FAILURE ... A BITTER PILL

The reason why there is no picture is becasue I failed 2 out of the 3 items I am supposed to prepare today. No point of pictures is there? ' ... today was just one of those days, Raymond. You were distracted, you did not listen well, you better get a good night's sleep as tomorrow is another day of even bigger challenges'. The Chef would normally take a bite of what we present, and then comments. He did not touch any of mine today, ' ... throw that into the bin will you, because you will get sick if you eat that'. Try to visualize my pain at that moment?

It was a Cuisine class but today's lesson involved 2 desserts, not exactly my forte to begin with. Again they are French classics : the first is Clafoutis aux Cerises (Cherry Custard Flan) baked with Pate Sucree, accompanied by Sauce Anglaise (Vanilla Custard) and the second; Rice Pudding via the French Method.

To make a long story short, only my flan survived & only barely as the dough was too thick. I either did not take close enough notes, or pay enough attention during the demonstration, my sauce ended up 'cooked' ie more like scrambled eggs, entirely my fault for not watching the heat. 'Too late now, do not bother with making a new sauce, just concentrate on the Rice Pudding'. When I served up the pudding, he lost it. While the rice was alright, the egg yolks were not properly handled in the creaming process with sugar & butter. When the mixture was folded into the rice the yolk was still watery ie uncooked. I did not think he would put raw yolk into his mouth. 'Into the bin, what is wrong today, you are not your normal self, Raymond!'

I might as well throw myself into the bin along with all the BS I produced today. No, I was not embarrassed, I was furious with myself, I hated my incompetence.

Today is the start of the 4th week ie 33% already behind us as Dora observed. I was in fact quite driven. I woke up very early, all ready to go, only to end the day this way. In the locker room Israel tried to comfort me 'everyone has his & her good & bad days' which was very kind of him. That said, I know we are all here to be trained for a commercial kitchen operation where there is no such thing as bad days. You can keep your bad day, bad mood, bad vibes, bad experience to yourself and still deliver the good results. This is what it is all about.

A sad revelation, a loud wake up call & a defining moment : Tang-CANNOT-Cook!

NICK'S SEAFOOD @ COCKLE BAY WHARF

I had my first 'night-out' with my young friends last night in the city : Evans from Malaysia, Felix from Germany & Esther from Taiwan who, like me, are doing 6-days a week. Basic Cuisine but Intermedaite Patisserie since she finished BP 3 months ago. A few others were supposed to join but dropped out of our 'L'Art de Vivre' last minute, their loss. BTW somehow Evans & Felix found my blog so I better watch what I say from this moment on! These 2 young chefs - Evans has won cooking contests, Felix is with the Cirque de Solil kitchen team in Montreal. They work like machines on speed-mode in the kitchen; fast & precise. The good news is they set high standards for the class, the bad news is, my incompetence is now glaringly obvious. Thanks guys .... you get my drift?

Cockle Bay Wharf was hot last night, Australia (at least Sydney) seems unaffected by the bad economy, in fact employment rate picked up last month here. I was early so I ordered my 1st alcoholic drink in 4-weeks ie Absolute vodka martini, very dry, 4 olives @ A$12 a shot. I had 2 while people watching, great fun! I was told by the hostess, a 6-ft tall blonde from Stockolm, that Nick's is 'the best restaurant' on the promenade at Darling Harbour. When I asked her how does it rate against Ponthius, the 1-star Michelin joint in her hometown - where we dined with our Seabourn friends last summer - she just smiled. We shared a large seafood appetizer, a large hot & cold seafood laden main course, a plate of extremely large mussels that taste like the tiny ones in France, plus a large Greek salad ... all washed down by a red & a white. I forgot to bring my camera but the food was not bad, though mainstream. The waiter said Nick's is #2 across the State of NSW in liquor consumption @ A$1 million per month, or A$250K per week, or A$35K per day. Does it sound right, we know the Aussies can drink but is this possible?

Off to my 3-hour Sunday walk now, it is simply gorgeous out!

BREAD MAKING TRADITION

Yesterday was the 3rd and last day of our bread journey, we made Whole-Wheat & Pepita Bread ie the one with tasty toasted seeds (carraway, coriander, sunflower, pumpkin) in them. Rather than making loafs & rolls I was lazy, the 2 loafs shown are in fact huge. Chef Keith gave us an excellent lecture on the Traditional Baking System, step by step with application details. He is the walking encyclopedia on all things Patisserie, the counter part of Chef Steve in Cuisine. Knitting his immense knowledge with industry experience has made him the awesome lecturer he is. Central to his presentation on baking bread is : the tradition has not changed that much over time in terms of how we scale, mix, ferment, mould, prove & bake. 'I have kept up with my reading on the subject matter over the years, I can assure you the traditional way works'. Talking about life long learning, there you have it. He showed us a wooden tool, like a small paddle - the one chefs use to present beer & food at Inagawa, the robbata-yaki restaurant in Rippongi -which bakers use to reach the inner parts of brick ovens in the old days It is a 'peel' .... as in citrus peel. One never stops learning here. While we wait for the dough to 'prove' ie expand to double their size he showed us his work on a laptop. Incredible is a mild word!

Chef Michael, who ran our kitchen session was in a good mood yerterday, it was his 11th wedding anniversary. I congratulated him and told him he is a newlywed compared to our almost 30 years together. I accidentally revealed my age, which shocked him. He thought I am 50, what can I say? Must be that daily dose of Aussie blue sky & sun on my face .... thank you Chef!

AUSSIE SPEAK

I must write this blog for prosperity. I have been here nearly a month and am acculturating, notably through speech. I am getting a better feel for this foreign tongue, day by day. You see while my English is passable I now live in the midst of 2 unfamiliar languages, French & Aussie Speak. Slowly but surely I am improving, you will hear less of 'excuse me, what was that again' from me these days.

Being a friendly and easy-going culture the root word in all Aussie Speak is, 'Mate', pronounced 'Mite', lest people will not understand you. To qualify for citizenship you better learn to use this word frequently & freely. If you can attach 'Mate' to say, the end of every third sentence that will be just about right, Mate!

To make an Aussie feel at home, try the following. You must do it vibrantly, in your most robust tone, with confidence and lots of affection though.

* G'Day Mate ... ie Good Day Mate, be sure you pronounce it right ie Gud'Day
* You'Be Right Mate ...
* Right-To Mate ...
* No Worries Mate ...

Then there is this very special one known to all current & past LCB Cuisine students at various levels. Remember my 'idol' Chef Steve, our no-nonsense lecturer in Cuisine? He uses this expression at the end of a task : 'Bob's Your Uncle!' Hello? All of us were in complete bewilderment, those poor chaps on English Proficiency Courses were scrambling at their portable dictioneries, to no avail. If we were to guess it must mean something like; done, completed, finished etc but 'Bob's Your Uncle?' Sure, but so is Kalid! I told the class one day I will do everyone a favor, I will risk my grades, and pose the question : 'Chef, can you tell us more about our Uncle, Bob?' Yeah, Raymond, right ... they are cheering me on, they are not dumb.

IT HAPPENS

This advertisement is prominently displayed on notice boards, in lifts & around the public areas. The pressure is intense here, the schedules unforgiving & the counseling office is active. It is especially tough for students who struggle with English, who are required to attend language proficiency classes after school which must drive them nuts. That said, I regularly meet Intermediate & Advanced students who seem to take it in stride. They are empathetic, and ready to share their wisdom on the best way to climb this same big tree. As I wonder what actually drives this campus I can only turn to the pedigree, the professionalism, the spirit of the faculty but above all, the unmistaken 'pride of belonging' that LCB has so successfully nurtured here in Sydney. It is contagious, it is comforting, it is like religion. I am so fortunate to be able to join this fraternity.

MY CRUSTY & SOFT ROLLS

The Bread Journey continues today, I managed to produce a whole rack of look-alikes after some major sweating as we had to use our hands to prepare the dough ... 'to get a feel of the real thing'. Bread is no joke and while everyone is proud of their presentations I am sure it will be quite a different world when we get home. LCB offers a state-of-the-art commercial bakery to people who had never made bread. It is like giving a Porsche to someone who just passed the road test. These ovens can make everyone look smart, just look at mine. To quote Andrea when I asked her to prepare dessert for a dinner party at home ' ... your fridge is not cold enough & your oven is not hot enough, what can I do?' I see her point now. I am so pitiful my oven at home collapsed almost a year ago, I have not replaced it yet! Even with half-recipes today I ended up with almost 50 rolls. My friends at hotel reception, housekeeping, the Lebanese family at the coffee shop across the street and of course the Kim family at my laundromat all benefitted. Not a single roll is wasted. I love the crusties even though they did not come out as well as the softies. I also did not have enough time to be creative so most of mine are simply, round, without the gyrations the kids come up with. The best I could muster was colorful garnish from poppy & carraway seeds, black & white sesame, herbs, pearl sugar, polenta, and semolina ie the fine white bits that make pizza dough nicely crispy. All I can say is, I tried.

MY GUARDIAN ANGELS

Meet the 2 young Asians who are my 'bench-mates' at Patisserie, super guys. Pao is Thai, in his mid 20s, an IT consultant who loves to bake. He is not sure what he wants to do with this yet, may open his own bakery with the family. Ben, from Singapore, looks & behaves like a 19-year old. His mission is right on the $ .... a career in patisserie. I admire their dexterity, in fact ambidexterous, is a better word I was searching to describe patisserie, as they are both so good with their hands! Being older than their parents, they look to me like a young-at-heart uncle. I am enjoying the company of new found young friends here, who are so different in their dispositions. I respect their commitment, many have saved hard earned $ to be here. Some attend LCB x 3 days then work part time x 20 hours a week which is the maximum allowed for student visa holders. Why Guardian Angels? Well, my vintage cerebral cells do not run as fast as theirs, and being vintage they have less capacity to absorb. These folks are always looking over their shoulders to see what I am doing, just in case. Do not get me wrong, they are not my crutches as I work on my own steam reasonably well. That said, it is a comforting thought to be at the same bench.

BTW we practised making a cone-pen with silicon paper, filled it with chocolate sauce, and off we go! Andrea knows the drill from Chez Moi days, she is a natural. As for me, I am no Chocolate Calligraphist so to go on record I wrote this message, in chocolate, and posed with my buddies. I do not think the Chef will be amused.

YET ANOTHER FIRST .... BREAD

For years Dora has been drawing a thick line between her honors student status in the physical sciences vs my condemnation to low-life at St Paul's Co-educational College at 13, when I was assigned to Form 3 Arts to focus on the 'humanities', a word them mathematics & physics types can hardly spell, let alone study. It was like a life-sentence with no parole. I survived the rest of my years, until Upper 6 in fact, with a self-deprecating sense of humor which, to date, is still necessary at St. Paul's reunions. Amazing!

Not surprisingly yours truly was already lost-in-space only 20 minutes into today's lecture on bread, yeast, carbon dioxide, alcohol & fermentation process. Cut the science routine, just show me how to knead the silly dough ... I quietly protested! Anyways, I learned that dough in fact has a life its own & like people, needs TLC & careful management. FDT is 'Final Dough Temperature' ideally @26-27C. The formula calls for a fine balance of flour temperature @ 20C, room temperature @ 18C & to dilute the yeast properly water temperature has to be @22C if mixing by hand, or 27C by machine. Now, friends & family, does it at all sound like the Raymond you know? To make a long & exhausting day short, it was rewarding. A collection of what our class did was shown, most were excellent (mine included) ie soft crumb, thick crispy crust and we had a big bread party at the end. 'Bread without butter is not bread' Chef Michael proclaimed as he produced a large plate of generously sliced unsalted butter, the kind that makes Dora frown, at me. Since she is not here I had 3 pieces, piping and crusty hot .... with butter of course, didn't you hear the Chef?

POULET SAUTE CHASSEUR IN JUS LIE & RIZ PILAF

Here is the reincarnation of those chicken pieces shown earlier. I had to show you the Chef's version though as my pilaf collapsed even before presentation because I did not pack it tightly enough. My chicken and rice were both 'well cooked' but my sauce hit a wall ie too thick & not reduced properly from the white wine, the acid stayed & ruined the taste. What a failure, ce la vie. My classmates loved my pilaf though. I did not have the courage to tell them I was more liberal in my interpretation of 'butter' in the recipe than they were. Old habits die hard, I guess. To complete the chicken journey we were shown how to perfectly grill a chicken breast (Supreme de Volaille Grilles) along with a beautiful Salad Tiede Melangee ie warm dressing with all kinds of goodies such as herbs, mustard, bacon etc which I madly fell in love with. I can see this recipe gaining a prominent position in Chez Tang at home. Dinner was a treat last night as I had more than veggies. I ate the chicken I cut up, cooked & served. Life is good to me!

MY FIRST CHICKEN

Question : how do you cut a Size 15 ie 1.5 kg chicken, head & giblets already removed, into 10 peices for dinner service? My answer : with profuse sweating. Sharpening my chef's & boning knives is scary enough, even before I started. I made a secret pledge to not cut or burn myself during these 10-weeks, which Billy Chen will say : no way! In the hands of the Chef, it all look easy, almost matter of fact and after the unceremonial dismemberment of the 3rd chook we were sent back to our benches. Now what? First thing first, take out the Wishbone. All of us watched with amazement how the Chef managed it like magic, a crisp tuck of his fingers. When it is our turn it is a different story. Believe it or not some of us were looking for the Wishbone at the wrong end of the carcass. Sorry Chef! Then there is the Needle Bone alongside the main bone of the drum-stick, next to the phone cable like tendons. Try that for size. I managed to mess up even a straight forward piece of white meat, the chicken breast by filleting it verses cutting through the soft bone. Like a primary student I then tried to blame it on my boning knife being new & too sharp, but he did not bite. Finally it was done, as shown, after a lot of moaning & groaning. I cut up the chicken alright, but not myself ... touch wood!