SPICES MATTERS

The whole day, I have been trying to study a recipe in my recipe book and learn how to cook it. It is a Thai food and I am very interested to learn how to cook this type of dish. My friends would told me that Thai foods are unique and requires so much of spices that makes the food hot. No wonder Thai foods are known for it's hotness in every dish. Maybe that makes the dish unique among others.

People who are already accustomed to eat Thai foods would say that the food is not hot, it is very hot actually. My friend chef last week invited me to dine at a restaurant nearby. The restaurant is known for it's Thai foods and other foods also. But the restaurant is marked as Thai food restaurant already. For my chef career, it was the first time for me to eat Thai foods. They are really hot.

I am learning to stude the Thai dishes because I want it to be incorporated in my buffet restaurant so that my customers would also taste what Thai foods are all about. I really needed to learn the dish. Maybe I will visit Thailand and learn how to cook their proud dishes that are majority are hot. The recipe books would suggest that to place hot peppers to make the dish taste good.

NEW RECIPE DISCOVERED

I was doing my regular cooking task in my restaurant when suddenly I thought of something new for the restaurant. The buffet style of dining was indeed a big hit for my restaurant. Cooking for several people was something beyond every chef's dreams. Many of my customers were amazed when I implemented the buffet type of dining.

In a buffet style kind of restaurant, you need to prepare several dishes for one hundred customers every meal time. That's right, every meal time because you don't your customers feel that the foods that were prepared in the restaurant are all redundant. Good thing I have an assistant chef with me to help me with all the cooking for the restaurant. We implemented the buffet style of dining and results were positive.

But there is one new recipe that I am planning to serve in the restaurant and that is the crispy pata. I just think that this dish that I will be preparing will be a sure hit to my restaurant customers. I already consulted my assistant chef and she agreed with the idea for the restaurant.

TREATS FOR MY FREQUENT DINING CUSTOMERS

It's been 5 years now when I first started to cook for people aside from my family. After graduating from the culinary school, I immediately opened my own restaurant and try to practice what I learned from the culinary schools and the recipes that I practice often in the kitchen. 5 years in the cooking and restaurant industry is already a milestone for a chef like me.

Now in my 5 years in the business, I think it is about time to give something back to my loyal dining customers. I am proud to say that I achieved something every chef in the world wanted and that is the frequent customers that visit the restaurant and dine there. Complements are are icing on the cake of a chef. For this year's anniversary, I will be giving out Food coupons and Restaurant Coupons to all of my loyal customers. I am still thinking of the mechanics for winning the coupons in my restaurant. Aside from the coupons, I will also be giving out away some free goodies in the restaurant such as recipe books and delightful dishes for free. I think that's the best way to thank all my loyal dining customers in my restaurant who never stop patronizing my cooking style and the dishes that I prepared.

Aside from cooking and reading and practicing almost all the recipe books that are available in the world, I also am a fan of site that are related to cooking. You will find Restaurant.com a good site to visit. In here I learned a lot from the cooking styles and techniques that are widely used by chefs around the world. The idea of sharing something back to my customers were ideas from the cooking site that I mentioned.

But I still really need to iron all the necessary thing before I will be disclosing the restaurant promo to all my customers. I think I really needed to read more recipe books right now and practicing cooking all the recipes that I find fascinating in the recipe books. For more days and the cooking in my restaurant will be something to remembered.

CHEF CONNECTIONS

Most of my classmates in the culinary school are now owners of their own restaurants and food related businesses. We make it sure that we stay connected with one another. That is why every Sunday, we make it a reunion day for all of us. Our venue of of chef gathering will be done in our homes. The food is not a problem because we bring foods as we meet one another. It is a potluck system in our gathering. We call each other and ask what food we will be rbinging so that there will be no food repitition upon our meeting.

Aside from our classmates, we also invite other people that are close to our batch and last week, our dean in the culinary school was our guest. During our meeting we usually discuss our future plans in our careers as chefs and our plans foir our businesses. But the most important among all is that we get to meet each other other again. Our bonding in the culinary school was very strong that we would miss each other after graduation in the culinary school.

We also decided to make a website about our desire in cooking. Most of us will have an access to the site and post things about us and our each daily happenings in life. We can also post new recipes that we created and other things about the chef life that we are all in right now. During our meeting last week, we were told that Carrie, our chef friend will be moving to California toi work as a chef in a hotel there. The chef connection and the camaraderie that we share will last as long as we live.

PREPARING SEVERAL DISHES FOR THE FEAST

I was told that today is the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Many parishes are celebrating this occasion and since I am a chef, I prepared something to make the celebration meaningful. In my restaurant, I prepared several dishes for all of my customers. By the way, I have already change my restaurant style for the serving type to the buffet style of dining.

The dishes I prepared are the following: Adobo pork and chicken, Lumpia Shanghai, roasted duck, lechon biik ( sucking pig), sweet and sour lapu-lapu, pork and beef steak, fried shrimps, alimango sa gata, kinilaw na blue marlin and the most favorite of all, tuna panga. When my customers saw the dishes prepared, most of them were amazed of the dishes that I prepared for them. All of these dishes were from my recipe book and I just follow the ingredients and the style of cooking.

I would say, for my 5 years of being a chef, I had encountered almost all the types of recipes around the world. I have experience cooking with the best chefs of America and Europe. The only thing I am still hoping to experience is to compete in the Chef America challenge. But I know that is still a dream that I have to conquer later on. But for now, my kitchen will serve as my stage and feed thousands of people in my restaurant with the dishes that I cook. The chef style!