Quelquechose qui accompagne étroitement ma passion pour la cuisine est celle des livres de cuisine. L’un de mes magasins préférés à Paris est la Librairie Gourmande, où je pourrais tranquillement passer plusieurs heures à “déguster” leur produits ! A vrai dire, vu que souvent le prix des bouquins de cuisine est tellement élevé, je m’empêche d’en acheter plus souvent que non….et donc, je n’en ai pas tant que cela.
Par contre, ceux que j’ai, je m’en sers…et souvent.
Cette année pour la fête de Noël j’ai eu plusieurs livres de cuisine qui me permettent à dire que j’ai maintenant une belle première collection de livres de cuisine - à la limite, il me manque que la référence d’Escoffier et un beau livre sur le poisson (j’en ai trouvé chez mes parents à Newcastle, mais il n’y en a plus dans les librairies).
Ce que j’ai ciblé en particulier était les livres pour me donner des idées sur la présentation des plats dans l’assiette. Donc, commençons avec ceux-là…
“Ramsay - 3 Star Chef” pages format A2, 50 recettes du restaurant vedette de l’empire Ramsay, c’est à dire, “Ramsay at Hospital Road”, avec des belles photos de chacune des assiettes…..magnifique !!
“Grand Livre de Cuisine” d’Alain Ducasse. Un ABCD’aire gastronomique avec plusieurs recette par produit et une photo par recette….donc très bon pour des idées de présentation. Je n’ai pas encore essayer de l’utiliser, mais j’ai déjà vu qu’il y a plus qu’une 30aine de recettes avec le homard, mais que 2 ou 3 avec l’agneau !! Donc je ne sais pas dans quel mesure ce livre va figurer énormément dans ma cuisine quotidienne.
Je voulais aussi profiter de ma visite à Newcastle pour trouver un livre sur la “bouffe” chez nous - et donc le livre de Nigel Slater “Eating for England” m’a attiré (en fait, c’était ma femme qui m’a demandé de l’acheter, et elle a très bien fait).
“Eating for England” de Nigel Slater. J’ai lu un tiers du livre pour l’instant - mais vu que le livre consiste de beaucoup de “chapitres” de 1 à 3 pages qui traitent chacune un sujet ou un souvenir de la nourriture en Angleterre, selon Nigel Slater, c’est un livre facile à lire dans le metro et donc ça va vite. J’aime bien le style de Mr Slater, et j’aime bien son rapport avec la nourriture - tout part du plaisir ou l’émotion généré par un aliment ou une rite liée avec un repas ou la nourriture chez nous. Pour l’instant je me rends compte jusqu’à quel point nous sommes connus pour nos petits gateaux et nos bonbons…..je vous mets le nom de quels chapitres qui m’ont plu pour vous donner une idée du contenu….toblerone, black pudding, the digestive (un petit gateau), bread and butter pudding, rhubarb and custard, fruit and nut (un bar du chocolat), custard, the Gingerbread Wars, Toast, toffee, Jacob’s Club (un petit gateau), the Jaffa Cake (comme Pims), the Chocolate Digestive (petit gateau), Old English Spangles (un bonbon…que je mangeais quand j’étais gamin), Fry’s Five Centres (un bar de chocolat, assez particulier).
Mon dernier bouquin est celui de Pierre Gagnaire et Hervé This, “Alchemistes aux Fourneaux“. Je n’ai pas encore commencé ce livre, mais le principe de prendre les préceptes d’un certain Nicolas de Bonnefons (valet à Louis XV) de 1655, et démontrer comment les choses n’ont pas vraiment changé, me parle. A voir.
En tout cas, je pense bientôt avoir tous les livres dont j’aurai besoin pour la toute première partie de ma nouvelle carrière dans ce beau métier de cuisinier….il me faut simplement un petit Escoffier et mon livre de poisson.
Bonne lecture !
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,
prepare the lamb (côtes et haut de côtes) - for the restaurant and for the staff
prepare the endives / chicory (cut, steamed and arranged in cold storage)
shell the langoustines
clean the scallops
prepare the lunch for the staff
peel and “turn” numerous vegetables - artichokes (we’re using spanish at the moment, whilst waiting for the “poivrade” artichokes to come into season), parsnip, turnip, carrot, potato, squash, pumpkin
peel boxes and boxes of asparagus - depending upon their freshness, we peel more or less of the skin (in my 2.5 weeks I used 3 different methods !
prepare grapefruit and lemon quaters
boning red mullet (infact, since I’ve been with the saucier, I haven’t done a great deal with the fish which is a shame, but I will do alot more with fish when I come back for my 3rd period at La Fontaine)
cooking / steaming the crab and taking out the flesh
preparing the béarnaise and the basil sauces
preparing the langoustine raviolis
preparing the langoustine spring rolls / nems
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….
whole Sea Bass roasted in the oven (240°C) for approx. 6 minutes then kept under the grill or on top of the oven
whole Sole seared and cooked on both sides in the hot frying pan until nicely browned, then placed onto a baking tray with a knob of butter to keep it moist whilst crisping up under the grill
Cod fillets (prepared from the whole cod during the morning session) seared and cooked in a hot pan with butter and oil
scallops placed 1 by 1 into the very hot fish pan, nicely colored on both sides (if the pan is not very hot then the scallop loses its liquid, and thus its succulence, and doesn’t crisp up on the outside)
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.
