HEAVENLY!

Today is the kind of day I dreamed about before I came here ie learning to cook my all time favorites. Not just one, but two at the top of my list, in the same lesson. Chef Steve plays the psyche of his students well, it is supposed to be Lesson 7 ie commencement of Week 3 but he decided to teach Lesson 23 instead so we struck gold. The menu was (1) Grilled Baby Octopus Salad with Herbed Black Olives/Lemon Vinaigrette (2) Pan-Fried Calf's Liver with Bacon & Jus. We also learned 2 side dishes; Buttered Spinach & Onion Frita le Francaise ... delish! We are allowed to take everything we cooked home - no ingredients though, so I had a field day.

PEAK & VALLEY

I forgot to report on my 2nd 'Waterloo' after the Gateau Weekend. Just one day after my full-marks I fell from the Peak all the way to Shau Kei Wan! This atrocious picture is proof. I simply could not manage; the dough was not right, the thickness was not right, the stacking was not right as it required a scientific mind & nimble fingers, both I lack, lastly they were too sweet .... pitiful is the word. Most of the class made 20 from the same ingredients, I could barely manage 10. 'I appreciate the fact that you kept trying though' was all Chef Michael could mutter, trying desperately to be kind I am sure. What a blood bath!

L'ART DE VIVRE & AMITIES GOURMANDES!

At orientation we were given a booklet which opened with a letter from the President of LCB Andre Cointreau. I finally managed to read it last night. Commissioned in 1895 the 'Blue Ribbon' aims to represent not only French culinary arts, but French culture at large. LCB has an extensive network of 27 schools in 16 countries, and a student body of 20,000 taught by 80+ International Master Chefs. We are reminded that with Sydney at our doorsteps everyone should take every opportunity to explore 'L'Art de Vivre' ..... described as a key mission of the course, raison d'etre again, perhaps?

A round trip train ticket to Town Hall in the middle of the city is A$6.20 .... it takes almost an hour, to the minute, from the moment I closed my door at Metro Inn ie walk to the station, waiting, and the 35 minute ride. Trains are right on-time! Today is Mother's Day so the mood was festive in the city, lots of hugs & kisses & hand holding with Moms across all ages. Cointreau is right, we ought to make the best of Sydney, obviously a sought after location. Too bad I have school 6 days a week so I only have Sunday to play, and play I will.

A cool sign off from the Academic Director of Culinary ... 'Amities Gourmandes'. Hey, as a conscientious junior I will certainly do that, too.

30 YEAR FRIENDSHIP

Almost 30 years ago in 1980 three young Asians became the first Management Trainees to join Johnson & Johnson Australia in Sydney under the IDP ie International Development Program. Jaime Castro from Manila, Dicky Adiwoso from Jakarta, & Raymond Tang from Hong Kong. Our Aussie colleagues called us 'The Triad'. To make a long story short, we made the collective effort to keep up since, and our lasting friendship is the ultimate winner.

I left J&J in 1985 to join the executive search world. Jaime had an illustrious career with MNCs, after J&J he joined Alcon Pharmaceutical where he retired as the regional boss. Dicky chose the commercial route with Bakrie Brothers after J&J and became the 'ultra-businessman' I can never be, even if I try. Our J&J ties led to a fascinating business relationship in the late 80's when we collaborated to recruit the CEO of P.T. Seamless Pipe in Chiligon, partnering with Krakatau Steel. The dimensions, the complexity, the impact, the politics, the players really opened my eyes. It was my first global search project, working closely with high power candidates from U.S. Steel, Sumitomo Steel & Italipianti etc. I found myself totally inadequate on the one hand but I also matured professionally on that steep learning curve, thanks to Dicky's introduction.

Jamie & Duitay live in Manila with their 2 adult children whom we knew as toddlers. Dicky & Igal sent all 4 kids to 'uni' here (Aussie code for college) as a result of his own exposure. Being the baby in the group he is still active. Dicky owns a huge cattle farm in South Sumatra, partnering with Aussie cattle farmers which is why he is here a lot. Dora & I hosted a memorable 'First Triad Reunion' in Hong Kong back in March. The next one is Manila, and then Jakarta when we plan to bring our 2nd generation together & stay at Dicky's beach house, next to the farm. I am sure the steaks will be top class, probably on-the-house too, since daman owns a few thousand heads down the road. Right Dicky?

The picture was taken by Dicky's honorable #2 son, in front of 'The Little Snail' on Darling Harbor circa May 10th 2009. For the record I ordered 'Chicken Cordon Bleu' out of sheer respect for my alma mater. Dicky is my witness since he took the bill, and I let him.

The Chinese have a saying (and we have lots) on the 3 key things we must have when we get old .... Old Partner, Old Capital & of course Old Friends. Thank you Dicky & Jaime for being such wonderful 'Old Friends', here is to our next, and many more reunions.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

To all Mothers out there, whose love is 'The Greatest Love of All' .... remember that tune?

* To my Mom, 88, affectionately known as Grandma or GM, who enjoys health & longevity;
* To Dora the Mom of our terribly spoiled but precious daughters & of course, Kaya;
* To my dear Sister Lilian, the Mom of Katz & Papagano;
* To Terriann the Mom of Jello;
* To Andrea the Mom of Snoopy;
* To Jessica the Mom of Moses!

Make all Mothers special, today, and everyday from now on!

PATISSERIE MORNINGS!

I have Patisserie 3 days a week ie Thu/Fri/Sat starting 730am. Alarm goes off at 6am as I need 30 minutes for my routine of shower, shave, cereal, fruit yogurt & news on TV .... before leaving at 630am for the 20-minute quick walk to school so I am not rushed in the changing room, so I can review my 'work-flow' Q&A before the chefs rain on us. I am the only early bird in the family, Dora and the girls will never survive this regimen, especially our nocturnal offsprings aka Andrea & Jessica.

Look at that first-light outside my picture window, it is breath-taking and so beautiful to wake up to. I am mesmerized, every morning. I always take a couple of minutes to watch the unfolding skyline, it is magical. Now you know why people say 'some of the best things in life are free' ... here is one, from me, to you, with love!

THERAPY

Psychologists say mild physical labor can be a form of therapy for stressed out souls. I agree. To me washing dishes & wine glasses after a party is a good way to unwind. In the early days of our marriage (before children pirated our serenity) Dora & I had no helper, yet we entertained almost as frequently as we do nowadays. She did most of the cooking, I helped with mise en place. My main role, however, was cleaning the kitchen afterwards, a task I loved. A bottle of Johnny Walker Black, a bucket of ice, radio on - no IPODs then - I would be happy as a lark for a couple of hours, relishing every moment. I am certain the therapy bit has lots to do with 'satisfactory completion'. These tasks are not demanding, one just gets on, in whatever fashion one wants until they are done. It is something the work place today does not offer what with clients, bosses, coworkers, revenues, profits & of course, office politics .... ad nauseum. Who needs any of it?

Coming to the main point of this blog : that strange object in the picture is an item some of you might still remember, albeit remotely. It is called, very good .... an ironing board! You may not be as far gone the Hong Kong Way as I suspect. You are not going to believe it but you all have one at home and someone (obviously NOT you) actually uses it every day. Unimaginable, isn't it? In my book ironing is a close second to kitchen cleaning as therapy for stress. My ironing board is a permanent fixture in the room now since I have to 'look my best' at LCB so I iron my uniform, my scarf, my hat ... every night.

You see how blessed I am here in Sydney? On a daily basis I get to act out my passion, I become a student all over again, I am taught by the best in the culinary discipline .... above all, I get therapy from cleaning the kitchen during the day, and ironing at night.

FULL MARKS!

This is the Light Fruit Cake I received full marks, from none other than a no nonsense Frenchman, Chef Olivier. The key operative word in the 2nd week of Patisserie is 'beurre' & lots of it. Classic French cooking is so closely married to butter it seems there is no end. The cake is made from a heavily buttered dough; with raisins, sultanas, candied cherries, almond flakes, mixed citrus peel, lovely lemon zest & vanilla essence in it. The Streusel (German for Crumbles I was told) Topping comes from flour, sugar & butter, of course. It bakes well to form a crunchy crust while the cake stays moist & soft, thanks to the butter. At the same lesson we also prepared Piped Sables aka Viennese or Shortbread Biscuits aka Buttered Cookies! Rum is in the recipe so I let it pour. My lucky star was watching me today as I was on top of my mise en place, ingredients, techniques & timing. When presentation time came everything was ready and Chef Olivier was quick to pass judgement ... 'full marks, Raymond' ..... made my day!

TARTE AUX FRUITS ON CREME PATISSIERE

Now who would imagine yours truly can produce a little wonder like this? It took some time between the crust, the creme & the fruits . By the time I cut the strawberries the 'game over bell' was about to toll so I scrambled. Even the blind can see my presentation is ugly as sin, but I finished on time. You see them LCB folks are not here to make 'self-congratulating wannabes' look good but to churn out professional chefs who can stand the heat. Meeting the threshold is therefore a huge challenge (if not impossible) for someone like me. Anyways, the tarte tastes good, that is what the motel reception crew told me. They had it for tea and these little bribes have made Raymond a popular guest at Metro Inn. Life is not all that complicated here, is it?

PASTRY DOUGH

Here is Chef Michael Jaimeson, our Patisserie Lecturer, demonstrating pastry dough management. If there is one technique we must pick up & make it second nature, this is it. Arguably, it is one of the trickiest techniques to master. Chef Didier told me today, ' .... in patisserie you must firstly understand why things are done a certain way, and secondly, you must follow recipes, to the letter .... '. An old Chinese saying refers to developing a child's character to 'managing dough' in part becasue of the hard & soft approach. Today we learned how to take our palms, hands & fingers through the paces. The name of the game is to alternate between strength & tenderness. The first thing that came to my mind was parenting, closely followed by people management ie the good-cop & bad cop routine in both scenarios. See how our daily life can apply to cooking, and vice versa? If I have known the physical intensity earlier, I would have trained for it at the HKJC gym. Right now my fingers are not dexterous enough, my arms not strong enough, but my adrenalin is almost as high as my cholesterol, being single-mindedly focused on a discipline I am passionately in love with, 6 days a week. What more is there to ask?