might as well post it
so ojt ended two weeks ago and we had to make a report. included in the report was an essay about what we've learned.
min of 4 pages. so i was thinking i might as well post what i've done.
a lot of it is sugar coated to lengthen everything.
it's frikin long. and i'm not a master of lj cutting so.. yeah it's too long. haha
Where have I been? What have I done? What have I learned? What did exactly did I experience after working in a professional kitchen? Am I the same? Am I a better person? What happens next?
So since end of January, right after midterms up until early April, I was working as a trainee in Aubergine Restaurant and Patisserie. I can honestly say that I haven’t experienced as much joy, pain and pressure prior to working in the kitchen for the span of 51 days. The beginning, middle and ending part of my training can be described in different ways. I am now going to talk about the entire process of what I together with classmates went through.
To begin with, prior to starting, we were already given the task to complete the necessary requirements to be able to work in the so called “real world”, that I can say, was not the easiest of tasks since there were a lot ranging from medical permits to city clearances. Collecting requirements served as a wake-up call so to speak of how, for someone like me with no work experience, to get started in the first place. After pulling some strings and travelling far distances, I managed to complete everything, fulfilling a task I was glad to have finished. Glad because I knew I’d be all set to finally step in to the kitchen.
Entering the kitchen of the restaurant felt a lot like school, but at the same time very different. I found it similar to school because we were surrounded by the same equipment, same materials and same people. However, I did find it different because there was a whole dining room waiting for us and aside from schoolmates; we were now interacting with a new set of people: the employees.
A rowdy bunch, the employees were mostly alumni of ISCAHM and people who have worked in hotels as well as other restaurants. I was assigned to the Saucier/ Rotissuer team, specifically the saucier side. The team was composed of all guys, with the only exception of one girl, a fellow trainee. I was under the wing of Elgin, from batch 7, who’s actually been in the restaurant since he graduated. There he taught me everything I had to know about the station; everything from the wine/liquor rack, chiller drawers, (including one drawer just for foie gras) stoves, water bath and the bamix, which I’d later come to consider as my best friend in the kitchen. I was shown what sauces were made for the restaurant, as well as the foams. The sauces and foams come hand in hand together; they’re the last things that are placed on the plate during pick-up. I was told that I’d be in charge of all the foams, and then eventually I’d progress to sauces.
Within the first hour of my first day of actual work, I felt this “new heat”. Quite literally, I felt heat that I hadn’t felt ever before. When I first felt the difference of a high pressure burner in school as compared to a stove at home, I thought, this is really hot. But then, staying in the restaurant kitchen, in front of me, was a griddle known as the “plancha” to its left was the grill, behind me was the oven, beside the oven was the salamander and diagonally to my right was the stove. In that exact spot, I felt the heat. Once guests came and the exhaust was turned on, suddenly it felt like a cool breeze, it was then that we trainees realized the gravity of saving electricity. The only thing I could think of when things started moving full blast during the first actual service was “this is wild”. Wild because everyone was on their toes pushing out orders, chefs were yelling, everything was hot; it was a mad dash to dish out beautiful food. I could see how much work went into every dish; how the entremedier cooks brought the starch and vegetable siding, followed by the rotisserie cooks bringing the meat/fish or poultry piece topped with the saucier’s sauce and foam. It was as if the chef was a conductor and we were the orchestra, but instead of beautiful music we were making beautiful food.hidden messages lurk within these paragraphs.
The first few days required a lot of adjusting. I had to adapt to the whole system, learn to work as a team and basically work hard and efficient. The foam was my domain; I had to make sure everything was fresh and properly foamed. 6 main foams namely truffle, champagne, bouillabaisse, carrot-carrot honey, saffron and basil. 6 of 8 brown sauces were accompanied by champagne foam, but Chef Norbert changed the main accompaniment to truffle foam a few weeks after. I had to memorize what went with what coming from our section. So basically here’s how I familiarized myself with sauces and foams, 6 brown sauces: Curacao, tamarind, port, calvados, lamb and Madeira sauces all came with truffle foam. Truffle foam is also the accompaniment to mushroom cream soup and mushroom risotto. Bouillabaisse foam is mainly for the seabass from the a la carte menu, though it is also used for certain fish specials and degustation menu items. keep reading. Champagne foam is used for the prawn bisque and special soups like asparagus and pumpkin cream soups as well as prawn tagliolini pasta. Basil foam goes with smoked tomato cream soup as well as basil tagiatelli and certain vegetarian dishes. Carrot-honey foam goes with lapu; scallops from the lobster scallop order and smoked seabass on the seafood appetizer. Saffron foam is for the salmon and seafood risotto. So for the first 2 weeks, those were the only things I had to worry about aside from dispatching prawns and scallops.
Mistakes. I must admit, I made quite a number of mistakes in the start, but probably only a few really stood out; like the time a spilled the peppercorn sauce on the plancha and caused quite a commotion, and the time I spilled foam into the water bath. I was in Charge of making the béarnaise every dinner time, so I made the sauce on a daily basis, but 2 instances stood out; first was when I accidentally used red wine vinegar instead of tarragon vinegar to finish the sauce (the bottles were identical) and the other time was when Chef Stefan found my sauce very sour. All foams have different consistencies, like bouillabaisse and basil for example; both are made with a base paste therefore making them heavier to foam up. Bouillabaisse was probably the hardest to handle since the colour was also very important; it had to have vibrant tinge of red, if it lacked milk, it would be too heavy, but too much milk or cream would make it pale, and too much tomato paste would make it sour. Temperature was also important, not room temperature, but not too hot. So at the heat of the moment, when there are pick-ups coming left and right, I’d sometimes forget to heat up the bouillabaisse foam and there have been a number of times where I’d come late or I’d rush and the foam would collapse.. So that was something I had to work on. Mistakes come naturally, If I hadn’t made them, I wouldn’t have learned certain things. It’s alright to make mistakes, one of the cooks said, as long as it won’t happen again.i love you if you've read this far
More on the team: the employees in the roti/sauci team; Ongchi or Chi, Kris, Keith, aforementioned Elgin, and Cyrus. Chi was from the first batch of ISCAHM, having worked in different places including being a part of the opening team of Wynn Macau, he was the most experienced guy in the team. Kris, from batch 4, was part of the pioneer staff at Aubergine; I had never seen someone work the station as lively and efficiently as he did. Keith and Elgin were both from batch 7 and relatively new in the restaurant but they had already made their marks as very promising cooks. Cyrus was a former faculty assistant in school, who I already knew prior to training. Fellow trainee Nino was pretty much my partner for the whole time, since we had similar schedules as we worked the dinner shifts. Goo, Bryan and Irene mostly worked the morning shifts. After about a month, the employees had some rotations done, and Kris was moved to the cold kitchen so Bobby from the entremedier section joined us. Bobby was a former faculty assistant in school and taught me a lot of ways to work more efficiently. As for us trainees, we stayed, though for personal reasons, Irene moved to the entremedier section, so Jelyn was transferred to our section. I can say that I got along with the team well, especially with Elgin and Bobby since they always worked the sauce station.
If the roti/sauci was just one team, the rest of the kitchen, entremedier, cold, and pastry sections made up the kitchen brigade. We all helped each other out during prep work. Every day, we would prepare a certain staff meal and I was often assigned to cook different things like roast chicken, grilled chicken, grilled pork chop, fried fish etc. We all worked as one big team. Preparing the staff meal pertained to cooking the daily meal not just for the kitchen staff, but also the stewards, waiting staff, busboys, and guards. I was pleased to find out that a lot of the employees were really nice and great people to work with. Often one or two would yell or boss us around but we knew it would be for our own good. I can imagine the difficulty having to work there; having new people around to teach every 2 months, letting go of them once they’ve peaked then start from scratch again with a new batch. Outside the kitchen, they’d often invite us trainees for some drinks and to hang out somewhere after work, something we greatly appreciated since they really made us feel welcome. I read about cooking professionally, specifically books by Anthony Bourdain, and he often writes about how there are certain things in life that only we people of the culinary world and professional kitchen can comprehend. There’s a certain breed of worker that doesn’t go by the books, he/she may be trained with the proper text book knowledge, but since they say the best teacher is experience, a combination of experience and text book knowledge from school; I witnessed this “breed” of workers in Aubergine. People who knew the secrets of the trade, being able to use certain ingredients not found in school like Aromat- something Chef Stefan used often, and chicken and demi-glace powder, though they never relied on it, and never used it to overpower, only to give a dish an extra kick. System D as I read about it, short for Système Débrouille is the term used when referring to the ways of going around things quickly, or basically shortcuts that make the mark, practitioners are cooks who work amazingly efficiently during crunch time, something so hard to imagine; the head chef yelling at the top of this voice, new orders coming in all at the same time while dishes are being picked-up everything is happening at the same time, everything you touch will burn you, everyone is on their toes and moving, if you stop, you’re basically finished.
The Chefs. When we started out, Chef Stefan the executive chef was on vacation leave, so Chef Sean from school, who was next in command handled everything, unless Chef Norbert would step in- which happened often. Chef Humphrey was also always around, someone I had only read about before as was one of the best Filipino Chefs and Chef Norbert’s protégé. He was a quiet guy who liked to sing from time, very calm and relaxed unless something really goes wrong. I’ll never forget the first time he called an order during crunch time; I saw how he was no different from Chef Norbert, as he possessed a very commanding presence. I was actually privileged to watch him in action when he cooked a special order of salpicao for a certain guest. Chef Hans or Sir Hans as they would call him, was someone I had never encountered, I knew that he owned the school and restaurant together with Chef Norbert but he never taught us, since I found out he was pretty much in the restaurant all day. He was very particular, almost obsessive compulsive about platting and little details, he often commented on my foam. One thing noticed was that he never was hands-on in the kitchen since his domain was the floor outside. Chef Stefan arrived about after about 2 weeks into our training. He lead us very well and always seemed pretty cool about things, a contrast as compared to Chef Norbert who really caught me off guard because he was worlds different from what he’s like in school, and what he’s like in the restaurant. Chef Norbert never relaxed in the kitchen, he was on his toes at all times, he demanded perfection, I then realized that this was the secret to his success, constant pushing. Chef Sean left to teach fulltime in school and was replaced by a new guy, Chef Samuel, a Swiss chef who came in as our new sous chef. He actually knew a lot about molecular gastronomy so he was quite particular about the foams I made. I think he minded the foams the most among all the chefs. Chef Obet, the chef de partie of the cold kitchen was spent a lot of time with us, apparently, he and Chef Humphrey go way back with Chef Norbert during the Mandarin days, a time they often talked about and referred to as “the good ol’ days”. The chefs were great mentors, great people to pattern how we work. Even though they’d usually be on their toes pushing us to our limits, as well as pretty much eating the busboys alive through verbal torment, everything was for the good of the restaurant service. We all learned lessons, that’s what was important. you probably love me also for reading this far
What went with what; Curacao sauce always went with the duck breast and Cornish hen. Tamarind sauce went with lamb rack. Carrot-cumin sauce went with the lamb rack special. Peppercorn sauce was for grilled items up to the guest on of course, the pepper steak. Mushroom sauce was for the grilled items up to the guest. Port wine sauce was the all-around sauce and the mainstay for the trio, wagyu tri-tip and duck confit. Calvados was for the pork medallions. Lamb sauce was for lamb shank. Surf n’ turf and veal cheeks were always with Madeira sauce. Orange buerre blanc was paired with lobster scallops, and the most memorable special: The seafood salad; a whopping combination of seabass, lobster tail, prawns and scallops weighing in just a wee bit heavier than an a la carte portion of steak! It required the buerre blanc and 3 kinds of foam, and it sold like crazy. Tomato sauce went with certain pasta and vegetarian dishes. Béarnaise sauce, a sauce I’d make every day went with grilled dishes specified by guests, and the surf n’ turf. The sauce section was also tasked to make mushroom cream sauce and leek fondue for trio, pork medallion and salmon orders respectively. Salmon also required a topping of sautéed olives and cherry tomatoes. Other sauces we handled often for degustation menus or functions were buerre rouge, Riesling buerre blanc, cranberry buerre blanc, chimi churi sauce, blue cheese mornay, peanut sauce and even barbecue sauce. Aside from the aforementioned foams, we had some special ones too like mascarpone for asparagus soup and orange-carrot for fish.
It took a while to get the hang of things, but once I did though, that’s when I really started enjoying work. I think it was a good thing that I always had dinner shifts, since that was where the action was. The valentine’s weekend was the deadliest service to date, Friday-Saturday fully booked. I remember having to make 3 batches of béarnaise for the Friday service then. After surviving that, all other days were manageable. Kris talked about how the more you work, the more you get addicted to it. I eventually knew what he meant. How 10 guests for a single night was less work to do, as compared to a packed 80pax service, but was way less enjoyable. The more the merrier was the case, because a mad dash of 80, 90 or 100 pax straight from 6pm-10pm is the most exhilarating experience I can attest to. I knew I got the hang of things when I no longer shook while platting. I knew I got the hang of things when they started to trust me to make the foams from scratch by myself. I knew I got the hang of things when I’d know exactly what to get when an order was called. I knew I got the hang of things when the first let me fly solo on sauces and foams; manning the station alone, simply the best feeling. I often thought that working was way better than school because every day was different, and we didn’t have to worry about written tests.
It also helped that Aubergine’s kitchen was a show kitchen, so we had some sort of interaction with guests. We had a fair share of celebrities, famous personalities and politicians. Certain VIPs stood out, like old friends of Chef Norbert or Chef Stefan. I clearly recall Chef Stefan platting a special main course for his former boss; a plate that included: veal cheek, foie gras, tenderloin and half a quail all in one plate. Incredilbe. Another “monster plate” was a chateaubriand ensemble for the pastry chef of Shangri-la Boracay, by far the biggest steak I’ve seen put on a fine dining plate. Aside from VIPs we’ve had a couple of memorable moments with guests, like the time two beautiful ladies had too much wine to drink, and Chef Stefan thought it would be a good idea to bring them in the kitchen, (something he’d do often) we got a good laugh from it. I admired how we always stepped things up, and never down. For example someone would order 1 soup split into 3, we’d usually just give them half portions, this happened quite often. Wild orders were always there, like a rack of lamb cooked well done and chopped up to share, cooked beef carpaccio, or t-bone split in two with a different doneness for each half. Every day was different. Ultimately the customer was always right.
Towards the end of the training period, I felt so sure about what I wanted to do in life. I always wanted to be a chef, exactly why I pursued my education in ISCAHM. OJT in Aubergine gave me the taste of things to come, and I can honestly say that it exceeded my expectations. I looked forward to going to work every day. Time spent in Aubergine got me all excited, the cooks in work are people I want to be like, like me, they went to ISCAHM we’re basically getting the same background so the only difference is, that they are already working. I’m excited because I’m looking forward to the near future, right now I can’t wait to reach the level of having a steady job working the line. Once I reach that level, I’ll be looking forward to the next step, and the next and so on.you're either very bored or have no life but i thank you for reading this far. There’s only one way to go, and it is up. I step out of the Aubergine kitchen a new person, I’ll never look at a restaurant the same way. I’ll always think of what’s going on inside, I’ll always feel that I’d rather be inside.
min of 4 pages. so i was thinking i might as well post what i've done.
a lot of it is sugar coated to lengthen everything.
it's frikin long. and i'm not a master of lj cutting so.. yeah it's too long. haha
Where have I been? What have I done? What have I learned? What did exactly did I experience after working in a professional kitchen? Am I the same? Am I a better person? What happens next?
So since end of January, right after midterms up until early April, I was working as a trainee in Aubergine Restaurant and Patisserie. I can honestly say that I haven’t experienced as much joy, pain and pressure prior to working in the kitchen for the span of 51 days. The beginning, middle and ending part of my training can be described in different ways. I am now going to talk about the entire process of what I together with classmates went through.
To begin with, prior to starting, we were already given the task to complete the necessary requirements to be able to work in the so called “real world”, that I can say, was not the easiest of tasks since there were a lot ranging from medical permits to city clearances. Collecting requirements served as a wake-up call so to speak of how, for someone like me with no work experience, to get started in the first place. After pulling some strings and travelling far distances, I managed to complete everything, fulfilling a task I was glad to have finished. Glad because I knew I’d be all set to finally step in to the kitchen.
Entering the kitchen of the restaurant felt a lot like school, but at the same time very different. I found it similar to school because we were surrounded by the same equipment, same materials and same people. However, I did find it different because there was a whole dining room waiting for us and aside from schoolmates; we were now interacting with a new set of people: the employees.
A rowdy bunch, the employees were mostly alumni of ISCAHM and people who have worked in hotels as well as other restaurants. I was assigned to the Saucier/ Rotissuer team, specifically the saucier side. The team was composed of all guys, with the only exception of one girl, a fellow trainee. I was under the wing of Elgin, from batch 7, who’s actually been in the restaurant since he graduated. There he taught me everything I had to know about the station; everything from the wine/liquor rack, chiller drawers, (including one drawer just for foie gras) stoves, water bath and the bamix, which I’d later come to consider as my best friend in the kitchen. I was shown what sauces were made for the restaurant, as well as the foams. The sauces and foams come hand in hand together; they’re the last things that are placed on the plate during pick-up. I was told that I’d be in charge of all the foams, and then eventually I’d progress to sauces.
Within the first hour of my first day of actual work, I felt this “new heat”. Quite literally, I felt heat that I hadn’t felt ever before. When I first felt the difference of a high pressure burner in school as compared to a stove at home, I thought, this is really hot. But then, staying in the restaurant kitchen, in front of me, was a griddle known as the “plancha” to its left was the grill, behind me was the oven, beside the oven was the salamander and diagonally to my right was the stove. In that exact spot, I felt the heat. Once guests came and the exhaust was turned on, suddenly it felt like a cool breeze, it was then that we trainees realized the gravity of saving electricity. The only thing I could think of when things started moving full blast during the first actual service was “this is wild”. Wild because everyone was on their toes pushing out orders, chefs were yelling, everything was hot; it was a mad dash to dish out beautiful food. I could see how much work went into every dish; how the entremedier cooks brought the starch and vegetable siding, followed by the rotisserie cooks bringing the meat/fish or poultry piece topped with the saucier’s sauce and foam. It was as if the chef was a conductor and we were the orchestra, but instead of beautiful music we were making beautiful food.hidden messages lurk within these paragraphs.
The first few days required a lot of adjusting. I had to adapt to the whole system, learn to work as a team and basically work hard and efficient. The foam was my domain; I had to make sure everything was fresh and properly foamed. 6 main foams namely truffle, champagne, bouillabaisse, carrot-carrot honey, saffron and basil. 6 of 8 brown sauces were accompanied by champagne foam, but Chef Norbert changed the main accompaniment to truffle foam a few weeks after. I had to memorize what went with what coming from our section. So basically here’s how I familiarized myself with sauces and foams, 6 brown sauces: Curacao, tamarind, port, calvados, lamb and Madeira sauces all came with truffle foam. Truffle foam is also the accompaniment to mushroom cream soup and mushroom risotto. Bouillabaisse foam is mainly for the seabass from the a la carte menu, though it is also used for certain fish specials and degustation menu items. keep reading. Champagne foam is used for the prawn bisque and special soups like asparagus and pumpkin cream soups as well as prawn tagliolini pasta. Basil foam goes with smoked tomato cream soup as well as basil tagiatelli and certain vegetarian dishes. Carrot-honey foam goes with lapu; scallops from the lobster scallop order and smoked seabass on the seafood appetizer. Saffron foam is for the salmon and seafood risotto. So for the first 2 weeks, those were the only things I had to worry about aside from dispatching prawns and scallops.
Mistakes. I must admit, I made quite a number of mistakes in the start, but probably only a few really stood out; like the time a spilled the peppercorn sauce on the plancha and caused quite a commotion, and the time I spilled foam into the water bath. I was in Charge of making the béarnaise every dinner time, so I made the sauce on a daily basis, but 2 instances stood out; first was when I accidentally used red wine vinegar instead of tarragon vinegar to finish the sauce (the bottles were identical) and the other time was when Chef Stefan found my sauce very sour. All foams have different consistencies, like bouillabaisse and basil for example; both are made with a base paste therefore making them heavier to foam up. Bouillabaisse was probably the hardest to handle since the colour was also very important; it had to have vibrant tinge of red, if it lacked milk, it would be too heavy, but too much milk or cream would make it pale, and too much tomato paste would make it sour. Temperature was also important, not room temperature, but not too hot. So at the heat of the moment, when there are pick-ups coming left and right, I’d sometimes forget to heat up the bouillabaisse foam and there have been a number of times where I’d come late or I’d rush and the foam would collapse.. So that was something I had to work on. Mistakes come naturally, If I hadn’t made them, I wouldn’t have learned certain things. It’s alright to make mistakes, one of the cooks said, as long as it won’t happen again.i love you if you've read this far
More on the team: the employees in the roti/sauci team; Ongchi or Chi, Kris, Keith, aforementioned Elgin, and Cyrus. Chi was from the first batch of ISCAHM, having worked in different places including being a part of the opening team of Wynn Macau, he was the most experienced guy in the team. Kris, from batch 4, was part of the pioneer staff at Aubergine; I had never seen someone work the station as lively and efficiently as he did. Keith and Elgin were both from batch 7 and relatively new in the restaurant but they had already made their marks as very promising cooks. Cyrus was a former faculty assistant in school, who I already knew prior to training. Fellow trainee Nino was pretty much my partner for the whole time, since we had similar schedules as we worked the dinner shifts. Goo, Bryan and Irene mostly worked the morning shifts. After about a month, the employees had some rotations done, and Kris was moved to the cold kitchen so Bobby from the entremedier section joined us. Bobby was a former faculty assistant in school and taught me a lot of ways to work more efficiently. As for us trainees, we stayed, though for personal reasons, Irene moved to the entremedier section, so Jelyn was transferred to our section. I can say that I got along with the team well, especially with Elgin and Bobby since they always worked the sauce station.
If the roti/sauci was just one team, the rest of the kitchen, entremedier, cold, and pastry sections made up the kitchen brigade. We all helped each other out during prep work. Every day, we would prepare a certain staff meal and I was often assigned to cook different things like roast chicken, grilled chicken, grilled pork chop, fried fish etc. We all worked as one big team. Preparing the staff meal pertained to cooking the daily meal not just for the kitchen staff, but also the stewards, waiting staff, busboys, and guards. I was pleased to find out that a lot of the employees were really nice and great people to work with. Often one or two would yell or boss us around but we knew it would be for our own good. I can imagine the difficulty having to work there; having new people around to teach every 2 months, letting go of them once they’ve peaked then start from scratch again with a new batch. Outside the kitchen, they’d often invite us trainees for some drinks and to hang out somewhere after work, something we greatly appreciated since they really made us feel welcome. I read about cooking professionally, specifically books by Anthony Bourdain, and he often writes about how there are certain things in life that only we people of the culinary world and professional kitchen can comprehend. There’s a certain breed of worker that doesn’t go by the books, he/she may be trained with the proper text book knowledge, but since they say the best teacher is experience, a combination of experience and text book knowledge from school; I witnessed this “breed” of workers in Aubergine. People who knew the secrets of the trade, being able to use certain ingredients not found in school like Aromat- something Chef Stefan used often, and chicken and demi-glace powder, though they never relied on it, and never used it to overpower, only to give a dish an extra kick. System D as I read about it, short for Système Débrouille is the term used when referring to the ways of going around things quickly, or basically shortcuts that make the mark, practitioners are cooks who work amazingly efficiently during crunch time, something so hard to imagine; the head chef yelling at the top of this voice, new orders coming in all at the same time while dishes are being picked-up everything is happening at the same time, everything you touch will burn you, everyone is on their toes and moving, if you stop, you’re basically finished.
The Chefs. When we started out, Chef Stefan the executive chef was on vacation leave, so Chef Sean from school, who was next in command handled everything, unless Chef Norbert would step in- which happened often. Chef Humphrey was also always around, someone I had only read about before as was one of the best Filipino Chefs and Chef Norbert’s protégé. He was a quiet guy who liked to sing from time, very calm and relaxed unless something really goes wrong. I’ll never forget the first time he called an order during crunch time; I saw how he was no different from Chef Norbert, as he possessed a very commanding presence. I was actually privileged to watch him in action when he cooked a special order of salpicao for a certain guest. Chef Hans or Sir Hans as they would call him, was someone I had never encountered, I knew that he owned the school and restaurant together with Chef Norbert but he never taught us, since I found out he was pretty much in the restaurant all day. He was very particular, almost obsessive compulsive about platting and little details, he often commented on my foam. One thing noticed was that he never was hands-on in the kitchen since his domain was the floor outside. Chef Stefan arrived about after about 2 weeks into our training. He lead us very well and always seemed pretty cool about things, a contrast as compared to Chef Norbert who really caught me off guard because he was worlds different from what he’s like in school, and what he’s like in the restaurant. Chef Norbert never relaxed in the kitchen, he was on his toes at all times, he demanded perfection, I then realized that this was the secret to his success, constant pushing. Chef Sean left to teach fulltime in school and was replaced by a new guy, Chef Samuel, a Swiss chef who came in as our new sous chef. He actually knew a lot about molecular gastronomy so he was quite particular about the foams I made. I think he minded the foams the most among all the chefs. Chef Obet, the chef de partie of the cold kitchen was spent a lot of time with us, apparently, he and Chef Humphrey go way back with Chef Norbert during the Mandarin days, a time they often talked about and referred to as “the good ol’ days”. The chefs were great mentors, great people to pattern how we work. Even though they’d usually be on their toes pushing us to our limits, as well as pretty much eating the busboys alive through verbal torment, everything was for the good of the restaurant service. We all learned lessons, that’s what was important. you probably love me also for reading this far
What went with what; Curacao sauce always went with the duck breast and Cornish hen. Tamarind sauce went with lamb rack. Carrot-cumin sauce went with the lamb rack special. Peppercorn sauce was for grilled items up to the guest on of course, the pepper steak. Mushroom sauce was for the grilled items up to the guest. Port wine sauce was the all-around sauce and the mainstay for the trio, wagyu tri-tip and duck confit. Calvados was for the pork medallions. Lamb sauce was for lamb shank. Surf n’ turf and veal cheeks were always with Madeira sauce. Orange buerre blanc was paired with lobster scallops, and the most memorable special: The seafood salad; a whopping combination of seabass, lobster tail, prawns and scallops weighing in just a wee bit heavier than an a la carte portion of steak! It required the buerre blanc and 3 kinds of foam, and it sold like crazy. Tomato sauce went with certain pasta and vegetarian dishes. Béarnaise sauce, a sauce I’d make every day went with grilled dishes specified by guests, and the surf n’ turf. The sauce section was also tasked to make mushroom cream sauce and leek fondue for trio, pork medallion and salmon orders respectively. Salmon also required a topping of sautéed olives and cherry tomatoes. Other sauces we handled often for degustation menus or functions were buerre rouge, Riesling buerre blanc, cranberry buerre blanc, chimi churi sauce, blue cheese mornay, peanut sauce and even barbecue sauce. Aside from the aforementioned foams, we had some special ones too like mascarpone for asparagus soup and orange-carrot for fish.
It took a while to get the hang of things, but once I did though, that’s when I really started enjoying work. I think it was a good thing that I always had dinner shifts, since that was where the action was. The valentine’s weekend was the deadliest service to date, Friday-Saturday fully booked. I remember having to make 3 batches of béarnaise for the Friday service then. After surviving that, all other days were manageable. Kris talked about how the more you work, the more you get addicted to it. I eventually knew what he meant. How 10 guests for a single night was less work to do, as compared to a packed 80pax service, but was way less enjoyable. The more the merrier was the case, because a mad dash of 80, 90 or 100 pax straight from 6pm-10pm is the most exhilarating experience I can attest to. I knew I got the hang of things when I no longer shook while platting. I knew I got the hang of things when they started to trust me to make the foams from scratch by myself. I knew I got the hang of things when I’d know exactly what to get when an order was called. I knew I got the hang of things when the first let me fly solo on sauces and foams; manning the station alone, simply the best feeling. I often thought that working was way better than school because every day was different, and we didn’t have to worry about written tests.
It also helped that Aubergine’s kitchen was a show kitchen, so we had some sort of interaction with guests. We had a fair share of celebrities, famous personalities and politicians. Certain VIPs stood out, like old friends of Chef Norbert or Chef Stefan. I clearly recall Chef Stefan platting a special main course for his former boss; a plate that included: veal cheek, foie gras, tenderloin and half a quail all in one plate. Incredilbe. Another “monster plate” was a chateaubriand ensemble for the pastry chef of Shangri-la Boracay, by far the biggest steak I’ve seen put on a fine dining plate. Aside from VIPs we’ve had a couple of memorable moments with guests, like the time two beautiful ladies had too much wine to drink, and Chef Stefan thought it would be a good idea to bring them in the kitchen, (something he’d do often) we got a good laugh from it. I admired how we always stepped things up, and never down. For example someone would order 1 soup split into 3, we’d usually just give them half portions, this happened quite often. Wild orders were always there, like a rack of lamb cooked well done and chopped up to share, cooked beef carpaccio, or t-bone split in two with a different doneness for each half. Every day was different. Ultimately the customer was always right.
Towards the end of the training period, I felt so sure about what I wanted to do in life. I always wanted to be a chef, exactly why I pursued my education in ISCAHM. OJT in Aubergine gave me the taste of things to come, and I can honestly say that it exceeded my expectations. I looked forward to going to work every day. Time spent in Aubergine got me all excited, the cooks in work are people I want to be like, like me, they went to ISCAHM we’re basically getting the same background so the only difference is, that they are already working. I’m excited because I’m looking forward to the near future, right now I can’t wait to reach the level of having a steady job working the line. Once I reach that level, I’ll be looking forward to the next step, and the next and so on.you're either very bored or have no life but i thank you for reading this far. There’s only one way to go, and it is up. I step out of the Aubergine kitchen a new person, I’ll never look at a restaurant the same way. I’ll always think of what’s going on inside, I’ll always feel that I’d rather be inside.