Ice cream Teppanyaki

I am not a big fan of Ice cream, sorbet or any cold sweet dessert except buko salad,  so I have no idea what is ice cream teppanyaki until on the first day of our Friday Brunch ( breakfast and lunch ) I saw this ice cream table with marble on the middle and its cold and frezzing. I was thinking what is the purpose until one guest ask me for a scoop of ice cream and suddenly he ask me what is that ice on the table. I was shock and I do not know what to say. I just replied that this is for the temperature so that the ice cream will not melted so fast. and the guest left with for sure has doubt for what i said. I ask the other Chef what is the purpose and he also dosnt know, he has the same idea like me. Then this Chef ask the other chef and finally we learned that its a ICE CREAM TEPPANYAKI. Chef explain us how to work with it.

So Ice cream teppanyaki is a icecream preparation using a very cold flat marble wherein they put and mix any ice cream and any filling or stuffing normally nuts or crumble etc they mix it there and they will serve it to the guest after.

Stracciatella cheese

At first it's looks like a buko salad, because it's looks  like a segments of baby coconut covered of milk but then when I tasted it I learned that it's a kind of soft cheese called stracciatella.

Stracciatella cheese is soft cheese made from cows and buffalo milk.  The same proccess like buffalo mozzarella only the texture are different as buffalo mozzarella is round and has shape while straciatella is like a creamy and soft segments.

Straciatella normally found inside the Burrata, Burrata is a mozzarella cheese with starciatella filling.
All these cheeses are  best served with slice tomato and rocket salad.

Busy Kitchen

When the restaurant is busy it means everybody who are involved in that restaurant are for sure busy. It starts with the RESERVATIONS who manages the bookings. And when the guest arrives in the hotel, FRONT OFFICE like the receptionist, the doorman and the guest relations are busy assisting the guest all the way to the booked restaurant of the hotel. Then the HOSSTESS of the reataurant will accompany the guest to their table they chat a little bit giving information to the guest about the restaurant the food and the facilities the restaurant has to offer. And by the time the guest is sitting their the server will immidieately put the welcome bread and water on the guest table and at the same time they will give the menu.

So the order comes out on the kitchen printer (KOT or kitchen order taker printer) The chef will read loud  what are the order. for example. Table of 3 for  starter 1 seafood platter sharing, 3 tomato soup. and for main course 1 chicken ala cubana, 1 beef tenderloin in sweet gravy and 1 papardelle pasta with bagnacauda sauce. and if there is another course they will also read it except if they are are not involved in the next preparation like for example the dessert where in there is special chef who prepare desert order.
So the chef on the starter should be active as theire food should be served as fast as possible as to avoid long time waiting of the guest. and once the starter is done the server will start to send information tho the kitchen by the KOT ( fire main course ) and the chefs will finalized the cooking and will start to plate the food. During these times its normal that the chefs are shouting like what we are seeing in the GORDON RAMSAY show. But of course not all chefs are like him there are lots of  NICE,ORGANIZED,RELAX AND SURE Chefs.  Normally the Chefs are shouting because he is not satisfied for what the other chefs did, it maybe the taste, quantity or maybe something is missing like the garnish and most of the time as everybody are busy that their MISE EN PLACE is running out and it takes time to prepare those MEP. and the most important is the hygiene chef will be very mad if bad hygiene is present.

And so for sure the STEWARDING are also busy, You have no idea how many times they need to be like a DJ just to make the plates really clean and shiny, aside from that they also taking care washing of everything pots and pans, cleanliness of the kitchen  so many things. Like in my kitchen we have one casual employee and his job is to wipe and polished the plates and cutleries for the entire operation specially in the busy days.

Buffalo Mozzarella

I enjoy plating the buffalo mozzarella. So everytime we have mozzarella order, I am not hesitate to do it, I am actually excited puting it in the plate. Buffalo mozzarella is made from the milk of Water buffalo (Carabao in asia). As we all know Italians are known for their knowledges in making cheeses, Buffalo mozzarella is one of them.
There are other kinds of mozzarela and is normally hard as compare to buffalo mozzarela which is very very soft. Normally Buffalo mozzarela is ate with some rocket salad, cold cuts and or grilled vegetables.
Boconccini is small round bite size of buffalo mozzarela.

I have a story. on my first day in one of my previous kitchen, I was assign in the cold section where in most of the food starter are made. Every body are busy and I am hesitate of plating of any order. The manager ask the chef if he can make a buffalo mozzarela as a complimentary to the guest. My chef ask me to make and I have no Idea how to do it. I ask the other commis and he show me the mozzarela he told me to just make a little rocket salad and put the mozzarella on top. I show it to the commis and and he said its fine just make it nice. So i put some cherry tomato and some color of mix cress and i gave it to the manager. In the end the manager said the guest like the overa all service and the food.

Leftover expensive dessert

There is always a lefover dessert in every restaurant, normally those dessert that are on buffet cannot keep for the next day service and its normally go to the garbages. Normally everything from the buffet are go direct to the garbages because these cannot be used anymore. I felt so bad when i see so much wasted food like this.

Do you know that this dessert cost 40aed, 400pesos,10USD each glass in my hotel. This is very expensive.Yes this is taste so good but if its this expensive i will not buy this. The good thing is I can eat it for free.

Lucky being a Chef?

I am Lucky because I am happy with my job.
I am not really a chef... at the momment I am a commis Chef and I am happy that I am working in the hotel kitchen.

I started as a legumier.. in the beggining I got a trauma ha ha ha with the Chefs I am working with, they shout a lot. as if they are the best and they know everything. It came to a point that i wanted to move in the housekeeping department, I talk to the HR manager and to my executive chef and so good that this Italian executive Chef is nice. He explain things to me very well, how things goes in the kitchen. He tell me to think very well then decide when its final. and he will help me to move in case I am decided. think think and think more and I decided to stsy in the kitchen.
I was promoted as a Commi 1, I get more salary but I was not happy with the people I am working with and I felt that there is no changes and doing the same things everyday decided me to leave the company.
I applied again as a commi 2 this is same level like legumier same salary but its okay this time I am working with the people that I like and the best reason is this is new I can learn new things with them. I am working well happy happy happy , learning learning and learning more. So good and I enjoy working with these people.
For less than a year I got a promotion and become a commi 1. This time Ill be moving on to the next level because I am happy and I enjoy working in the kitchen with my Chefs.

Food Bugs

Last time I was cleaning a mix green vegetable for salad and then I found this bug. This is looks nice its like a very small bettle. But to see flies on the mix greens is not good. 
This is how Chefs are very careful in preparing food for the guest  because we know things like this can cause a very serious problem to the company. For your information culinary  and others are following the HACCP standard in preparing and serving food.  HACCP stand for Hazzard Analysis and Critical Control Points. HACCP is a systematic  approach to food safety. This include everything from personal hygienne, food preparation, temperature, cleanliness and so much more.