Ok, I have not been back in Melbourne all that long, about 16 months, and already i see a disturbing trend throughout the city, all the restaurants have pretty much the same menu. I know that is not entirely true, but the amount of dishes that appear keep appearing on different menu is starting to upset me.
This night, the wife and i share an entree, The octopus special for $25. The octopus was cooked sous vide for 6 hours (i think) before being grilled to order, served with cotechino, kipfler potato, and salsa verde. It could have been a nice dish, but 2 problems here, 1) the octopus, which we were told would be tender, was instead quite chewy. this is because it was served in lenghths, if cut shorter the fibres would be shorter, and voila, it would be more tender. Problem 2) the dish straight out of Thomas Keller's book, Under Pressure, with cotechino substituted for chorizo. Books are great, i own hundreds of cook books, but i do not copy a dish out of the book, use them for inspiration. 5/10
Course 2 for me was a veal holstein snitzel, with celeriac remoulade, fried egg, and white anchovie.
Holstein seems to be a bit of a trend at the moment, but thats fine, and in honesty, I think the European has been doing it for some time now. It should be a great dish, but the veal is overcooked, and for $42, i think a little more care should have been taken, that said, the flavours and textures were very good, and a very reasonable portion, the white anchovie not too overpowering, and a subtle celeriac remoulade to tie it together. For me, a little more mustard would have been great. 6/10
We opted to not have dessert, but insstead enjoy our wine, a great suggenstion from the sommelier, an Italian Nebbiolo (will come back with producer and vintage). it was surprisingly good value at $90. would recommend it. Suggestion and value for money 7/10
The place still has the European charm, but i would like to see it become a little better value for money. You still leave feeling like you have been robbed a bit, just like in Europe
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
2 years in London (part 1)
I will be honest about this, this is really the beginning of my career, and it was hard. Not just the cooking, but the life style as well. i say this is the beginning of my career, because it had the biggest influence on my current style.
I worked in a two Michelin starred restaurant, one of the best in London. I started at the bottom, making breads, and petite fours. Arrive at 7.00 in the morning, and start running, it was push push push for 5 hours until the start of Lunch service, it did not matter how many were booked, i was always in the shit, i had to bake 5 types of breads, 6 types of petite fours, make tuilles, and and help the pastry chef get ready for service because he was a complete idiot. How the hell was this guy running a pastry section in a 2 star restaurant. I was stuck in a hard place, help him get out of the shit, and let my section go down, or do my work, and he would go down, and then i get bollocked for not helping him, come on, i have only been working there for 3 weeks.
after about 1 1/2 months of this, one afternoon stands out to me. I sent up a tray of petite fours, and abou t20 minutes later the manager comes down, and passes to the head chef something small, he looks at me adn shows a small metal tart shell, (used to bake the filo for the pink praline tarts). He then passes it to the executive chef.
'What the fuck are you thinking, that is a fucking commis chef mistake, and you want to be a chef de partie, are you fucking happy, could you fucking eat that. Think your so fucking good don't you'
'No chef, sorry, wont happen again' i replied.
'I fucking hope it wont happen again, if it does you can fuck off'
I didn't know what to think. i was upset that i had let it go to the dining room, i was embarrassed, i was working 16 hours a day, 5 days a week, for what? to cop that?
The next day, i look at hte situation, i deserved it, we work those hours to produce a perfect experience for the customer, and who was i to stuff it up for the rest of the team.
After 3 months, the pastry chef resigned, thank god for that, i had had enough of him, he was so slow, and then i was asked to take over his role.
'Absolutely', it was what i was after, to start moving up in the kitchen.
Now this was an experience, i had not done a great deal of pastry work, but really wanted to learn. It got me going, It was not as hard as the Bread section, or maybe i was adapting more, but i started to get more organised, then after a week, on one busy service, the first pastry order came in, and i was determined to get it right, the pre dessert went up, and it took me about 25minutes to get the plates ready, for some reason i was running in circles, just couldn't fininsh the plate ups, the exec chef turned to me, and asked politely where the desserts were, i said up in 2 minutes chef. He turned to the sauce chef, and i overheard him say, i hope we dont have another ............. here.
That hurt me, I would have preferred a barrage of abuse, but comparing me to the previous pastry chef, i was embarrassed. Fuck me i was angry about it, but what could i do? I decided then that I needed to work harder, and prove him wrong.
to be continued.........
I worked in a two Michelin starred restaurant, one of the best in London. I started at the bottom, making breads, and petite fours. Arrive at 7.00 in the morning, and start running, it was push push push for 5 hours until the start of Lunch service, it did not matter how many were booked, i was always in the shit, i had to bake 5 types of breads, 6 types of petite fours, make tuilles, and and help the pastry chef get ready for service because he was a complete idiot. How the hell was this guy running a pastry section in a 2 star restaurant. I was stuck in a hard place, help him get out of the shit, and let my section go down, or do my work, and he would go down, and then i get bollocked for not helping him, come on, i have only been working there for 3 weeks.
after about 1 1/2 months of this, one afternoon stands out to me. I sent up a tray of petite fours, and abou t20 minutes later the manager comes down, and passes to the head chef something small, he looks at me adn shows a small metal tart shell, (used to bake the filo for the pink praline tarts). He then passes it to the executive chef.
'What the fuck are you thinking, that is a fucking commis chef mistake, and you want to be a chef de partie, are you fucking happy, could you fucking eat that. Think your so fucking good don't you'
'No chef, sorry, wont happen again' i replied.
'I fucking hope it wont happen again, if it does you can fuck off'
I didn't know what to think. i was upset that i had let it go to the dining room, i was embarrassed, i was working 16 hours a day, 5 days a week, for what? to cop that?
The next day, i look at hte situation, i deserved it, we work those hours to produce a perfect experience for the customer, and who was i to stuff it up for the rest of the team.
After 3 months, the pastry chef resigned, thank god for that, i had had enough of him, he was so slow, and then i was asked to take over his role.
'Absolutely', it was what i was after, to start moving up in the kitchen.
Now this was an experience, i had not done a great deal of pastry work, but really wanted to learn. It got me going, It was not as hard as the Bread section, or maybe i was adapting more, but i started to get more organised, then after a week, on one busy service, the first pastry order came in, and i was determined to get it right, the pre dessert went up, and it took me about 25minutes to get the plates ready, for some reason i was running in circles, just couldn't fininsh the plate ups, the exec chef turned to me, and asked politely where the desserts were, i said up in 2 minutes chef. He turned to the sauce chef, and i overheard him say, i hope we dont have another ............. here.
That hurt me, I would have preferred a barrage of abuse, but comparing me to the previous pastry chef, i was embarrassed. Fuck me i was angry about it, but what could i do? I decided then that I needed to work harder, and prove him wrong.
to be continued.........
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