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.