Chef’s Diary

Yep, I’m nearly there….the end of my CAP Cuisine will be upon me in 3 weeks exactly !! That’ll be the end of the first step towards my own restaurant.

Well the first bit of news is that I’m not stopping there. The overriding aim of me spending 8 months doing this CAP was to give myself a “test run” to see if professional cook was my “thing”. I have to say that the CAP has totally lived up to my expectations - the school has allowed me to build up the basic skills and to meet other people embarking upon a new cuisine career (my fellow students), whilst the stage (Fontaine) has given me a good feeling for what life as a cuisinier in Parisian kitchens is about…..and I like what I see.

In order to take the next step, I have to postpone my return to Capgemini…which I have managed to do this week since I have been given the go-ahead by my boss at Capgemini to take 11 months off on sabbatical (thus my contract remains intact should I ever want to go back to work, which is a great form of security).

So where am I at with my plans for life after my training and how is my current work in Parisian kitchens ?

Well, first off, the Parisian restaurants that I work in….I am still at La Fontaine Gaillon where I finish my “stage” in just over 1 week. My overall feeling is that this is a great place to spend the 1st 4 months of my cuisinier career, but the underlying frustration of not actually “cooking” during the service never goes away. I’ve loved working with the fish and some of the fantastic other products, such as some beautiful green asparagus, the very fresh “italian purple” artichokes and the magical flavour of the sea urchins (oursins). I feel more confident amongst the other cuisiniers, and I’m taking part a lot more in the general “banter” within the kitchen…..but I’ve never been able to become indispensible for doing one particular thing in the team (that said, the whole ethos of the team is that if one person isn’t there, others absorb his work). When I leave I will miss the team, their unassuming expertise and the “buzz” during the service. I would have liked to stay to get to the point where I feel in “control” during the service….that I know follow all of the orders coming in and anticipate all of the moves necessary to complete those orders. When I left today there were 150+ reservations for tonight’s service….I would have liked to be there.

The new thing is me working in a restaurant in the 13th arrondissement of Paris - La Zygothèque, and the chef / owner M. Noel. For an idea of what dishes are concocted in M. Noel’s cuisine, his menu is available on-line. We’ll see what happens here…..the idea is to work in a small restaurant (30+ covers) have more opportunities to work on the hot plate / stove. I’ll be there tomorrow night (my 3rd time), so fingers crossed that I continue to work my way towards cooking the main dishes. What I can say is that M. Noel has a good attitude to food, products and the customers, and he likes to share….so, if I stay it should be a good learning experience.

As for my life after the training course, there are 2 things which have happened this week,

So, all in all, I feel as though I’m making progress and that this desire to create my own restaurant in 3 years time is getting stronger and stronger in my mind and in my heart…..and what’s more, my family are becoming more and more involved in this whole cooking conversion !! The implications for me and my family of what I am doing and what I am trying to set in place are enormous…..

As I said in the title, one step for me and a giant step for the Family Quirke !!!!

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

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.