a new life

i think this guy's pretty cool. he actually signed up for the basic cuisine course n completed it. it's very stressful to study cuisine. pastry was less stressful n we were always happier than those in cuisine lessons.

it's good that he wrote abt that experience n how tough it was. now the media shd just tap on this - how much hard work there is in the commercial kitchen. every week, sunday plus features a chef n very often they just highlight their success. i think they shdn't emphasize too much on it coz pple start to think how cool it is to be a professional chef. let me tell you this: a chef is just another blue collar worker. there's nothing glam abt it. i also think that the media shdn't interview the younger chefs. this could lead to arrogance. so far, i have seen two cases like that. if they're heston blumenthal or pierre herme, i say, go ahead. they've got quality.

going back to the point where i feel that the media shd feature how much hard work there is in this trade, i think they shd just go to a commercial kitchen especially that of a hotel and just film a day's work of the chefs. dun go during the peak times. maybe that film can garner a few awards n make those who're considering to step into the industry, reconsider doing so.

this industry needs passionate souls to give it a lift. dun tell me how much u love baking or cooking at home n u wanna become a chef just like that. tell me how much u love being in a comercial kitchen where there is intense pressure n mind you, some chefs, actually time u on how fast or slow u r in completing a task. i need to hear these words;i just love the pressure n the pace of this trade.

anyone who is interested in filming "one day as a chef", please contact me. i wanna be involved in this production. dun bother to watch anthony bourdain or jamie oliver. get back to reality.

I just visited the blog of one of my favourite chefs from USA. He mentioned about how things got screwed up in the kitchen and under that kind of pressure, chefs usually will yell their heads off. However, times have changed or maybe chefs do mellow with age. They don’t scream at their commis cooks. Instead, they calmly turned the situation into something positive. Someone commented that he once prepared the chicken wrongly and his boss converted into another dish. That’s exactly the kind of boss I love and I happened to have met one like that. In my last job when I handled functions, I didn’t know what pressure was. I loved pressure. Pressure was fun and brings the best out of me. I perform better under stress. I learnt from that boss. Whenever I made a mistake, he simply said to me “just keep going”. I live by that motto since then.

Let’s hope that more bosses can be this calm and cool in the commercial kitchens. I guess in Asia this is a rarity. The other bosses I’ve met were arrogant and incapable and they succumbed under pressure.

no....no log cakes for me this year. i'm so tired of making log cakes. think i've made thousands in the last five years. its very boring. but this will change if i've my own shop. i will or rather, have to make log cakes.

i've been busy. busy baking. so many orders especially on the eve. this is good! and i'm gonna start to sell my biscotti and choc chip cookies again!

btw, its my first time blogging in the morning. i prefer to blog at night. alright, that's all for today!

hey everyone! i'm gonna start blogging again. sorry, been so busy n engrossed in my life that i just neglected this site.

basically i left the industry and am working on my own. doing an online business. but i am gonna look for a place to open my shop some time next yr. lucky for me, i've got an investor who believes in wat i do and wanna put her money into it.

next yr, i'm gonna so some part time teaching in a sec sch where my fren's a teacher there. the home econs teacher going on maternity leave so i'll fill up the gap. my fren warned me abt the students. ok, thats y its only part time. hopefully can expand my clientele base.

i went shopping just now. my god...singapore is really shrinking. too many pple. where do we find space to walk when we hit the 6 million mark? think i'll spill over to the causeway.

in these last few mths when i've been idling ard, i kinda enjoyed it. i realised how much i hated working for bosses who're aged 30yrs n below. too arrogant. i dun understand how they can be so arrogant n bossy when they're only pastrychefs. no paper qualifications n still wanna be so arrogant. god bless them man!

anyway, next yr's gonna be totally unpredictable for me. i'm in for a rollercoaster ride n this may be the biggest n most challenging ride ever!

this is the first time i actually upload a picture in my blog. this is the V-day dessert i've created. the strawberry rhubarb with white choc mousse. the red stuff's the strawberry rhubarb n the white stuff is the mousse in the glass.

i dun think it looks romantic but still, i thought it's not bad and my colleagues gave me positive feedback

i showed this to my fren last night n she said that using heart-shaped stuff is abit too obvious. so far, she's the only one who could read my plating. yes, i mean READ INTO IT. the stuff i've chosen are very representative of love. unfortunately, pple are still going gaga over kinky objects. pple, ya gotta move over. now ya all know why i wanna migrate to aust? pple here dun appreciate plating at all!

hi folks! last week i presented my V-day dessert to my colleagues n my boss. unfortunately, it was not good enough for V-day. not romantic basically. well, i don't expect anything more than that coz i dun like heart shaped stuff. this dessert's my very first own creation n i was very veryhappy with myself. it was a strawberry-rhubarb compate served with white chocolate bavaroise n two strawberries dipped in choc plus two pcs of bretonne. my colleagues whacked all three plates n commented that they would like to eat more of it. it was a very well balanced dessert. the strawberry rhubarb complemented the mousse (that's the bavaroise) n the tuile was an orange flvoured one which went very well with the mousse n the compote. then the two pcs of bretonne helped them to finish the dessert with a different texture n feel for their palates. initially they voted for my dessert but my boss asked thme if it's really suitable for V-day then they had to choose my colleague's one.

i'm not disappointed at all. i'm very happy with myself. i've never tasted rhubarb, never worked with it but i 've always wanted to do so. i understood that it went well with strawberries so i told my boss what i needed n she ordered frozen rhubarb for me n i played ard with it. normally, in australia, there's sthg called a strawberry rhubarb tart. that's where i got my idea. i deconstructed the tart n turned it into a plated dessert. usually the filling is mascarpone cheese. since it's for V-day, i chose a choc, and i thought that white chocolate's fine. then the two pcs of bretonne was meant to sub the tart. so this method worked! deconstruct an idea n reconstruct it. if possible, find another sub for certain filling or ingredient. it's creativity.

my boss said that she will consider my dessert for a mthly special or even include it in the new menu. but she wants the bretonne to be done in various shapes n sizes coz she wanna sold individually.

this is the reason why i never came here to update coz i've been doing research on how to work with rhubarb n how to plate it. it's a very simply plating n it just sums up my personality n my own flair. on wed, i've to do the dessert again. will bring a digital camera to snap it then upload it.

it's my work. when i open my own shop, this will defintely be sold.

i'm past my jet lag but i'm not over italy.

arrived in singapore on july 26th, morning. i joined a travel agent from singapore on an 8-days tour to venice, florence n milan. it's a shopping tour. my mum, her colleague n i departed on the 19th, on the inaugural flight by SIA, direct to milan. it took us around 13hrs to get there. hey, 13hrs on board the flight was very comfortable. this SIA crew who flew there with us, returned home with us too. so we were very well taken care of. i didn't detect any kinda arrogance or biased service from the crew. on the contrary, we chatted like long-time frens.

so the flight's good. but the weather in italy was at a high of 42 degrees celsius. almost baked over there. the air was dry. and that's why i'm down with sore throat now. the stuff there, well, we used euros so everything multiply by 2. i ate a few gelato which i must say, was the best. the fruity flavours were sooooo yummy. till today my mum still misses the melon gelato.

our first stop was venice. however, before we got there, we made a stop at verona n checked out where romeo n juliet lived. there was the statue of juliet n it was believed thatt if ya go up there n touched her breasts, u'll find ur lifelong partner. hahaha.....i didn't toucch of course. dunno how to do this kinda thing.
had some horrible chinese lunch, ya know with this kinda tour, defintely chinese food will be included.
then we took a boat ride to venice. wow...as the boat approached venice, i just snapped n snapped pics...it was picturesque. those postcards i'd seen of venice were jsut like the real thing!!! even tho i was super tired by then plus the scorching heat, i was so taken in by the scenery.
i didn't get onto the gondola. alittle steep the price but also, we didn't ahve enuff time.

florence was our next stop. i loved it the most coz of their architecture n there was actually a square where there were many stalls that sold interesting stuff. once again, we had sooooo little time to shop. we checked out dunno which cathedral but it was lovely. the marble tiles int he church kept the entire place cool. when we stepped in, we thought it was air conditioned. i cna bet with ya that i'll go there n stay for two days.

how can we miss the leaning tower of pisa right? it's just located ont he fringe of florence. we moved ard in a coach n each journey took a minimum of 3hrs to get there. we had wanted to climb up the tower, however, the tickets were all sold out except for those time slots which were too late for us. that was really disappointing. the travel agency didn't inform us on such time slots to get up to the tower. it was this travel agency's first tour to milan. in short, we were the guinea pigs. they did a damn bad job. my mum's colleague called their office from milan on our second last day to complain n she even jotted down all the details in 3 A-4 sized papers n sent it out. it was here that i saw the HK actress, flora chan. my mum asked her if we cld take a pci of her but she said that she cldn't take any while working n if we wanna wait, she'll do so after her work's done. time constraint. no pic.

last stop, milan, the shopping hub of italy. versace, prada, gucci, ferragamo, LV.....i felt so out of place. my mum enjoyed it. i got her a prada bag that left me with half of my salary for this mth. never mind, she liked it. all this shopping could be done in DUomo. there's this huge cathedral which took 600 yrs to construct n i was soooooooo impressed. i had lovely italian food at this small but modern outlet called Iris. kept their business card n if i ever go back there again, i'll patronize that place.

lousy tour, lovely italy. i'lld efintely go back. but i'll head down south to rome, naples n sicily first.