nostalgic II

spending my time watching cooking shows on tv and being fascinated by the "oh so glamorous chefs" had instilled me the curiosity of opting a career in a food industries. i was never a kitchen boy, neither i was being fond of, nor liked the idea of meddling all things associate to kitchen when all i know i'd have food ready on the table once my mum or dad yells for having a decent family meals together. i was born to eat, needless to say.


it's been two years since i've enrolled to this particular field, culinary art course that is, swaggering around wearing that hideous tall chef hat and kitchen uniform, life in school was pretty great. storming out ideas day in day out for a menu planning and groceries shopping, daily mise en plas, being a total noobsies here and there.. i tell myself i've begin to love cooking, maybe i've found my niche on enabling to establish myself in the cooking world after all, like all those chefs appeared in a cooking shows on afc, highly acclaimed, glamorous and all.




I was holding an empty food can meant to hold as a mould for a food presentation purposes, which never really accomplish.




class trip to Malacca I.




class trip to Malacca II. pardon the behavioural, it's such a distasteful manner.




practical test. Sugarcraft Baking & Culinary art Academy. circa 2008. we were bored.




during my three month internship at mandarin oriental hotel kl, everyone there was sceptical about my culinary academy, first, it was unknown to mostly. second, they often mis-heard the word sugarcraft to sugarclub. they thought i was from a nightclub or something. my first day there was, DISASTROUS. yeah being a newbie in a REAL kitchen, it was a far cry from that being in a school's kitchen, where you pampered yourself more than actually cooking. i've screwed up on my first assignment of washing the kitchen utensils. using machine, i fucked up on the machine real good.





emmanuel stroobant of afc chef in black. i have the opportunity to assist him with fellow colleague for the guinness promotion. first thing that ever came out of his mouth when he says to me is "dude, you're holding the knife all wrong". oh great, words of wisdom.



when the chefs says snap a pic, you gotta snap the pic yo.



prior to that, i was looking for a permanent job elsewhere somewhere. knowing that they wouldn't hire a biatch like me. outlet covered so far during my training there was the ever, seafood redefining haven pacifica, the main western banquet kitchen and malay. i liked working in both western banquet and malay, it's very de flexible geh.





so, i waved goodbye to MO and found myself heading here.




to work here.


with them bunch of clowns.


japanese cuisine did brought a whole new experience for me. i am amazed on some of the unique way of food preparation, apart from learning to identify some of the rarest ingredients that japanese has to offer, which is unlikely, could be found in this restaurant. but learning the basic was crucial enough at least for me, that's the foundation for a better understanding on both their cuisine and their culture.


preps for the migf gala launch.



this is mr alfred. i'm gonna salute his chicken for that tender, juicy meat.. crispy skin.. fried to perfection it looks exactly glossy like that of a roasting peking duck. but it's chicken.



when we do nothing, it's pretty much obviously nothing that we do about.





2010 new year celebration at the hotel.




i've worked there for approximately 7 months. no make that 7 months accurately, my daily preps were quite mediocre. i was expecting to a more reliable task that i could actually be capabled on and somehow, some sort of expectation i was expecting doesn't meet my criteria to carve on for my future as a succesfull culinarian[whalau le talk big] but hey, lets face it, who doesn't? the least comparism i could compare between this kitchen and say, pacifica of MO, which i gained my 1 month training previously, was way far different in terms of food qualities and genuine cuisine. fine-dining, was just tottaly different.




i'm not an opportunist but an offer for landing an experience for one of the highly acclaimed restaurant in kl, helmed by chef takashi kimura. i just couldn't resist.



cigar lounge, where we rest our heads during split-shift hours on these nice comfy sofas. :/



Cold Angel hair pasta, tossed with truffle oil. slices of Akagai(Giant Heart Cockles) and Mirugai(Geoduck) Garnished with hand-picked Rucola cress.


Unagi & Foie Gras, Port wine sauce.



Foie gras, sandwiched between 2 slices unagi. shapes into a compact squares. breaded, deep-fried to perfection. i've never touch such exquisite and expensive product as foie gras but here in cilantro, we "played" them like kids playing a playdoh. pretty much mash into a semi-fine texture to mould the unagi centerpiece. other rare expensive stuffs that we could lay our hands on are black perigord truffles and wide range of japanese fish.

kitchen environment is intense when things starts to get busy during dinner. we would shuffle-dance on the kitchen dancefloor if everything goes out of control, heck.. the words "matilah" "die lah" is common to every staff who works there. even our chef takashi would tunggang-langgang lari sana sini to get things done. unfortunately, i don't have much picture or images snapping out of cilantro's kitchen, cause i have a brief time there.





the only image i snapped from the kitchen.




yeah, i've quit. again. that was like superfast, 3 months 2 weeks of my employment there. everyone was like, what the fuck? but soon they understood my decision and even encourage me to go for it. a new place to work, a new challenge. and i can't wait.




but i'm jobless for the time being, so..



IT'S FUCKING BORED FOR NOT BEING IN THE KITCHEN!!