COOKING ADJUSTMENT

The world is getting smaller everyday as I look at my kitchen right now. My recipe books are all over the area and some of my cooking notes are everywhere the kitchen. Good thing I am the only one doing the kitchen cooking or else these important recipe books and cooking notes will thrown away.

I also received a call this morning informing me that some of our batch mates abroad are coming tomorrow. They are also chefs abroad and they are all excited to come here again just to attend the chef's reunion this coming Saturday. All of the important details are already prepared and I guess the chefs reunion will be a success. Some of my chef friends are also researching for the dish that they will be cooking for the event. A chef friend called me and asked me about the dish that I will be preparing. I told her nothing since that is a secret for me. Instead, she borrowed one of my recipe books and she told me that she just return it during the event.

The culinary school also informed that the place where the venue will be held is already prepared and ready for decoration. I told the decoration committee to proceed immediately to the place to make the necessary decorations for the chefs reunion.

I am still busy practicing the sea food recipe here in my house. I need to rearrange my kitchen to maximize the space that I have. The cooking continues in my kitchen and tomorrow I will be doing the cooking again in the restaurant.

INCORPORATING MORE DISHES

After I attened the cooking seminar for two days, I was told of my chef assistant that many of my avid restaurant diners were looking for their favorite chef. More flattering as a chef to receive such compliment from the end people who liked my dishes that I personally cooked in my restaurant's kitchen. Receiving such compliments, as a chef, it really brings good impression and others more. The seminar was just two days. But I will start cooking again this coming Monday. It is because I have to review the recipes that were taught to us during the seminar.

I will also be reading the recipe book that were given to the cooking seminar participants. I got mine and I will be reading it and practicing to cook some of the dishes that were listed in the recipe book. I also noticed that there were some ingredients that are hard to find. That is why I am thinking of replacing some of those ingredients that are hard to find or seasonal. As a chef, I learned that from the cooking or culinary school. Ingredient replacements are often done to avoid the missing ingredients in the dishes that are being cooked. As a chef, I need to be creative and put a signature in the dishes that I cook.

Cooking practice will be done in the kitchen of my house. I will do everything and without kitchen assistants to help me in the kitchen. As overall, the recipes in the sea food recipe book are easy to cook. Fishes and other shell dishes are easy to find. But I need to innovate the dishes to make it my own cooking creation.

SEA FOODS WILL SOON BE SERVE

In the beginning of this year, I was already contemplating on doing a big change in my dishes in my restaurant. I was already thinking of innovating it by introducing see food dishes in my restaurant. After the sea food dishes seminar that I attended for two days, my plans of introducing sea foods in my restaurant will soon be happening.

The seminar was very useful for me and helpful too. I was able to gain more knowledge in cooking sea food dishes and I also got a recipe book for all the types of sea food dishes. Aside from the the sea food recipe book, I also received Olive Garden coupons and Red Lobster coupons. This will be very useful as I venture into the sea food business. My avid customers were also excited about my plans of having sea food dishes in my restaurant. After receiving all the give aways in the seminar, I browsed the recipe book that they gave me and it very interesting once I start cooking the recipes listed.

The seminar was hosted by Food Info and there were also other sponsors that were behind the organizing of the seminar. I saw some old friends who are also chefs in other restaurants who were invited for the cooking seminar of sea foods. I will be testing some of the dishes in the cook book or recipe book that was given to me.

In my first sea food dish, I will be cooking lobsters in the restaurant. This is just a test cooking and the finish dish will be tasted by the customers who will be dining in the restaurant tomorrow. The cooking seminar was a good start as I start cooking sea food dishes in my restaurant.

SEA FOODS GALORE

I was invited this morning to attend a seminar, a cooking seminar, along with my friend. The seminar was all about cooking sea foods. Since in the culinary school, sea food dishes are my favorite because they are easy to cook and more people right now prefer sea foods rather than pork and chicken dishes, for health reasons. The seminar will be done in a hotel and will be attended by restaurant and hotel chefs around the city.

What is unique about the seminar is that not along can join. Few are selected to join and I was just lucky to be one of the selected chefs to join the seminar. The cost of the seminar is quite expensive but the seminar will be giving out free recipe books and all the recipes inside it are sea food dishes. The seminar will start at 9 am and 3 pm. It will be for two days of cooking that will be held in the hotel.

I don't have to bring any things with me, except my personal belongings and some writing materials for the cooking demo notes that I will be doing. The restaurant will be managed by my assistant chef and the kiosk will be the same. This cooking seminar is very important because I am planning to open a sea food restaurant business. The lessons that I will be leaning in the sea food cooking seminar will be useful in my plans. As they say, a chef needs to learn some cooking everyday.

THE COOKING MASTER IS COMING

Its been awhile since I last saw my instructor in the culinary school. I got an important call from my classmate informing me that our teacher in the culinary school is coming back this December to attend our grand reunion of chefs. This is a good news for our batch since we were the first and only students that he encountered since he live in Finland.

He is coming to the reunion upon knowing it from the dean of the culinary school. he will be arriving in the first week of December and we are all excited to see him again. In my stay in the culinary school, he taught as so many dishes and the pointers in food preparation and more. He told us that a good food must also come in good presentation.

I think that is the most basic rule in cooking that food preparation must always be good or else the food won't have a good impression. Today in the restaurant, I was preparing all the events that will be done in the reunion. I believe that when we work together, chefs, we can make things possible. I am now finalizing the menu for the event and the recipes that will be used for the cooking contest.

THE CHEFS REUNION

Last week in our class meeting, we decided to have a grand reunion of all the graduates in the culinary school, from batch 1 up to the present batch 15. Instead of paying a sum of money, we decided to bring food that we cooked ourselves and bring it to the party venue so that other chefs would be able to taste the food that we cooked. Aside from that, every party is a show off in the cooking skills that we acquired from the culinary school.

The venue will be shouldered by the culinary school. There will also be games and cooking tests that are going to happen in the grand reunion of chefs. We already told the chefs that enlisted to prepare their specially cooked dish and bring it to the party-reunion. They were all excited about the event and looking forward to the reunion. Other chefs that are working abroad will be coming home just to attend the grand reunion of chefs.

This event is the first to happen. Batches will gather and meet one another. The dean of the culinary schools also gathered sponsors for the event and ingredient suppliers are also excited for the event. Actually right now, I am contemplating what type of food I will be bringing on the reunion. I have to be unique and stand out among other chefs that will be attending the chefs reunion for 2009. I still have 2 weeks to prepare and I am very excited too for the event to happen. There are also recipe books that will be given away and for those who will win the cooking contest will receive a one year supply of macaroni pasta. A big prize for all chefs that will attend the reunion of chefs.

ASIDE FROM COOKING

Most of my friends are graduates also of the culinary school. Maybe the passion for cooking runs in our veins and cooking is the link for all of us. Some of my classmates are already recipe writers and others are no longer in the country because they are abroad working as chefs in restaurants and hotels.

But during our last reunion, one of our batch mate have something unique business that he operates. He sells buick supercharger and also has a restaurant and he is the chief chef. Many of his customers in the restaurant were pleased about the product. My friend, he has 5 years experience in the culinary world in one of the top restaurants in Dubai. He also has a teaching experience when he was part-time cooking master in the culinary school where were graduated from. he told me being a chef is a lasting profession and he will never leave the cooking world and the culinary school for anything. He profession as a chef does not stop there and that is why he also sell to his restaurant customers the supercharger. The delivery is free when you order this product.

He added that his capital sprouted from the restaurant business that he owns and managed. Being a chef is a lasting job and he will never trade it for anything else. He also told me that he will be going to London to experience something new as a chef. He will be cooking for the royal family of London. He was commissioned to be the chief chef in the palace. Everything started in cooking and he has something more to offer aside from being a chef. This is something that I am also thinking about. Expanding my chef profession and be somebody else. But my restaurant will continue to operate.

MY NEW KITCHEN ASSISTANT

I would admit that my restaurant business is doing well right now. The volume of daily customers is increasing and my time is not enough to cater to all the customer orders. Aside from me, there two others helping me in the kitchen work. But I alone do the mixing in the wok to make the dishes prepared uniform, quality control purposes. But it is very hard to do all the job in the kitchen.

I decided to hire a new chef for the restaurant. Luckily a chef, a graduate of the same culinary school where I am from applied this morning in the restaurant after I posted the hiring post in the culinary school. I already talked to the chef and she will be in probationary starting tomorrow. i know that the new chef would stay long in the kitchen of my restaurant because she already told me that she had applied for work abroad as chef also. But that's fine with me since I needed somebody who can assist me in the cooking in the restaurant.

According to the culinary school, the chef that I newly hired is a top rated chef and has been connected with 5 star restaurants before working with me. They added that she won several cooking contest held in the culinary school also and memorized various recipes in the recipe book in the culinary school. With all these things said about my new chef, I think I made the right move in hiring her temporarily for the restaurant.

COOKING WINNERS

I just remembered when I was in the culinary school, there was this cooking contest that the culinary school organized to be participated by the students. The cooking contest was also a ticket for the student winners ti be famous since there will be several guests invited, local and abroad. Our class was the graduating class that time and we were equally divided into four groups. The groups formed were the ones going to compete in the cooking competition organized by the school.

In our group, we were just 5 of us and very eager to win the prize that was at stake. The was no theme and only the rule was to cook the best dishes that we know. It must be unique and delicious. I was the one assigned to cook the chicken dish. Three days before the cooking contest, I was already going through the cookbooks and recipe books that I have so that I won't get lost on what I was cooking. I was thinking about the simplicity of cooking the chicken dish. In my mind, I was thinking chicken steamed with soy sauce. It was a Chinese style of cooking that has rooted in ancient China.

During the cooking contest proper, I decided to change the style that I was thinking for the chicken. Instead of steamed, I made it the all time favorite, chicken adobo. Chicken adobo has so many variations depending on the chef cooking it . I want it to be unique, so I made it my own style chicken adobo. No recipe books, only talent in cooking. At the end of the cooking show, we were the second place. It was a good experience for our team. Now that we are all chefs, we always laugh about it when we recall the cooking show. In some way, the cooking contest helped us develop more our culinary creativity and mastery of the dishes that we were cooking.

LETS GIVE BREAD A TRY

I was with my classmate in the culinary school this morning and we went something new for the both of us. We attended a bread making seminar that was hosted by the culinary school. I thought we were going to deliver another speech to the upcoming chefs. But we were stuck in our chairs and just listened to the bakery master. I have been acquainted with bread making and in fact this is not my first to attend such a seminar in bread making. Our family business was a bakery and until now, it is still in business.

Baking and cooking are similar but has a different audience or customers rather. In baking, it is hard to adjust things. Unlike in cooking of dishes, you can alter somethings that are written in the cookbook. You can add your personal tough in cooking. But both of field must entail persistence and dedication to what you are doing.

I may say that I was able to learn baking first before learning how to cook. My parents were bakery master and they personally do the bread making and placing inside the oven for baking. I also had my share in the baking process. I was the one who had tasted the bread first before it will be displayed in the display stand. But my passion for cooking emerge more superior than baking. Because in cooking you are like a painter, painting a wonderful portrait. Maybe that is why I enrolled myself in the culinary school because for the love of cooking and now I am already a chef.

PERFECT INGREDIENTS ARE IN THE MARKET

My friends usually go the grocery or supermarket to buy the ingredients that they need for their cooking. But I prefer to buy the ingredients in the market. Many would really ask me about the market thing and I always tell them the market is complete than in the grocery store or in the supermarket store. As a chef, I learned to be thrifty and be budget conscious when it comes to buying of the ingredients for the dishes that I cook in my restaurant.

Many restaurants right now are buying in grocery stores. They think that they made the right choice but actually they are not. Grocery prices are high compared to market prices. There is a 20-30% price difference in comparison with the market price and the grocery price. Before cooking the dish that I find in my recipe book, I must scout for the ingredients first before cooking it. In that way I can price the dish in a more affordable way compared to my rival restaurants. In cooking for a cost, price really matters. Given that most restaurants right now hire chefs to do the cooking in the kitchen.

Aside from the price, freshness is also an important thing to consider why I do the market job. Maybe that is the most important matter to consider when buying in the market. To make the cooking job easy, first, you must complete all the ingredients first. make sure that the ingredients that you use often are in plenty but do not overstock. Second, all the dishes that you are preparing are easy to do. Do not buy ingredients that are hard to find. Cooking is easy when you have all the ingredients with you. Third, base all the ingredients on what is written in the recipe book. Follow the recipe book religiously and you will never go wrong in cooking.