Special order

Special order means a little bit problem with the chef, specially if the mise en place for that order is not readily available.
Today I just arrived in the kitchen and there is one special order. A normal ensalata(mix green salad: goat cheese, cherry tomato, grilled artichoke, orange segment with lemon dressing) but the guest wants it with cucumber and spring onion and wants to have a fresh lemon juice as a dressing. We do not have cucumber and spring onion in the kitchen because of that I need to run to other kitchen and ask for those stuff. The good thing when I run down they have it ready on their table. And they gave me.
Sometimes it's very difficult to borrow some stuff from other kitchen because we know they also need those.

Sometimes also you need to steal stuff from the fridges of other kitchen. These are sometimes the cause of arguments of every kitchen.( hotel has one main kitchen where most of the stuffs like vegetables, meats etc are there)

So these are the cucumber that I took from main kitchen cold section.

Chefs attitude

"Position change the attitude of the person."

Workplace is a small place where we learn and understand the attitude of other people. People we are working with are like family member that we knows their attitude their likes and the things that can make them soft.

Let's talk about the kitchen where the chefs are working.
Attudes of persons evolve as they grow in their position, you're going to notice it once you are working with them for long time. Of course something bad and something good that is neccessary for their position. Lets talk about that.

Legumier, Commis, Cook 1,2 & 3
These kitchens staff are normally the YES CHEF of the kitchen, Ask them to do something and they will do it. Their attitudes, their bad attitude is rarely to see because they are new in the kitchen, because they need to show that they can work in the kitchen with the must needed attitude.
Soon they will become comfortable working with the chefs and these time you'll get to know them better and these time also they start to complain, they start to argue. The good thing they start to express their ideas. These way they will get a promotion and they become Demi chef de partie.

Demi Chef de Partie.
There are two kinds of demi chef de partie. The first one is the newly hired and the old one or the one that is promoted from commis.
These  promoted from commis is more comfortable working with the team, He is trying to balance his attitude towards the other chefs because he is in the middle position. He was a commis before so he needs to consider his fellow commis. The good thing is he has now more power to express his ideas because he knows his chefs and he has experience in the same kitchen and in the same team.
This newly hired demi chef de partie is sometimes uncomfortable in the beggining. He is trying to figure out the working attitude of every chef in the kitchen. Most of the time he is asking information about the kichens specially the standard in the their kitchen. This demi chef de partie has his own knowledge but he knows that his new kitchen has their own standard that he needs to follow. Throug timw he will be comfortable and his ideas will be heard.

Chef de Partie.
The chef de partie is the in-charge of the section of the kitchen what he wants  must be done. He has more experienced and what he is doing is based on what he learned and what the Sous chef told him.
They are sometimes coming to be arrogant because they do not listen to their commis and demis. They don't let them to explain.

Sous Chef.
Souse is the head of the kitchen. He is the manager of the kitchen he is the one who do the food costing, scheduling, ordering and so many things in the office. Aside from that he also needs to work in the kitchen during the service. Normally during service he went to the guest table and ask about the food if the guest like it and talk about anything else. Most of the time they do the plating it means that evey foods are passing from his hands to plate so he knows if the food is good or not. He taste the food before plating it. If he think the food is not good he will start to yell and give bamboo to the team, specially to the one who cook the food.
A good chef sometimes need to be  strict and is required otherwise the kitchen will be relax. Sometimes if the kitchen is relax they forget to do the small thing that sometimes is the cause of big problem.
The good chef ask ideas from his staff or from the other chef. He deligates responsibility to everbody for a better working environment.

It feels good when you see the emptied plate from the table of the guest. It just mean that the guest likes the food.

This afternoon is not so busy, I think I did a good job today because the guest finished their food. I checked their plate in the diswashing area and I saw there the plate is empty, I also checked in the garbage and there is no wasted food. It just mean that the guest really likes the food.

Fruit platter

Fruit platter has always been the one that is finished first when there is a buffet in anywhere. Fruits are really good and natural tasting.

Shallot Paste and Garlic Paste

There are some people who are allergic with some of the food and spices like garlic, onion, nuts, sugar etc.

During the opening of the hotel where I am working now, everybody are busy in preparing their stuffs. Like us in the kitchen we are busy preparing the mise en place, all the ingredients needed for cooking. We receive a notice that the owner is allergic with the garlic and onion. So during these week we are not allowed to prepare anything shallot and garlic. You can imagine food without garlic and shallot are not good tasting.




















Because of this our kitchen decided to use a shallot paste, and garlic paste in our food preparation. Because with this paste we can put it on the food even after sauteing or even when your're just reheating the food.

Doing it is very easy.


1. Baked the shallot in the oven for 180' for 1 hour
2. Remove from the skin
3. Blend the peeled shallots in blender, gradually add oil.
4. Strain so we get the nice paste.



And for garlic paste

1. Boil the garlic
2. When it's soft throw the water
3. Blend the garlic in blender, gradually add oil.
4. Strain so we get the nice paste.

Kitchen in the morning

For three months now my schedule is always morning.
Normally I wake up at 7 am, I ask Siri to wake me up at 7 before going to sleep. I also ask her to remind me about the things I need to do for the next day. Moving out from bed is one of the most difficult challenges in the very early morning.

Anyway I always have my breakfast at the accommodation  so I can go directly to the kitchen when I get to the Hotel, Because if I take my breakfast in the hotel it will take 20 minutes of my time and then I cannot work immediately.

So when I come to the kitchen I switch the lights on, I check the log book for any updates or endorsement that I need to do. Then I set up all the stuffs needed for cooking like the chopping board, knives, pots etc. switch on the burner, the oven etc.  Complete setup is a must. missing small thing in the set up is a big hassle during busy operation.


When I'm done with the setup I need to check all the mise en place, I need to smell, taste change and make new one if needed. One thing we need to remember when we are checking the mise en place that " if we are not sure about the quality of the MEP or the food  we should seek other chef sopinion or better throw the MEP. Normally I am alone in the morning when I have doubt I throw the stuff. While checking I also make a new list of the things that I need to do.

When I'm done with the setup and checking, that is the time to start with the preparation of the mise en place for back up. In preparing the mise en place we also need to consider the first thing first we need to do otherwise it will cause delay.

When the other chefs comes, the midshift schedule,  That is the time I can go to pick up some stuffs from the main kitchen or from other kitchen, or maybe that is the time I can go for breaktime.

There are so many thing we can do in the kitchen, life in the kitchen is not boring.

is it Caviar?

I was doing some pasta when the steward ask me to have a look at the lobster that he's going to put in the aquarium. Those lobster are huge and for the first time i saw a lot of eggs under the stomach of the lobster. This is unusual for me and i am curious what is the name of those eggs. Its looks like caviar. Later ill check it out.

Yes I got an answer.. Those eggs are roe or lobster caviar and those egg are edible. Actually i tried to eat small piece and its the same taste like the caviar i know in the bottle. but then my workmate warning me that it was a sh_t of the lobster. ha ha ha. then I get confuse. But now I am sure.