The Power of mise-en-place.

Mise-en-place, as briefly explain by Chef Daniel Boulud in his book "Letters to a Young Chef" as Preparing the essential stuff that is needed before the commencing of any service.

Sadly My book is loaned out to a friend or I would have given you a better quote.

Mise-en-place, in french, means "everything in place". It's always used and associated to chefs.

Preparing Mise-en-place is very important, especially during service period. I've been there and experienced it. Not preparing mise-en-place can really jeopardize the smooth flow, causing displeasure to the guests and to the rest of your teammates .

From my experience, though it looked like a simple and mundane chore, it requires a delicate touch. Like washing the salads, or to even prepare the meat that will be needed later. Mise-en-place is the foundation, and if it's screwed up, you will be next.

Though this is a culinary blog, what i think is that not just us chefs need to learn to do Mise-en-place, but also the non chefs. Think about it, though different in context, you need to prepare yourself for any big situation or events or meetings, I guess there's no need for me to explain further do I?

On my next blog post I will share with anyone who is reading this blog one very special recipe of mine, that took me into the world of cuisine. Stay tune

The fishball Theory

Ya for anyone that's reading this title and goes "WTF?" yeah, the fishball theory. Originated from

Aya Tenshi. but i have a different one.

Her's : 10 cent you can buy one fishball, and one dollar you can have 10 fishball, and you can be full.

Mine: Making a perfect fish ball by hand takes lots of time and practice, the repertory motion of the hands, the feel and touch to get the correct shape and size.

Repertory perfects the skill, and it perfects your heart and mind.

Life is a series of repeating chores and work. I know there's lots of people telling other people to break out from the endless loop, but seriously, screw that part if you can never master the basic of being patient.

As a chef... we all want to climb up the ladder to the top. However along the way, many of us would begin to forget to be patient and master the craft's basics first. So first, strengthen the foundation before thinking of applying the level 2 blocks.

Life my CEO Chef Christophe Megel always mention:" Strengthen your building blocks by practicing."

The world that I know

If it's the past 10 years...

Me:" yeah, I want to be a chef" (since that young I've been thinking of being a chef)

Others:" you? haha, forget it, you should just follow what everyone does and get a proper desk job" (and those other people now are still very skeptical about my current job.)

That's 10 years ago... along the way, I actually goofed around, getting bad grades with my diploma ... never thought of getting into a proper culinary school or even attaching myself to any kitchen as a apprentice. Age 20: Got called into Army (yeah in Singapore, it's normal for guys)... and after 2 years... I came out and say "screw it, time to realize my dream" and so I got myself enrolled into a culinary school and now here I am, 6 more months from graduation and a chef.

Well, ever since in this line of work, I got pretty much loosen up, shaped up, battered up. Not that it's a tough job. But sometime really, when the heat of the service comes down, everyone has to take all the firings and press on till the kitchen's close.

I find those experience satisfying. Really, ask any chef out there and they can tell you the same thing too.

Of course now, I'm not exactly a chef, but more like a apprentice chef. I do things that i've never ever did in my life, like whipping up sauce and salad dressings, pan fry a tenderloin or even trussing of chicken.

Besides cooking, my only other hobbies are Travelling around to eat and Manga, Comic and Anime (basically, what you people call Otaku). Now don't be too surprised for the 2nd hobby... you may have heard nasty reports about us but in actual real facts, there's lots of us who are contributing positively to society and not so dangerous.

Well I guess that's what I'm saying for now. Job's tomorrow and gotta sleep. For Chef out there in the world, FIGHT!