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It was a busy weekend working on the two buffets for Cookes at the Algonquin. My new week started with waking up at 3:30 am to get ready and go to school for an event called Flavours New Brunswick. When we arrived at school at 5am this morning, my chefs and a few of us were locked out because the key card scan was off a bit and we needed to wait for about 15 minutes to be able to get in. We had approximately half an hour to set up and finalize preparations for the event. The menu of the day was blueberry french toast with maple syrup and icing sugar on top, smoked salmon eggs Benedict served with Hollandaise sauce and brownies with citrus buttercream for desserts. All of the products were purchased within New Brunswick. For the eggs bennies, we got the smoked salmon from True North Salmon Company in Blacks Harbour. With our blueberry french toast, we got our wild blueberry jam from Granite Town Farms in St. George. We flavoured the brownies with chicken bones which we got from Ganong Chocolate Factory in St. Stephen. And finally, coffee was provided by Chartwells. It was an enjoyable morning, for the first hour of service, we didn't serve so many people but then from 7:30 to 8:30, people kept coming in and they were excited for the food and the whole event. Some of the guests expected only to have either the eggs Benedict or the blueberry french toast, but when they were confirmed that they can have both and they can take desserts as well, they were all surprised and happy. At the end of the festival, our college donated a cheque of 10,000$ to Harbour Lights campaign and also by selling breakfast this morning, we raised about 2,000$ in cash. It was an event to give us a chance to give back to the community, to take advantage of the high-quality local products and to get more experience on our onward culinary career. I'm looking forward to taking part in more meaningful events like this !

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Full of surprises. I didn't have any plans for this weekend at all. I thought it would be a typical stay at home weekend with lots of homework, unwanted chores and just sleep. Luckily I was spoiled with some exotic ingredients and the presence of my friend. Here's how my weekend went down. First of all, my friend made a surprise visit to Saint-Andrews when I least expected it. We went to Saint-John to do some Christmas shopping. We wandered around the McAllister Place for a couple of hours, then to Costco and finally at Old Navy. It was time well-spent but not so much for my wallet :( :( :( I don't remember the last time I have spent this much on gifts. That's ok thought, I believe spreading joy is worth it. After my Christmas shopping, we went home to cook dinner. For the first time I got the opportunity to cook and eat a Moose Steak! I seared it on a hot pan with butter and garlic for 8 minutes and sautéed mushroom with onions. I then put the pan in the oven for 10 minutes and brushed both sides of steak with the mixture of Dijon mustard, buffalo hot sauce and a few more seasonings. The well-done part was for my friend and the medium-rare one is mine. The moose meat was super tender, juicy and flavourful. To my taste, moose meat has a combination of lamb and beef flavour, it is not too strong like lamb. My friend was responsible for the shrimp, zucchini and gemelli stir-fry. The meal was fantastic! The whole evening was getting better as I didn't need to do the dishes :) It was a productive weekend. I get to do my Christmas shopping, try new food and even finish my homework before the end of my weekend. Life is always full of surprises. Great things happen when we least expected it. I expected a slow and boring weekend. But my friend made my weekend flew by like the speed of light.

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It is definitely something I would try as I grew up in a country where local food is very popular. We also have a lot of kind of similar leaf-wrapped dishes in my country and the flavor of all of them are appetizing !

Magical Dishes - Pibes Enterrados

Yucatán is one of my favorite Mexican states, is a really magical place and it’s colors, crafts, and flavors make your stay in the place unforgettable.

It was the last day of my summer trip and as we had previously decided to spend the last 2 days in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo we had to go back to Mérida, Yucatán to take our flight back to Monterrey, so on our way back we decided to stop at Valladolid, Chichen Itza, and my favourite Mexican small town: Izamal.

It was on the highway from Chichen Itza to Izamal where we saw a sign “Se venden Pibes Enterrados” (Pibes Enterrados for Sale) and since we were starving we decided to stop to see what a “Pibe” was.

I talked with the lady who served the “Pibe” and with a kid that told me the whole process for making this delicacy that is traditionally eaten on the day of the dead.

The kid told me that he and some other people are the ones in charge of making the “oven” in which it is cooked, a pit is made in the soil and then is covered with firewood and stones, when the oven is hot enough they put the “pibes” inside and then they cover it with rubber sheets to keep it warm and so that the fire is not extinguished during the night.

The “Pibe” that we bought was shaped as a circle and it was basically like a tamale pie filled with “pibil chicken” which is shredded chicken with achiote and some other spices.

Before going to this trip de Yucatán I did a list with a lot of traditional dishes I wanted to try, and even though this one wasn’t in the list I loved it and it was one of my favorites.

If you ever have the opportunity to visit Mexico look for local places to eat authentic Mexican food like markets, instead of fancy restaurants, because even though some of those fancy restaurants are really good, my advice is to eat local, because is not only going to be cheaper you will eat delicious food and you will not regret it at all.

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Another whole weekend spent time at home on cooking and homework ! My Saturday started with a power cut at my place until 2pm. It was such a struggle when I was starving but I couldn't cook, I couldn't use my phone and laptop either as there was no wifi so I felt like I was lost in a jungle for a few hours. After the electricity came back on, I made matcha latte and then marinated chicken drumsticks, both the recipes are provided below.

Matcha latte (1 serving)

1 tsp matcha powder 4 tbsp hot water 3/4 cup milk ( your preferred kind of milk :soy, almond, rice, coconut...) 2tsp sugar (I’m not a sweet lover, so my latte is a bit bland, you may add 1-2 more tsp as you wish) Instruction:

1. Scald milk and sugar in a small saucepot until sugar is dissolved. 2. In a mug, whisk matcha powder with hot water until there is no lump. 3. Gradually add hot milk to the mug and stir until it is well-mixed.  Optional: if you want to have milk foam in your latte, you can use either a milk frother or hand mixer to froth your milk for about 30 seconds and gradually pour the frothed milk into your matcha powder mixture).

Marinated chicken (7 boneless thighs/ drumsticks / 1lb skinless boneless 1-inch cub-size breast). 1. You can either buy boneless, skinless chicken drumsticks at the store or whole drumsticks and debone them. I deboned my chicken drumsticks and saved the bones for chicken stock to cook rice soup.

2. For the marinade:

1/4 cup soy sauce 1/4 cup honey 1 tbs gochugaru (or regular red pepper flakes) 1tbs sriracha (or gochujang - Korean hot pepper paste) 1/8 tsp black pepper 2 cloves minced garlic 1/8 tsp shallots 1/8 tsp ginger.

3. Marinate chicken overnight and cook the drumsticks as you desire. In the photo, I added 1/2 tsp of unsalted butter and  seared a piece of drumstick for 4 minutes each side with fat side up in the first 4 minutes. The finished drumstick will appear to be brown with a bit of char to my taste. The meat was tender, moist and crunchy when you eat to the tendon part. The cooking time will be shorter for chicken breasts.

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I really like to shop for my grocery at the farmers’ market as they provide us with all the fresh choices of food and produce. The price is somehow relatively higher than at the grocery store, but I think the quality of their products is worth it ! 

Blog#7

Farmer’s Market

Another end of summer family event occurs every year for us after Beulah, in which we visit the Kingston Peninsula Farmers Market. This market is open every Saturday from 8AM to 1PM, and runs from April 29th until November 18th, 2017. It consists over 80 vendors each week and featuring local products and local entertainment from New Brunswick. When you arrive, you usually see many people walking around the market grounds observing each vendor offering and buying their favorite food items and crafts.

As soon as you step out of your car you can smell many different food varieties; from Thai food to barbecued salmon, or baked bread to wood-fired oven cooked pizza.  (We always try to buy from that one!).  It’s always neat to see how they prepare and bake pizza in this type of oven. You can often smell the aroma of wood smoke from the oven that almost seems like it is baked right in! There are also many different forms of crafts items for sale; from jewelry to birdhouses, paintings, homemade soaps, knitted quilts, candles, whirligigs and more! It’s always nice to walk around and enjoy the company and talk to people you haven’t seen in a while.

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It was a long weekend well-spent with no work ! It's also been awhile since I was diligent enough to cook a full good meal. Doesn't it sound hilarious when someone who is being trained to be a professional cook is too lazy to cook for themselves ?! So this is how my Sunday was spent ! I started my morning with making breakfast for me and my friend. I cooked Korean starch noodles mixed with the leftover spicy garlic wings I made on Friday with an overeasy egg for my friend and a noodle stir-fry with Vietnamese beef balls for myself. We then went for a drive in St. Stephen where I bought my digital thermometer, peeler and Mastercraft toolbox. We spent an hour at Atlantic Superstore just to buy Asian pears, gummy bears and Twisto chips because of me. I was wandering around the store trying to figure out whether I should buy more food or not when I already have enough food for a month at home 😂😂😂 After a few hours of walking around, we decided to go home and cook dinner. I made broiled pork ribs marinating in my own way. It was a fusion of Korean and Vietnamese cuisine and my friend was in charge of stir-fried broccoli. We also ordered chicken wings from Water Street Dining with pineapple curry sauce on the side. It was a good big meal for only two people and a pile of dirty plates to wash. I thought it was a boring weekend with time spent at home doing homework until my friend came here and made me cook for both of us !

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The birthday week !

It was such a stressful but still joyful week last week as it was my birthday and I had a big culinary project to complete ! On Tuesday, instead of having the baking lab like having been scheduled, we participated in a pumpkin carving and door decorating competitions at our college. We had a lot of fun on that day and our class finished with the second place !

Wednesday was a big day for me as it was my international lunch project on German cuisine. It was supposed to be a group project but it turned out to be an individual one as the another group member was absent on the presentation day. For the German lunch, my menu was designed to have Berlin potato soup, schnitzel, spätzle and Bavarian cream.

Besides the three-course meal, bread is always served first and foremost. I chose to make pretzels accompanied with honey mustard butter as it is a signature bread of German cuisine. The flavor of the pretzels was different from the traditional ones because of the way they were prepared. They were dipped in a baking soda solution before baking and dipped in melted butter after baking. 

After I finished my presentation, we started our service with a hot appetizer: Berlin potato soup. I chose to make potato soup as it allows me to lift a low-cost ingredient up to another level by combining it with other flavors and garnishing it with mushroom, bacon, fried cabbage and fried leeks.

Following up was our main course. My plate was designed to have schnitzel with aurora sauce, spinach spätzle, braised cabbage and squash purée. Schnitzel is probably the most common meat in Germany. It literally means “cutlet” which is pounded thinly, breaded and pan fried. Beyond the basic meat on a plate, we also prepared homemade spinach spätzle which is a kind of soft noodle found in the cuisine of Southern Germany.  Spaetzle is typically prepared with an abundant sauce or gravy such as Rouladen or Sauerbraten. However, we had a small twist from French cuisine, which was aurora sauce. This sauce is derived from velouté sauce made from chicken stock and we added heavy cream to form suprême sauce then finished it by stirring tomato puree into the mixture to give it a creamy orange color. Another component was braised cabbage, known as Sauerkraut in German. Sauerkraut is basically thinly sliced cabbage mixed with salt and it is a popular side dish in the entire Germany. 

Finally, the last course of the meal was dessert, which was a mango Bavarian cream. It is a classic dessert consisting of egg custard thickened with gelatin and mixed with whipped cream. The Bavarian cream was served with berry coulis, caramel sauce, brandy snap and physalis. Although I made many mistakes on my service day, I want to forward my gratitude to all the efforts of chef Darren, chef Dave and to my whole team of classmates to assist me with my project ! Without your help and cooperation, I wouldn’t be able to bring out such a good lunch like I did on last Wednesday !

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The lab to remind me of my country's street food ! After a few weeks of desserts lab, this Tuesday, we had a bread lab. We were required to do a braided challah bread and a Cuban loaf shaped in a sandwich size. The main difference between challah and bread and Cuban loaf is challah has egg yolks and vegetable oil, while Cuban loaf doesn't. The Challah dough is also stickier and require less kneading than Cuban loaf. While I was waiting for my dough to proof, I made Chimichurri sauce. It is an uncooked sauce used to serve with the Cuban sandwich. It is made of chopped parsley, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, oregano leaves, cilantro,red pepper flakes, olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. After I put all the ingredients in a bowl, I used the immersion blender to mix them all up. Besides using as a sauce for bread, Chimichurri is also used as a marinade for grilled meat. After the first proof, I took my dough out to shape their forms and put them back to proof for the second time. I then started with kettle potato chips by slicing them with a mandoline and soaking them in salted water. While my bread was being baked in the oven, I deep-fried potatoes and seasoned them with multi-purpose seasoning. When my Cuban bread was ready, I then sliced it open and put cheese, ham, tomatoes, cucumber and pickled onions then finished it up by drizzling Chimichurri sauce and soy glaze. To keep the crispness of the crust, I put my bread on a flattop stove for 3 minutes each side. With my plate presentation and evaluation, chef commented that sandwich was nicely presented. However, I need to make sure that my garnishes are appropriate for the dish. Instead of using raw carrots and parsnip, I could have done a quick pickle. For the potato chips, as my slices were thick, it required more time to cook evenly and my chips turned out darker than my friends', which didn't make my chef crave for it. Overall, it was a very useful lab and when I sent the picture of my plate to my friends back in Vietnam, they asked me how I made the bread and wanted me to do it for them when I come back to my country !

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Being a culinary student, it has always been a great opportunity to participate in events which I get to meet and work with chefs from different high-end restaurants. Last Friday, our college was incorporating with chef Chris from Rossmount Inn to bring together a five-course meal to our guests at the Huntsman Aquarium. The hors d'œuvre for the night was salmon pinwheel which was dill cream cheese wrapped with smoked salmon. The bottom of each piece was cucumber round and we garnished it with caper and pickled red onion. The second hors d'œuvre we served was foie gras mousse on a round of fruit nut cracker topped with micro greens and physalis (cape gooseberry). Our guests were then seated to have their cold and hot appetizer. We made a trio of beets for cold appetizer which was roasted beets, spiral beets and beets purée served with goat cheese fritter and balsamic caviar. After all the tables were cleared out, we then served our soup which was a scallop bisque garnished with lobster oil, parsnip chips and crispy sage. Rossmount inn also brought in a snowcrab terrine served with their homegrown tomatoes. And it was main course time ! The plate was built up first with turnip purée in the bottom and a piece of medium rare beef tenderloin then pickled zucchini. After that, we put a lobster claw or half of a lobster tail and finished up with a teaspoon of béarnaise sauce. The last course was dessert. Chef Chris made a pumpkin cheesecake served with saffron ice cream, chocolate twill, edible flora and caramel sauce. I was thrilled with his plate presentation styles and the exotic taste in every component of the dessert !

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Indulge

We had Indulge Food, Wine and Beer Festival last weekend. We had so much fun and everything went well, besides it was windy and chilly on Friday. We had a street food theme on Friday when we sold donairs and pulled pork nachos. 

With donairs, we had flat breads with small dice tomatoes and onions with donair sauce. For the pulled pork nachos, we had deep fried tortillas with cheese sauce, guacamole, pico de gallo, chipotle mayo and crispy red onions. People were lining up at our booth and some of them came back for the second treat because we sold our food for only one ticket per serving and it was absolutely appetizing ! 

On Saturday, we had Harvest Feast event in the Kingsbrae garden. We had seared scallops and gyoza dumplings. I was with my other three friends giving samples of gyoza. We serve it with avocado purée, spiral vegetables, sesame crunch, soy sauce glaze, pepper miso mayo and bonito flakes. Our food was sold out very quickly ! After we finished cleaning up our booth, we were sent to work in a tent where we garnish 160 multi-course meals. Each course was featured with a different kind of wine that complimented the prepared course. 

Our college was on appetizer, we prepared breads and cold appetizer. We only did soup at school, it was our first time to prepare a cold appetizer. We had pork rillettes terrine, served with fruit nut crackers, micro greens, onion jam, cilantro oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard and aïoli. Rossmount was working on soup. They made squash soup with cheese sauce, pumpkin seed oil. Kingsbrae was on main course that day and the had duck breast with pomme croquette filled with foie gras, brussel sprouts, pea purée, beet oil. Chef Nicole at the Algonquin was making a feast of chocolate for desserts with caramel sauce, berry jam and physalis.

 It was one of the best weekend that I have had with my friends. We were preparing food together, all getting tired but having fun. We gathered for a drink both on Friday and Saturday after service. I am looking forward to more events like this !

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Up left: Mini Éclair Below left: Paris Brest Below right: Mini cream puff

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Bakeshop Lab

On Tuesday, October 3rd, in our baking lab, we were instructed to make éclair paste and pastry cream. It was a fun day and I received a few comments from my chef on plate presentation which I will recite in details below. To be honest, desserts are not my thing, especially those involve baking, because they require the exact amount of ingredients, baking time and temperature; so it’s easy to screw up. My puff pastry was overcooked because I kept it in the proofing for too long and it didn’t double in size because my other friends opened the oven many times to put theirs in so the heat was released, which made the paste unable to rise. We were assigned to do three flavored pastry cream: vanilla, chocolate and maple. My cream had a smooth texture while some of my friends, their cream was a bit lumpy and starchy because the cornstarch was not cooked completely and they didn’t stir the mixture constantly. I also made a French meringue to garnish my mini éclair. In the book, the recipe calls for two quantities of sugar, however I only used the first one as I didn’t want my meringue to be too sweet, and the texture still turned out to be good and I blowed the meringue with a cooking torch, I accidentally burnt a piece of parchment paper but was lucky enough to not set fire to the kitchen. For my dessert presentation, my chef commented that I had overcrowded the plate. Instead of spreading the chantilly cream then put berries and orange zest on it , I could have piped a chantilly rosette with berries surrounding it and left more spare space for the plate. In addition, I garnished roasted almonds on both the paris brest and cream puff, chef said that different pastries on a plate shouldn’t be presented identically, I could just simply dipped the cream puff top in ganache and dusted it with icing sugar. Overall, there was a lot to do on that day but I then realized that baking was not as hard as I imagined !