Sweet Cuisine

Planning my Spanish tour.Part 1

The thought of going to Spain to stage in some of the best restaurants, well its still a nerve racking thought even after a good few years experience, how will they accept me in the kitchen?how will the language barrier affect my learning?, hopefully I am of some use to the guys in the kitchen and not to much of a pan in the arse. 

El Poblet is the first restaurant I will be working in for  little over a week. The head chef Qui Que DaCosta is renowned all over as one of the top chefs of the new generation in Spanish culinary world. His book which i received about a month ago is a work of art and if the food is anything to go by then I am in for a fantastic learning curve. El Poblet is situated in Denia, just about an hour from Alicante, El Poblet seems to be a great attraction. I have only heard good things about the place. 

The food has light touch to it, and looks so elegant, with amazing use of Aloe Vera, which they use as a gelling agent, for Foams, and for thickening sauce. The use of seafood looks second to none and the desserts sound so refreshing, Cant wait to try it out for myself, I will be studying the book none stop for the next few months.

Also in the area is Paco Torreblanca's workshop Totel, I will be making my way there for sure, and hope to get maybe a day in the kitchen , or if thats not possible a tour, or just buy every sweet delicacy in the shop.

To top all the culinary education I will be receiving, the thought of heading to Spain and seeing the country is very exciting. The views and scenery of the areas I am visiting look amazing and I cant wait to experience it first hand. It certainly will be an adventure.

Updated Petit Fours

I love traditional Petit fours , Madeleine's, Salted Caramel's, Pate Fruit, and Macaroon's often appear with the coffee at the restaurant, I just like the homely feeling of them after a marathon meal, here is the lastest pics of them. They are constantly changing with what is available in the kitchen, Current favorite is beetroot and yoghurt marshmallow. recipe will appear soon.

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Mandarin Balloon Reworked

Here is the new style for the Mandarin Balloon, Ben Roche at Moto I believe Pioneered the making of this and more recently I have seen Alinea using the balloon Nitro combo for freezing just espumas. Ive been doing this for a while but have been unable to remove it from the menu as it is soo popular. So now it is a fixture on my menu. Every month it changes flavour and design, 

This month my Lemon Mayer supplier handed me some amazing Mandarins which needed hardly any adapting to be turned into sorbet. the sugar content of them was so high. The I was thinking what with the Mandarin?? I love cheesecake and mandarin so went with a cheesecake espuma to fill the balloon with(using the needle connection for the cream whipper), served with a small carrotcake, muscavado jelly, rum soaked raisins and mandarin fluid gel.

Sweetcorn Sorbet

I love the use of vegetables in dessert, here is another one, I have sweetcorn sorbet sat on a braised Tamarillo, served along side apple and balsamic spaghetti jelly which you can just see popping out of the Popcorn Soup with Caramel foam. Served in a goldfish bowl looking dish, the idea for the Popcorn soup came from the new Alinea book, ,and it tasted awesome. 

Chocolate Aero, Beetroot, and Fourme D'ambert Salad with hazelnut and beetroot sorbet

Chocolate Aero

Here is the Chocolate Aero, the technique is taken from Heston Blumenthal from the Fat Duck, I make a Chocolate and Orange Aero opposed to the Blumenthal one which uses just hazelnut oil.

The Technique involves melting chocolate,Orange oil and Hazelnut Oil and charging it in a cream whipper, foaming it into a acetate lined mould and using a vacuum pack machine to suck the air out of an air sealed container, while this happens the bubbles in the chocolate expand and Aerate.  Once we reach the right stage we disconnect the Vacuum machine and place the Chocolate 'aero' in the blast freezer to crystalise. after half an hour we remove from the Air Tight Container and break up into pieces ready for garnishing.

Currently I am using the Aero with Beetroot blue cheese and Chocolate, certainly an interesting combination, very earthy flavours but refreshed with a refreshing beetroot sorbet.

It is important not to over aerate the chocolate as it will collapse in the mould.

Here is the quantities for the Chocolate Aero mix. 

500g Valrhona Araguani 72% Chocolate

30g    Orange Oil

20g    Hazelnut Oil

Labels: Aero, Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal, Valrhona

Top 50 Restaurants in the World.

What is your thoughts on the results? I would love to get to El Bulli when I go to spain but cant get a reservation, so super jealous of the guys who ate there and voted for them.

Alot of big names dropped out of the top 50 including Ramsay and Ducasse, and when you look at the top 10 list Avant Garde cuisine is certainly on the rise with restaurants Like El Bulli, The Fat duck, Alinea, Noma and Mugaritz all in there as well as El Celler Can Roca. Michel Bras and Pierre Gagnaire holding up the french reputation with a 7th and 9th placing respectively. 

The Spanish influence in the top 50 is astounding, 4 of the top 10 being spanish and a handful others being place through the top 50. 

The UK's reputation being held up by Fergus Henderson who's placed at 14th with St Johns Restaurant, he certainly is getting the recognition that he deserves.

Sadly no-one in NZ is in there, but Australia is, with Tetsuya and Quay. I look forward to getting to OZ some time this year to try them out.

For the Full list check out the website here http://www.theworlds50best.com/module/acms_winners?group_id=1

I cant wait to get to spain to try out the restauarants!!

Dessert Tasting Menu

So this is another step towards the dessert restaurant, Im just in the stages of planning my Dessert tasting menu, a menu which will comprise of 5 to 7 courses of desserts starting with a savoury vibe running through to the sweet end of the scale as we move through the courses, including a couple of courses with cheese integrated in.

For this i will really have to balance the sweetness of the menu as I dont want to over do it and have the guest bored after a couple of courses, I cant wait to see it on the menu, just to offer people something a little different in New Zealand,  you can see our menus from Kermadec here on the restaurant site, http://www.kermadec.co.nz/restaurant_menu.htm

Labels: Dessert, Tasting Menu

Seasonal Flux

In the future my hopes are to open a dessert restaurant along the same lines as Espai Sucre, there are a few popping up around the world now like Room4Dessert in NYC, Sam Masons Tailor and 2am dessert bar in Singapore which I briefly visited while visiting for the World Gourmet Summit in 2008. 

It certainly is a scary thing to contemplate, especially just desserts. I am banking on people coming from other restaurants to have dessert as well as building up a strong local following and definately the tourist trade in summer. But now the restaurant outlook in Auckland is pretty bleak, winter has arrived and with that people have decided to stay indoors more it seems with restaurants struggling to pack in the customers. Makes you realise that in summer you have to bang out the numbers and make as much $$$$$$ as possible with the encroaching winter threatening to suck the customers and tourists away. 

We are lucky at Kermadec, we have fantastic bosses and they are very supportive, although we still need to make a buck or two, there has certainly been a slow down but on nights like last night, we start with 30 bookings and fill up and do close to 80 which is almost maximum for the restaurant, its great news. 

Across the city you will see great lunch and dinner meal deals in most of the restaurants so its certainly a great time to be a diner. Free glasses of wine, 3 courses for under $30 dollars, free side dishes, Ive seen so many offers in the last week.

I love winter for so many reasons, mainly the mountains and snowboarding but now I wish for summer to come back and get the restaurants full again.

As for the dessert restaurant, time will tell. Im pretty positive about that, but maybe it will be a case of maximising what can be offered to its full potential from one outlet.

Labels: Kermadec, seasonal

Colaberating

This is something I am more interested in these days, Many chefs across the world share their Ideas with other chefs, even chefs you would consider rivals for business, in seminars, allow Stagaires into there kitchens for periods of time, and just basically telling or sharing through other means from conversation to blog.

I find in New Zealand this doesnt happen so much and would love to start it off here, I would enjoy to work with my peers at doing some new stuff and showing what I know in return for there knowledge, but like I said it doesnt happen so much here, I will allow any other chef into my kitchen or will explain to them any techniques I have learnt as a way of progression.

Spain is the best example of this , One restaurant will send staff to another in the quiet season, just to spy and see what you can take away that will benefit your own restaurant but not in a means to steal there customers.

Im now in a lucky position in which I am travelling to spain for 24 days to tour the food destinations, work in El Poblet and El celler Can Roca and hopefully a few others in a bid to train myself from there knowledge, I may just be given the thankless tasks, but what I will see is going to be priceless, My eyes will be wide open to learning all they have to offer, everything from flavour combinations, how they handle there food, the service, the techniques , the passion for what they do. Its very important for me to take myself out of my comfort zone and drop myself into this kind of situation as it inspires and renews all my passion and goals.

I hope New Zealand will become like this soon,

On that note I had my first call for someone to do a stage in my kitchen which was a great honor, and it should be no suprise of his nationality, can you guess?? yes Spanish, previously from Mugaritz and just moved to NZ,I look forward to having him at Kermadec to see also what I can learn from him as well as what he can take away from Kermadec.

Labels: El Poblet, Kermadec, Spain, Stagaire, Stage

Getting ready for another day at the kitchen , todays goals are to revamp the petit four service and pre and after dessert dishes, also looking to the next menu and what direction to go in with the economy sucking so much, on the bright side Ive managed to get reservations and book my flights to spain in September and October, should be awesome, more about that later:)

Nitro Raspberry Balloon

balloon

Chocolate Balloon with Beetroot Cotton Candy

Jumping Ship

Ok Ive jumped ship from Typepad to blog spot and here I am , I have added my old posts to get me started here, I will be using this site as a diary of my work in the restaurant and will be updating regularly with whats going on in my world and in the kitchen.

Hope you all enjoy the new site.

The Pastry Section

The Pastry section in a kitchen has a very different mentality to it than the main kitchen, Alot of the dishes that get sent out have components prepared in advance compared to the a la minute savoury world of the kitchen, we have mousses prepared, Ice creams, garnishs ready, all to be put together and sent out to a guest where as the boys on the hot line are cooking everything to order.

For me, well I started out on the hot line so I incorporate this into the pastry now and then maybe subcontiously, maybe not, I like to be pushed on service, caramelizing fruits, frying beignets and using techniques like Albert Adrias 30 second mi-cake baking a small cake in a plastic cup for 30 seconds to order. Madaleines baked to order and the petit fours assembled last minute. 

But in saying I like this, I must highlight the importance of Mise en place or preperation in a pastry kitchen, we pastry chefs are often  organised, like to have everything tidy, I have all the pastry equipment washed by my chefs so they understand and respect what they use. Im certainly more organised at work that in my time away from work. If our prep is not ready on time then we will be deeply in the weeds come service. I always try and be  in the kitchen early trying to push ahead and get ready so when service time comes at 6pm i will have a little time to work on menus, get my rostering done, ordering and relax before we get slammed. 

We are now coming into  Autumn and Winter where the warm desserts come in to play, for me I am always drawn to nostalgia when writing my dessert menu. I may put a few twists or use some modern techniques to create a bit of a 'wow' but more often than not the flavours will be classical, or maybe something from my childhood, or something that I have discussed with a peer about  when they were young. Dessert is one of the last things that are sent out so more often than not this is what the customers remember.   So if we have the memory of something they love tied into there dessert then I may possibly have a better chance of sending people away thinking of happier times when they were younger, and having eaten an awesome dessert, Here's hoping!!

Been to Long

Well I have been away from the blog to long, i am amazed at the regularity of post by chefs, shows real dedication and that is what i will try to achieve from now. Been a crazy two months, been short staffed during the restaurants busiest ever period and now winter is coming in the Southern Hemisphere so time for a menu change. I changed the brasserie menu yesterday and have gone to the old favourites that sell so well, especially in our Brasserie. So off come all the berries, stone fruit and on goes the slightly heavier desserts, The apples and plums available right now are fantastic although the plum will be finishing soon and i will be adjusting the dish to Apple and Tamarillo, They pair up so well to make a warm almond cake with a plum and apple compote baked in the centre, served alongside Vanilla Ice Cream and Apple and plum puree it will certainly finish most people off, also on the menu I have place crema Catalana, in the form of a brulee with Cinnamon, orange and Lemon Flavours. coming with poached and roasted pears, Breton Biscuit and Rhubarb Sorbet. Also coming on the menu will be Tiramisu served beautifully in a glass, Iced Nougat Parfait with  Mango to give a hint that summer has just ended.

Photos will be coming very soon.

Other things that have been going on in my life, I finally got my residency to stay in New Zealand, so at last i can truely settle. To celebrate this my next menu for the fine dining is going to have alot of kiwi flavours to it, with fruits i have only seen in New Zealand, such as the Feijoa, and Kiwi berries which are similar to kiwi fruit but small and green, you can eat the whole berry.

Well another christmas is here, but for me its another summer christmas in New Zealand, My third one in the Southern Hemisphere and it is still taking time to get used too. Instead of the chilly Accommodation I was used to in the UK around this time, I am in an Air conditioned unit with nice sunny weather outside, the kitchens, well they are so warm compared to the freezing winter mornings warming the chefs jackets up on the oven doors before getting changed. Instead i am battling the Humidity in the kitchen to keep the fruit crisps ,crisp. tuiles and caramel garnishes done almost to order.

As well as the weather being different obviously the seasons are, the biggest mind trick for me, Getting amazing Raspberries, Strawberries, cherries, Apricots, Gooseberries etc in December??? Now that was hard to get used to, just writing menus, and understanding when everything would come into season. To make things easier I went to my suppliers and got them to draw up lists of when things would be coming in to make sure i didnt miss out, as well as all the new fruits that i had never used like the Feijoa and Tamarillo. As well as amazing little kiwi Berries, little green berries which can be eaten whole with the inside just like a small flavorsome kiwi fruit.

So my menu this christmas is light textures and berry heavy with plenty of summer flavours and influences. No christmas pudding, no mince pies(although I may make some for nostalgia). Christmas is more likely to be a barbeque on the beach rather than wrapped up around the fire with my family back home on the Isle of Lewis.

On the subject of my suppliers I have so many people that I visit for my fruit and veggies, Drives on my day off into the New Zealand Countryside always brings some suprises , recently Gooseberries which i hadnt seen in 3 years, small market shops, Farmers markets on Sunday and small independent growers make up a good part of my suppliers, I love to support the smaller growers whose produce is usually amazing here, as well as being organic. These relationships for me prove vital. 

The one constant I have found is this is the busiest time, rolling from full lunch to dinner is a fantastic Dynamic, and a welcome one given the Economic outlook, we need to make as much money in the next month as possible, with the financial guru's expecting the down turn to arrive in New Zealand in Early March or April we are very aware that wastage really must be minimal. When I look at whats going on in the world one cant help but worry, we just hope people will still come and eat. 

Have a safe christmas and Hogmany. 

Welcome to my blog, I will try and keep it up to date as possible depending on my work load in the kitchen.
A little about me , I am Scottish and very proud of that but haven't been back to Scotland in many years due to my chosen path in life of being a Chef, I started out in a small scottish Island country hotel peeling potatoes and slowly worked my way to being a commis chef and working my way to Head Pastry Chef in Bath, England at Lucknam Park after a few stops in Glasgow and Leeds. Lucknam Park's Kitchen at the time was run by Robin Zavou who has become a close friend and a great source of advice, he now works in the Shangri La in Singapore where he ran 'Blu', there signature European restaurant. It was he who introduced me to the pastry world one day when the Pastry Chef did a runner, I had been itching to get of the Garde Manger section and he just gave me the recipe book for the section and told me to get my arse in gear which I quickly did. From then on i have been in the sweet world if you want to call it that. I owe Rob so much for this, He is such a talented chef who pushed and pushed me so much, I always credit where I am to that first day, and the many questions I had day after day trying to decode the pastry recipe folder. I definately got the feeling that I was irritating the senior chefs with my questions.

Fast Forwarding 8 years and here I am, largely self taught with a bit of mentoring from my chefs I believe that it has opened my eyes to become a bit more to being creative and able to utilize thing more than if i was just pastry trained, I was never shown a right way, I just had to figure it out and study books till the early hours of the morning like a sponge soaking all the information in as well as taking Stages in restaurants like Le Manoir Quat Saisons, Ramsays, spending time at the Square in London, with Stewert Eddy formally of St Martins Hotel and a few others which confirmed or Ironed out my bad habits or wrong doings as well as confirming the things i was doing right.

Now I have a brand new kitchen overseen by Peter Thornley worth an astronomical amount of money with all the toys I could ever ask for from Induction, Liquid Nitrogen, Anti-griddle, Rational ovens, Bongard bread oven, Blast freezers, Fridge and freezer drawer units to expensive to think about, and thats just in Pastry with a fantastic team of 4 Pastry chefs. I have certainly gone out of my way to make the place feel like home seen I will be spending so much time there. We will be doing the pastry/dessert Items for both the Fine Dining restaurant and the Brasserie with the brasserie desserts being sent from a 'seperate' kitchen to the prep and fine dining service area. 
As you can probably tell I am a bit like a kid in a toy shop. Also in these kitchens are two amazing head chefs, Giles Papst whom I worked with at the French Cafe, and more recently as Head chef of Bracu runs the Brasserie, and Ben Bayly who worked at the Square and The Ledbury in London, as well as The Bellagio in Las Vagas runs the Fine Dining. I am humbled to work with such experienced chefs.

Every day is like a learning experience with all the knowledge that we can share amongst eachother. 
I would say I am still finding my Style of cooking and enjoy to use concepts such as Ben Roaches of Moto in Chicago's Nitro Balloon which is a show stopping technique, but instead of serving it hollow, I inject it with a flavoured Espuma using a special attachment for the ISI cream Whipper. At the Moment we are doing a Raspberry balloon filled with Pistachio Espuma, served with Warm orange cake, Raspberry crisps, amazing fresh raspberries, basil curd. It is my biggest seller. Im certainly influenced by the new group of American Pastry Chefs such as Roach , Alex Stupak(wd-50), Sam Mason(Tailor) and Michael Laiskonis of Le Bernadin. As well as the Spanish new wave of Albert Adria(el bulli) whom is certainly the most insperational pastry chef in my eyes, Jordi Roca, Paco Torreblanco, and Jordi Butron of Espai Sucre. All so dedicated and talented to the field of modern pastry.

So that is a condensed version of who I am, I hope you enjoy reading my posts. Like I said the will be up hopefully once or twice a month.