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.

Semi dried cherry tomatoes

So everyday I need to make this tomato, cherry tomato garnish for almost all of the dishes we have in the restaurant. Look at this... it's beautiful.

well its very easy to do, just dip fried it in very hot oil for 30 seconds or until you see the skin is coming like a wrinkle.

There is another one we called semi dried cherry tomato. This one we cut the cherry tomato into two between top and bottom and then we lay it on the tray we season with salt, pepper, sugar, and some dried oregano, and then we keep it under the heating lamp or light ( its like the heat of the sun makes dry the tomato) for almost two or three hours. more than that is not good.
The taste is good its like a candy with a sweet and sour taste.

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.