TEACHING KIDS TO COOK

I was roaming around the village when I noticed several kids playing cooking in their garage. As I approached them, they immediately told me that I can join then if I want to. The offer was quite tempting but I declined. Instead, I open a cook book and tought them something that they will never forget.

Since it was already 3 in the afternoon, I realized that these kids need something to eat. I called their attentions and told them a cooking food for their merienda. I thought them how to bake ht cake. The kids were very attentive towards me and participative in asking questions regarding the hot cake that I am teaching them to bake. After giving them the things to do, they were thankful to me and gave me a hug before they left. Cooking can easily be absorbed by kids. Adult encounters cooking when only he/she is already hungry.

I was also invited to join a summer camp. I will be the teacher in the kitchen for my students are small kids who are interested in cooking. I can see talent when I see one. The summer camp in cooking will start by February and will June, before the formal class begins. It is really nice to teach kids about cooking for soon, one of these kid will be a chef someday.

COOKING WHILE SLEEPING

They say that our mind is more imaginative when we are sleeping. I an attest to that! I was sleeping the other night when my room mate told me that I was talking while sleeping. He added that I was calling people and gave instructions to bake the cookies and grill the pork and chop the necessary ingredients before the cooking proper to start. I was dreaming!

I just want to defend myself about this matter. As a chef, I must research a lot and try to experiment on new dishes to cook, the right spices to the existing foods that are ready to be cook. In my dreams, I get to cook food and then when I woke up, I immediately cook the food that I was dreaming about. My friends would ask me about my style that I cook foods in my sleep. Doing this strange thing of cooking in my dreams somewhat helped me create new dishes that many of my customers would asked how I did it. It's all in the dreams baby. I am not a chef in the real world, but also a chef in world of dreams.

I realized that there was a time that I cooked rice as early as 3 am. I was dreaming that time that many customers were in my restaurant the rice was not enough for all. That is why I cooked rice in 3 in the morning. I will never forget that they. My brothers were witness as I did the cooing as early as 3 am.

THE DISH LOOKS AND TASTES FAMILIAR

As a chef, I really needed to go to other places to experience new things, like food and dining experience from other restaurants. I remembered one day, I was going out with some friends and decided to have a quick dinner a near fine dining restaurant. Most were unanimous about it and went to the restaurant immediately. We were all quiet about our professions, that we were chefs. We want to experience being customers rather than the chef of the house. We were already sitting at our own respective chairs, when the attendant took our orders. We placed our orders and waited for couple of minutes before the food was ready and delivered to our table.

5 chefs sitting at a restaurant and waiting for our order to arrive. At last, the food was on our table. As we ate the food that we ordered, I come to noticed something different from the food that we were having that time. I am quite sure that I already tasted the food that was served to me. I thought I was the only one to noticed, but my chef friends also noticed the distinctive taste of the food.

After eating the food, were curious about the chef that prepared the food that were served to us. We called the manager and instructed to call the chef so that we can thank him/her for the wonderful food that were cooked for us. As the manager went to the kitchen, we were all surprised to see that the chef that prepared the food for us was our class mate in the culinary school. No wonder, the food tasted familiar.

We were all high fives and happy to see our batch mate again after 4 years of being apart from each other. He owns the place and he personally cook the food that are served in the restaurant. It is really nice to meet old friends once again. I took his number and we bid farewell to him.

DAY AT THE RESTAURANT

I spent the whole day doing all the cooking in the restaurant. I started around 7 am until 7 pm, cooking and mingling with my customers. I always thank my customers when they come to my restaurant to eat. I have some regulars, who always visit me during lunch time. They really like the way I cook. As a chef, that is very flattering to be able to satisfy my customers as they eat in my restaurant. I always receive compliments from my customers. When customers thank you, a chef's ears really rings!

By December, I might open my kiosk store along boulevard. I have already prepared all the necessary business papers for the kiosk that I will be opening. The kiosk will offer ready to eat meals or food. There is one chef that I hired to help me in the kiosk operation. But I still have to visit the kiosk daily to see to it that all the standards are implemented. The food in the kiosk is just the same with the foods in the restaurant. The only thing is that it ready immediately for customers who want to eat and go.

I am having second thoughts on the restaurant that I was selected to manage. It is because I also have a restaurant to manage. I need to study the Finland recipes and dishes and the study will not be near. I have to go to Finland and study there. I am thinking of my food business. I think I will assign the opportunity to my close friend, who is also a chef in a 5 star hotel here in the city.

A TASTE OF A NEW DISH

I visited a good friend of mine who is residing in another city, just few hours away from my city. I arrived in his house around 2 pm this afternoon and told me to stay for awhile because she was preparing food for dinner. My friend used to work in a cruise ship as the chef of the ship. She has been working their about 5 years before she decided to leave her work as the chef of the ship because she cannot sleep well in the ship, especially when at night. For 5 years of working as the cruise ship chef, she has studied almost all the foods around the world and she knows how to cook it.

This friend of mine was ahead batch in the culinary school. I met her when she was the guest speaker of the culinary school when I graduated in that cooking school. I personally met her when we both applied for that cruise ship that she was working. She got the chef job while I was told to just come back next month for the reservation slot in the cruise ship. Since then we treat each other special and the closeness continues, most especially when we both knew that we graduated at the same culinary school.

For tonight's dinner, she prepared duck for diner. I never tried cooking duck because this type of food is rarely ordered in my restaurant. That is why I never place it in my restaurant's menu. I also thought that ducks are dirty when cooked because of the smell that the duck meat produces. Aside from that, ducks are dirty eaters. They eat all types of things. I never expected that duck taste better than chicken. According to my friend, she got the recipe from a Turkish national. That Turkish national gave her the ingredients and procedure on how to cook ducks.

I would say that it really taste good. The meat was well done and I never tasted anything strange or bad. It was plain duck and it taste good. She made it Patotin, a tasteful dish and is widely prepared during fiestas and other monthly celebration. I just have to request for the ingredients of this dish because I like the taste of it.