - those that are to be sent out straight away and those to be sent once the starters are finished) and be able to build up a waiting list of dishes in my head…though this has only just started so I’ve still got a good bit of progress to do on this point.

So, the service doesn’t seem a “crazy” as it did, even if sometimes it still gets a bit out of control !

Then after the service, it’s 3 hours of preparation time for the evening service.

When I go back for my 3rd period in 1 month’s time I will be moving onto “cooking” !!! I will ask to spend more time with the poissonnier - I want to spend as much of my time prepping the fish and learning about them….feeling them. I will also be working a couple of split-shifts (en coupure). So overall I feel that things are going in the right direction. During my evaluation this week (my 1st of 2 evaluations during my time at the Fontaine) the chef was very happy with my progress, but stated simply that sometimes I try to go too fast. I am aware of this, but I explained that I am also in a bit of a hurry given my overall plan to open a restaurant in 3 to 5 years !

3 days into my first week back at La Fontaine Gaillon after the New Year break back home in Newcastle, and I’ve already been “ok”, “down and pensive” and “up”. The good news is that I have finished my Wednesday session with a positive day where I managed to find my place in the team - and that when everybody was there…all 11 of us.

Yesterday was a difficult day for me because we had an extremely busy lunch session (110 covers, with 100 of those between 13h-14h !!) and yet I missed all of it because I was stuck in the back prep area peeling Brittany asparagus (which the chef had had Fed-Ex’d on express delivery because we had run out….they arrived at 12h30 and we needed a whole box peeling before the 13h rush…not sexy but a reality in professional kitchens). I failed to be single minded about keeping my place at the hot plate serving the mash and the ravioli, and thus I missed out on observing the team in motion.

I was “gutted“, as we say back home.

That said, I did actually go back into the kitchen 2 times when everyone was in full flow…..and frankly, it was like witnessing a tornado on the TV….you are naturally drawn towards it but at the same time, I couldn’t help but be glad that I wasn’t actually in it !! Clearly things weren’t going smoothly for the team and the sous chefs and the chef were literally running between their different posts…..there was so much movement that I was unable to find the good time to “slip” into my position at the hotplate…so I retreated to my prep area, feeling downhearted and out of place. I should have been there, with the others, in amongst it.

Today, however, was another day and a much more successful one in terms of my role in the team. A busy morning of prepping, as per usual. I am now pretty decent at working the “haut-côtes” of lamb…basically, the top of the ribs which is usually only used as a secondary meat in a lamb dish, but we use it for one part of the staff meal. As the service approached, I was determined to stay at my adopted position by the hotplate, and stay I did. We had fewer customers today…maybe 60 or 70….but it was still pretty “dense” from 1pm. I did my stuff, but essentially, my main role is to observe and learn…..and keep out of the way, restricting my movements to a minimum. I then finished today by preparing the veal stock (4 onions, 4 leeks, 4 carrots, 2 pigs trotters, veal bones, water, salt, pepper) and putting together a lamb masala curry for the staff (for the 6pm meal).

I even managed to have a brief exchange with Gérard Dépardieu (one of the owners of the restaurant, and the only one who takes an active interest in the team, the food, the kitchen) who probably knows me as “the Englishman”. I told him about my culinary activities this Christmas and New Year, and some of the magnificent seafood products from the North East of England (smoked kippers from Craster and oysters from Lindesfarne north of Newcastle).

So, upon returning home tonight I was feeling much more positive about my role in the team and tomorrow beckons…..goodnight.

This week I started my 2nd period of training in La Fontaine Gaillon kitchen - Wednesday to today (Friday) to be more exact. I was a bit apprehensive on Wednesday morning whilst going to work, but in the end, I picked up pretty much where I left off over 6 weeks ago. The team hasn’t changed, the menu has (with essentially the fish changing - no merlan / whiting, for instance) and the number of customers has dropped off dramatically - all restaurants in Paris (maybe all of France for all I know) seem to have a long quiet time during the festive period - something which is not the case in the UK…..at least not when I was a waiter 20 years ago !!

The big change for me since my return is that I am finally “au chaud”, as they say over here. That means that I am finally working on the hot plates / gas rings. My job is essentially to serve the mashed potatoes, heat the vegetables in the poêle, cook the ravioli and dress the plates (heating the leek julienne and the beurre fondu and truffle sauce in the process). Since I’ve been back we’ve had between 11 and 50 customers each midday service…in other words, very few !! However, given that I have just started au chaud, the lack of customers has been a bit of a blessing for me, at least. Just to list the things that I’ve been doing this week (I haven’t done this for a while !),

One of the complications of running a kitchen during the festive period is the lack of customers (at least, during the midday service), lack of fresh supplies (we had no fish delivery on Wednesday, our first day back after Christmas) and, thus, managing the stock - pretty obvious, I know, but for a restaurant like La Fontaine which is so reliant on fresh produce which arrives daily, this festive period is a bit tricky to say the least.

I’d like to say that it was great to be - finally - at the hot stove / plate / rings, but to be honest, it was a bit of an overload….even with very few customers, my head wasn’t prepared for the different things that I was meant to remember

……”2 bowls of creamed potatoes, put out the plates for the next 2 orders going out…that’s a bowl for the scallops….ohh, you get the sauce ready for that by the way…..and a plate for the cod……3 raviolis….get the juliène heated up in the poêle which you then dress in a bowl with a little beurre fondu and truffle….why didn’t you get the vegetables for the bass ?!….no, don’t bother, I’ve already got them…”

……phew, way, way out of the comfort zone…however, strangely, I most certainly don’t want to stop being with the guys “au chaud”. Anyway, I’ve never been one for liking the comfort zone.

On that note, I’ll say goodnight and here’s to a rousing finale to my culinary 2007 tomorrow at Le Zephyr….I want it to be a good end to my 2007…a big 2008 awaits !