Truth is, I tried out at Restaurant A and though I went in rather happily, I came out disappointed. Sigh, many reasons, but one of the main reasons is that the facilities are really rather bad, the ventilation of the kitchen is so bad, oily fumes hang in the air. It's so bad, that there's a fan circulating the air around, and the oil actually collects on the blades and drips down to a puddle on the tabletop. Here's a photo only after1- 2 days:
Plus, I don't wanna go into other details of the fridges not working, the drainage pipes clogging, (one evening, just before dinner service started, the pipes choke and the whole kitchen was flooded with awful, dirty waste water that ran into the restaurant floor, stopped by only a row of wrung tablecloths. Look, I'm not trying to air dirty laundry, but many times, we signaled problems, but the management seem interested in doing the minimum to barely cover up the symptons, and only when the 'worst' happen. That said, it goes into the preparation of food as well, produce past beyond its prime, shortcuts in doing certain things (smart shortcuts, I can understand, but these were just not the way to do things) microwave being used (and we're not talking abt defrosting), mistakes are made but the cooks are not grilled. This laissez-faire attitude of the chef, who's often not in the kitchen, extends to and influences the quality of food put out. Since Day one, I haven't received a set of recipes for the dishes, which I always receive when new at a restaurant. These standard recipes sets the taste of the dishes, and deviations can be brought back to the 'standard', but it seems the taste of the dishes can vary day to day and cook to cook, and is really tough to control. Each time I grill a cook about what he did or didn't do, the 'ah beng' will justify that he did the same, blah blah... which brings me to the other point, the quality of staff. I chose to come in to 'follow' a chef, who has been successful in SG these years. There's a French girl in the team who he adores, and IMHO, 3 out of 4 things she does is crap. Who cooks a tomato soup and then chill it and calls it a gazpacho? Gazpacho is a collection of juices and essences of the marinated vegetables, and the holy trinity of day old bread, olive oil and vinegar. Hers is only cooked blended vegetables soup. But chef still chose to serve it. Why? Why? The restaurant manager who's also of the same race, sings her praises each time, brings her out to meet the customers. Friends in the know have been asking me, are they banging her or something? Why put me under her charge/or 'helping her' when she can barely pan fry a foie gras without turning it black? When I reproach her very gently abt things she could have done better, she's stubborn and says she's always been doing it 'this way'. 'This way' such as COOKING!!! yes COOKING!!! yeast and water, boiling it!! before mixing into flour to make a bread dough recipe. The dough wouldn't rise for 3 days and 3 nights, (even Christ did better), the bread came out hard as a rock, dense as anything, ahem, but still served it to customers for her set lunch for a whole week, chef ate it, but didn't say anything, really? chef? really? are you really kidding me? The whole of the other kitchen team, even the bengs were criticizing her.
I approached chef and ask if there is something else I could do, he seems to understand what I mean but didn't have much to say, and I said, I haven't touched the meat/grill side, and I want to try. I went over for 2 months, and learnt some stuff so I'm glad, but still wasn't a place I could stay. The oily fumes, the 'anything goes' no-standard-recipe (the thing with no standard recipe is that I don't think you really have developed a tastebud so sensitive that you can tell if such a naunce is off, and what the original true taste that chef wanted was- not talking about salt and pepper to taste, but more esp on sauces, and mixtures of herbs/spices which the balance is delicate), finally was the answer I needed, that I am better off taking up this internship.
In G.S it may have been really unnecessary mean and unfair, and the MBS mgmt cocked up, but in the end, they really do the food right, I'm not talking abt the taste, but the honest, true to the core way of treating produce, cooked and presented the way it's described on the menu. Do I regret leaving G.S? In a way, yes, now looking back, it's really a professional kitchen, manned by professional staff. (Except the dimwit racist chef, but maybe I shouldn't hold it against him.) Maybe I shouldn't have focused on the non-food criticisms of the place to leave. But I really didn't know the other kitchens out there were such a mess!? Why are kitchens in SG such a freaking mess? Or is it the kitchen culture just that? What did I get myself into? It's not as simple as having a friend whom you know working in such and such a restaurant that you can run the names off, ain't it? Maybe I need to appease some gods. Maybe I just need my own kitchen. Maybe, I should look out other avenues. Food related, but other avenues? Or just other avenues altogether.
These 2 weeks I'm still in SG preparing for my trip, I'm hoping to cook for my friends to let them taste what I've picked up so far, to show them I haven't lost the touch of making a meal, hopefully always better than the last, I haven't at all wasted my time in the kitchens I've been. That they trust me, and what I've done so far. And hoping they could pray for me for an opening out of all these. That they know I'm alright, and that also, I'm not alright.
No comments:
Post a Comment