Chef’s Diary

This weekend, with its fine warm Parisian weather (though as far as I’m aware, it was the same in the UK), was the chance to invite friends to spend an evening eating a salad and drinking wine on our balcony.

Monique and Peter were the friends that we managed to tempt out of their parisian flat in the 6th arrondissement, which also gave us a good chance to catch up on Monique’s restaurant project (last year she did the same CAP Cuisine as me) and also gave me the chance to speak a bit of English (Pete being Australian, though he speaks French too).

So, given that Monique worked in La Fontaine Gaillon (see my posts with category Fontaine Gaillon) for her professional training, I decided to concentrate on fish (anyway, I love working with fish), whilst keeping a salad theme given that I knew that we were in for a warm evening.

As per usual when preparing fish for dinner, I went to my fishmonger to see what was in / on offer / looking good, before deciding what to make. As it turned out, it was the red mullet that looked best and was on offer (13€ the kilo). Given that I work regularly with Mullet at the Fontaine, I knew straight away how I wanted to prepare the fish - cut off head, take out spine, take out bones, leave skin on (out of interest, in general, you lose between 40-45% of the weight of the fish when prepared this way, but it means that you have very little work to do once you start to eat the mullet….and I hate having to work even more on something once I’m sitting down to eat….mussels and oysters being one of the rare exceptions)

As well as using fish, I wanted to reuse a salad recipie that I had concocted a few days earlier - courgettes cut into a julienne / fine spaghetti, mixed with coriander (stem and leaves) and mint leaves (finely sliced), bound together with a warm walnut and shallot dressing (straight out of the Tom Aikens “Cooking” book - thoroughly recommended, by the way).

The final touch to the fish, by the way, was a couple of batons of rhubarb, pan-fried in a calvados syrup…..I wanted to add a bit of sweetness with the mullet, and it worked pretty well (this idea came from a visit to a restaurant - thoroughly recommended, by the way - in Paris, “La Carte Blanche” where they mixed macarons with mullet and chocolate)

First of all, 1 week without a single post….I can only apologise to my faithful following in France, Switzerland, the UK, the US all the way thru to China ! It’s not that I’ve been particularly busy - simply no juice for writing. Don’t know why.

Having said that, I have been pretty busy during the spare time that I get - mainly trying to organise a trip to some top kitchens and markets in London for me and some fellow students (and teachers !). As well as that, I’ve also spent a fair bit of time trying to organise the Christmas dinner for the people from our training course - students, teachers and admin staff included.

So, to give you an idea of what is being planned for the visit to London, first of all a copy of the email that I sent to Gordon Ramsay Holdings, followed by a forum post that I put on the Jamie Oliver web site.

I am writing to you following the advice of one of your colleagues, who I spoke to this lunchtime.

I am currently training to be a chef here in Paris (oct 07 - may 08). As a part of this training, I suggested to my fellow students (aged between 21 and 48) and teachers that it would be very interesting to visit some of the top kitchens in London. Being an Englishman in Paris for over 6 years, I am always trying to promote our chefs and cuisine wherever possible. My idea is to organise a couple of days to visit 2 or 3 top kitchens run by British chefs, as well as some markets (Borough, New Covent Garden, Smithfield, etc) and suppliers. My visit is fully supported by my catering school - Greta Métiers de l’Hôtellerie.

I am in the early days of planning the visit where I need to identify those restaurants which would be interested in allowing a group of 5-10 French cookery students/teachers to meet members of the staff in the kitchen of one of your restaurants (Royal Hospital Road, Petrus or Maze would be of particular interest) - the aim being 2-fold :

show the French students and teachers that good food and great ideas are alive and well and being pushed to their limits in the UK

to give us a good idea of what differences (if there are any) there are between French and British kitchens (we are all working in different Parisian restaurants). It would also be very constructive to be able to “feel” the passion that drives your staff, and also to see what kind of training your staff receive.

I am currently talking with a friend of mine who is a journalist for a major British national to see if our visit would be of interest. Given that Gordon Ramsay is planning a new restaurant in the west of Paris, maybe our visit could be a source of publicity for you ?

Anyway, this is an initial contact to see if the general principle would be possible. If this is OK, then we could talk about the details.

Working already in 2 restaurants, I know that time is difficult to find in kitchens. However, if I have choosen the Gordon Ramsay restaurants for our visit it is because, not only is he the best (and British), but you clearly have a serious respect for training, encouraging and developing new culinary talent.

Thanks in advance for your time, and hopefully we will speak soon

By the way, I have to say “hat’s off” to the backroom staff at Gordon Ramsay Holdings - they have been extremely polite, quick in their response, and willing to find a way of accomodating us. As it stands at the moment, we have at least got a visit to Gordon Ramsay at Claridges, with an interview with Mark Sergeant (Head Chef) and one of the trainees, and then a Head Office visit to meet the people who organise the training for all Gordon Ramsay staff. So, a big thank you.

The other restaurant that I am trying to organise a visit to is “15″ - the Jamie Oliver inspired restaurant which is a base for the “15 Foundation”. Why ? Well, because Jamie Oliver has been a great source of inspiration - not always for his cooking, but 110% always for his energy, his passion, his willingness to discover (and show that he is not the master of everything) - and also because I admire the principles upon which the “15 Foundation” bases itself….principles which seem to me to be lacking a little bit here in France. Before copying the message that I sent to one of the top men at the “15 Foundation”, a quick reminder of the principles of the foundation…..

I find this approach pretty damned refreshing, and very British (it’s my French wife who said that, in fact). I know that I’m just at the beginning of my cuisine career (so I have a lot of things to see here in France, and elsewhere - so this is simply a general impression about French attitude to diplomas, age, number of years experience, background), but I’m not sure that the above principles are omni-present in French society.

Anyway, the discussion about differences that I have noticed between British-French cultures is for another post. Onto the message that I sent (to which I am yet to have a reply !),

my name is Dom, I’m 38, English and currently 8 weeks into an 8 month French Cookery diploma (CAP Cuisine, it’s the main entry-level qualification here in France) here in Paris (I’ve been in Paris for 6 years as an IT consultant and am at the beginning of changing my career path - computers to cookers !).

I know that, being 38, I do not match the “15 Foundation” selection criteria, however, I do have 2 questions concerning the Foundation.

1) are there any plans to set up something in France - possibly one of the regions where there is a particularly high % of Brits ? Given that Ramsay is heading over here soon, and also taking into account Jamie’s growing profile over here (good exposure on “Cuisine TV” on cable telly), surely the time is right to take on the “French Challenge” head-on ? The Foundation’s ethos of investing in youth / not letting the past dictate the future / paper qualifications not being as important as real life experience / having fun are things that are often lacking in the traditional French system. What you have all done over the last 5 years would really be a breath of fresh air to a trade which is in difficulty (not enough people attracted to fill the many vacancies, more restaurants closing than opening….).

2) As I said at the start, I am currently 8 weeks into an 8 month traditional French cookery training course (at the Greta des Métiers de l’Hôtellerie, in Paris). I have proposed to my student colleagues, and equally to the teachers, to organise a 2 day trip to London to visit the kitchens of some of London’s top “British” (that is, set up and inspired by home-grown chefs) restaurants. My aim is to show the French people that I study with that good food and great ideas are alive and well and being pushed to their limits in the UK. I am currently in discussion with Gordon Ramsay Holdings, and would like to know if you think that “15″ w

Alors, on est tous à la fin de la première semaine de nos stages respectifs - en ce qui me concerne, tout va bien pour l’instant…..et j’ai même pu profiter d’un jour férié (jeudi) qui était glorieux…je n’ai jamais profité autant d’un jour férié quand j’étais chez Capgemini….là, jeudi, mes mains étaient fatiguées et j’avais besoin d’une pause….oouff !!!!

La Fontaine Gaillon : bonne équipe (10 - chef, 2 seconds, 2 poissonniers, 3 garde mangers, 2 patissiers) et moi avec un autre apprenti patisserie), que des mecs, bcp d’années d’expérience, bcp de bon poisson dans l’assiette. Je rencontrerai le chef pour la première fois (en cuisine, en tout cas) et donc l’occasion de faire un point et de parler de ce que je veux faire….travailler le poisson, passer un peu de temps avec les crustacés dans l’autre resto (L’écaille), et passer qqs semaines avec les patissiers. Je dirai qu’il faut aussi (évidemment) travailler les légumes (tourner les navets, etc) et autres choses de base.

Le Zephyr : très bonne équipe, style plus décontracté mais plein d’idées sur le côté créatif, très ouvert (le chef m’a demandé de proposer un dessert pour ce w/end et il est intéressé par mon idée d’entrée aussi…..mais peu importe, lui, sa femme et son second m’ont écouté et ne m’ont pas traité pour un petit stagière qui n’en sait rien…et donc, ça donne envie de s’exprimer, et donc d’apprendre). Un semedi très chargé mais très intéressant.

Pourquoi “cereal blogger” ? Ce soir nous sommes sortis (ma femme et moi) avec une amie (une ancienne de ma formation) et son homme, Peter - nous sommes allés à un restaurant “Chez Léon” (métro Villiers) dont le co-propriétaire (Vincent) est un ancien de ma formation (d’il y a 2 ans). C’était une très bonne soirée - malheureusement nos pastillas n’étaient pas terrible, mais le poisson (bar ?) était bon et je sais que Vincent va réussir - il a tout ce qu’il faut pour le faire.

Nous avons parlé de plusieurs choses - surtout MOI au début…je n’arrive pas à m’arrêter de parler de moi, mon projet, mes idées…l’enthousiasme est parfois un peu trop pour les autres, peut-être…..enfin bon. Il y avait aussi le projet culinaire / restaurant de mon amie, et les projets de Peter, …….et le fait que je mange toujours des céréales avant d’aller au lit le soir (je viens de finir mes “Cornflakes” avec du lait pasteurisé !!!). Ouais, bizarre…il me faudrait une séance psy pour comprendre pourquoi. En tout cas, j’apprécis énormément les échanges avec mon amie qui est un peu plus avancée que moi sur son chemin d’apprentissage de cuisine. Les échanges avec Peter m’ont fait revenir sur le monde de l’informatique que je cherche à quitter…..c’était un peu curieux parce que je me sentais intéressé par les points qu’il évoquait (sur ses projets informatiques), mais en même temps, je me disais “mais Dom, pourquoi poses-tu toutes ces questions parce que tu ne veux plus faire partie de ce monde-là !?”….une très bonne soirée, et ça va être intéressant pour eux de voir comment nous sommes (ma femme et moi) à la fin de janvier 2008 - moins d’argent, plus de véçu du métier et des horaires longues !!

…et j’ai acheté un livre de Hervé This - une introduction à la Gastronomoie Moléculaire “Casseroles et Eprouvettes”. On verra bien - déjà si j’arrive à comprendre et retenir ce qu’il a à raconter.

Bon voila mes réflections pour aujourd’hui - une très, très bonne semaine avec une belle soirée avec 2 bonnes âmes. J’espère que la semaine prochaine sera aussi porteuse de bonheur !

So, I finally got my hands on my knives today….ok, it was only so that I could cut up some veg, but hey, I can honestly say that I was absolutely delighted at the end of the session (5 hrs)…..carrots maçédoine (biggish cubes), jardinère (batons), “ciseler” (cut in fine little cubes, whilst leaving the root on) the onions and shallots, “émincer” onions / carrots / peppers / shallots, “tourner” some potatoes….ohh, nothing much and yet everything !

Today was the first day of real action for me with regards to my project of changing career.

Started with a visit to a restaurant in the 6th arrondissement of Paris (not far from St Michel / Montparnasse) called “Le Timbre” which is run by an Englishman called Chris Wright. He didn’t seem in too much of a mood to chat, but it was good to see another Brit (without any formel qualification !) who has made a good go of it (10 yrs in Paris, 3 as a waiter, 1 as restaurant manager, 6 as manager/chef of the 24 seater restaurant “le Timbre”).

Then off to WH Smith (the bastien of all things literary and, more importantly, ENGLISH in Paris) to buy the biography of Gordon Ramsay “Humble Pie”. Read the chapter on his time in France - fascinating stuff, at least for me…..I have to say that I’m a bit starry eyed at the moment when I read this stuff….I know that I’m caught up in a certain “romantic” view of the industry at the moment, but it’s an essential natural mechanism which allows me to get through the initial “integration” period…..maybe a bit like when a couple become Mum & Dad for the 1st time….it’s such a shock to the system that without the “lovey duvvey” feeling when they look at their new child they would be left feeling submerged by all of the shitty, difficult moments (of which there are quite a few during the first few months)…..so, I’m counting on my “romantic” view getting me through one or 2 sticky moments.

Then off to “Chez Léon” which is co-run by a person who “graduated” from our course 18 mths ago and has gone on to set up his own place (with his cousin). I wanted to see if I could work there during the days when I am at school - in other words, during the 3.5 months that I have of theory and practical lessons at school I am not meant to work (I spend the other 3.5 months working in a restaurant - my “stage” as they say here). However, I want to get as much experience as I can, and thus I am looking for a 2nd restaurant where I will be able to work Monday, Friday (8am-2pm) and all day Saturday. Anyway, “CHez Léon” not being open on Saturday’s, I’ve asked my teacher (Mr Charron) to ask at the Zephyr (which isn’t far from where I live) if they’d be interested by such an arrangement. We’ll see.

Then off to the Fongecif to thank Mr Gharbi who helped a great deal with my application for funding - chocolates bought by my wife, it has to be said !

Then off to my 5 hour class - pure veg cutting heaven !

I’ll take this opportunity to show you a picture of us all - me and my collegues who’ll be accompanying me over these next 8 months.

I finally feel as though my training is starting, and not before time !