Thursday, October 9, 2008
16 December 2007, Chef drove me to his new restaurant Picotin, it was a totally new restaurant. Chef said that the food at picotin is more suitable for me as it is not as complicated as saint pierre. I was allocated to the pasta, veg and starch section. There i made alot of friends cool and crazy people and of coz also of couse got some ppl that i just dont want in my sight. And there i developed alot of skills in myself and how to cope with peers in kitchen. Like how to handle all the scoldings and irritating comments that other chefs give. I got to cook during service time too. Altough my starting cooking was lousy. Alot of my dishes were rejected again and again. I sauted savoy cabbage for the first time and almost half of the amount just flew on the floor. I had a damn good laugh. Practice makes perfect, when u saute somthing and need to toos it, just do it with confidence, now i can saute anything very easily. I learened evrything from scratch, even on how to hold a knife, i got alot of cuts. I developed a very horrible laughter in myself at the restaurant, very loud and screeching. Friends around me should know how horrible my laughing is.
EDWIN is his name. A.k.a COUSCOUS (Starter Section). Cous was my 1st section head. He is a CHEF de PArti3. I hated him so much, i just wanted to talk to him as less as possible. He was so bossy. And we had cold war for about 1 week. Coz theree was once i went "WHAT" at hime my tone was harsh then he scold me until very gUo fen. He had comments on every thing i do. When i got nothing to do, he just give me crap. Coz I always stand at my precious work spot Which is under a aircon that is blowing straight at my face and drink iced tea together with small boy. Will talk more about small boy later. After newyear cous was transfered to the maincourse station, then KIN took over his place. After kin took over, i and cous became friends again, i told him honestly, that i would not like to work with him any more. We just be good friends and it worked out. Btw this guy is the horniest guy in the kitchen haha.
KIN a.k.a Babe. Jr. Sous chef (Pasta to Main Course)later promoted to Sous. I hated him at first, always kena fuck. I always look foward to days that he is off then i work, then when i off he work, so 1 week i only see his face 5 times. And every sunday is wash fridge day!! OMG! that just sucks. But slowly, we sort of become good friends, we even go buffet together. And this idiot like to call me mid night 3am ask me wake up and go and pee. Siao one. But seriously he is the one that let me know alot of secrets in cooking and perfected alot of my mistakes. Miss him so much la.
ZEE A.k.a LADYBOY Jr Sous (Starter to Main Course). I think he is the maddest person in the kitchen. There was 1 week Kin was not around and he took over pasta section for that week, we had crazy time together. Because that was the 1st moth of my work i still dun really know how to cook, during a busy dinner service there was 4 fires and i was just stirring pasta at 1 fire! Then ocassionally he will take out this joke then we will laugh together. We love slow rocking. And everytime we seE each other we will just go wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! haha. Loves it!!Abiel A.ka JUUNIOR Commis3 (Starter) Right side of picture with towel over shoulder. Hmm. This guy is patrick's son same age as me, we did breakfast together especially on sunday breakfast, even simple things like toast bread will just make us toasted. haha. Err i remember he sliced off his nail while cutting bacon one day, i rushed to the clinic together with hime, the situation was damn horrible, then he got many dayz MC, come back get fuck by COUSCOUS.
Patrick a.k.a OLD MAN. Commis 1 (Pasta). This man if I am ever going to see him with a walking stick im going to kick it away and push him into the drain. Haha joking. Patrick joined Picotin 1week after me, he is a very expirienced guy, coz he work in aust before, even as a dish washer in Paris. Can tell that he have seen alot of things. His working style very organised i salute him for that. I remember every day after kitch close he will write on the wall the mise en place for the next day, and when i arrive the next morning i will try to complete the tasks.
Nabin a.k.a BORAT. Trainee. (From Pasta to Starter). Borat is from Nepal, he has horrible english, but one he understands his tasks well he will do it not bad, his working style is very clean, he cleans as he moves, eveytime when i have trimmings around it will go missing very quickly. When i have a messy table, he will just clean clean clean very quickly. Even my trimmings for stock also lost! haha very funny lor.Davina no nickname. Trainee. (Starter) Davina is from Sunrise. guess her age? sure wrong la! She has a wierd working style of working, she has a very soft voice, and when she is holding somthing very hot she will hold it very low at the same time SQUEAKING her famous line "excuese me....." then when she needs way she will start grabbing arms giving shocks. Scary!
Will update more about picotin soon.... Its now friday morning 2am. TATa!
Since long long ago many years back, I told myself after my secondary school education, no matter what im going to shatec, coz im the kind of person that just cannot sit down, but just love the process of food preperation. Finally last year I finished Sec 5, I went to register for shatec Pastry and baking course i got the chance to enter the january group but i refused, instead i applied for the july intake. The reason behind this decision is because i wanted to look for a kitchen job and learn abit of the industry before i even enter shatec, in this way i can have more confidence in school and know the style of working in the kitchen. But now i sort of regreted takIng the pastry course as i have realised that i am more suitable in the hot kitchen. Perhaps this is because of my work expirience at the restaurants. But its ok i totally dont mind as after all i got some knowledge in pastry as i continure on my culinary journey future. Like that i know both sides, how cool!!!
A week after my 'o' levels i started looking for jobs, it was not easy at all, i bought news papers everyday, then look at the job section, then type emails, prepare letters, go for interviews, making appointments. As i didn't have any expirience it was tough for me. I went to a range of different restaurants, itallian, french, fine dining, bristro bla bla bla. "GO BACK AND WAIT FOR PHONE CALL" stupid statement, i hear that so many times la. Then i got a phone call, from saint pierre i was not sure of what kind of restaurant is that but i was asked to go for a interview, so i went. During the interview i showed CHEF my home econs pictures and just try to impress him in anyway i can to proove to him the passion i have for food. Then he said 3 words "I'll take you". WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT!!! i was so happy larh that day was 3rd December 2007. He said "u can start work on monday 10th december 2007, but within the period of this 1 week i want u to go and understand and study the concepts of french cuisine."
This man here was my boss/chef Emmanual is his name. He is a famous celebrity chef "chef in black, u know? "He's so damn nice. But there were times that i didn't like him too. But nevermind, i was very grateful to him to accept me into the restaurant. Its FINE DINING okay!!! CRapy restaurants dont take me, wheras saint pierre took me, so cool. Saint pierre has a group of restaurants including picotin as one of them. I only work at saint pierre for 4days befor i was transferred to picotin.
I remember the 1st job i had, peel 15 red skin potatoes, slice them thinly with a mandoline, and make it into a gratin. and gratin was the 1st thing i had to do every day and i was so slow la. Then i was aked to brunoise a yellow zuccini skin it too me 2hours to do that la. But chef said "what i want is the quality, never mind about the speed." i was some how touched by that i don't know why. I also had to peel live prawns in the fridge to ensure freshness, its was so damn fucking cold in there. But being a NEWBIE in the kitch was tough, i was pushed around and was given crappy shitty dirty jobs, and i felt like a dog. I had to strain alot of huge pots of stocks, and no one offered to help, so i just did it alone. Even lunch i ate alone, i didnt want to talk to anyone. The ppl there were not friendly too even the service ppl, except for a few. During dinner service, i was treated like a piece of rubbish, due to space constrain i was blocking the work space for other chefs. So i just went to pack the fridge and help cut bread for the service staff. On the 4th day of work chef said he was dissapointed with, me he said that during the interview i showed alot of enthusiesm towars food, but now he just see me hiding at a corner doing nothing. At that moment i tought i was going to get fired, i was very scared. The he said "I got a piece of good news and bad news" i was even more scared "tmr u are OFF" i almost died i tought it means FIRED, but on saturday, i will see u here at 10am and i will fetch u to PICOTIN. I was relieved and SIAN at the same time. I told him that i prefer to work at saint pierre as picotin was too far from my house. He told me that changes will be made after new year, but it didnt happen.