The Pro Chef, 2013 July by The Pro Chef Middle East

MIDDLE EAST ISSUE 17 JULY 2013

It’s tea time! Pastry chefs unchained It’s toy time

Favourite gadgets revealed

It’s travel time

Patagonian produce and more

Contents

UP FRONT

FEATURES

CHEFS

LEISURE

EDITORIAL Is waste endemic in F&B? what are the solutions?

BOOK SHELF The Pacojet 2 delivers great dishes from world-ranking chefs in its recipe book..

OUT AND ABOUT A busy month with Aperitif a la française, a New Zealand lamb competition, BurJuman’s Young Chef and more!

ROUND TABLE Pastry Chefs emerge from their kitchens to give us an insight into the state of the market. Is it still sweet?

SKILLS MLA’s Tarek Ibrahim provides some exemplary tips on dealing with lamb.

TRAVEL The road leads to the end of the world, but Patagonia is full of surprising tastes, incredible produce and stunning scenery.

THE HOTEL SHOW Looking ahead with Event Directot Christine Davidson.

THE LAST WORD What are chefs hot for in the States? Grilling, of course.

THE EGGS FACTOR Pastry Chef Wolfgang Wagenleitner’s mean an interesting list of contents.

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SKILLS You’ve bought it, you’ve stored it, but how do you cut various types of cheese? With the help of USDEC, we ﬁnd out. DULSE It tripped up the celebrity chefs on Chopped, but do you know what to do with product?

TOQUE TO ME No longer an enfant, but is he still ‘terrible’? Say hello to Gordon Ramsay, the only chef to have scared your editor in an interview....

CHEF TOYS What’s your go-to gadget in the kitchen? We ﬁnd out from a handful of chefs.

FACE TO FACE He may be a celebrity chef, but Michel Rostang is down to earth and committed to quality. From Australia, ‘Blood Sugar’ author Michael Moore talks healthy eating. And we say ‘welcome back’ to Colin Clague, now preparing a ‘modern Ottoman’ kind of surprise for Dubai.

APOLOGY Last issue, we printed an unproofed page that mispelled the names of both Chef Olivier Biles and Reﬂets par Pierre Gagnaire. We’re sorry for that.

July 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

UP FRONT / editors letter

Wasting away Don’t worry, I’m not going to get all eco-warrior on you but two recent news items from the States prompt some thoughts. First up is a report from the the National Resource Defense Council which estimates that about 40% of all food in the United States goes uneaten. That equates to around 20 pounds of food wasted per person each month - just imagine the size of some of them if they managed to eat it all! The main reason, the report’s authors Phil Lempert believes, is that “they buy more food than they need or can be used before the expiration date”. Industry and government programmes are under way to attack the problem as defined by the EPA’s Food Waste Recovery Hierarchy that includes first reducing the waste, then feeding people, animals, industrial uses, composting and, finally, landfill or incineration. Domestic spoilage rates are high here too in the Middle East, driven largely by the effects of heat and storage in the food chain. I can’t be the only one who finds green bananas reduced to blackened mush after just a few short days when, back in the UK, they would have survived happily for a couple of weeks as a minimum. Of course, the problems of domestic kitchens are very different from those of a professional one. Proper stock management, walk-ins and so on obviate wastage there, but it’s clearly seen as in-built into the output strategy. To an audience accustomed to excess and in a culture that is founded on generosity and sharing, it’s a brave chef who would scrimp on an all-day buffet or an Iftar spread. Many have taken to preparing food in smaller batches but too few are dedicated to recycling kitchen waste so that at least some benefit derives from it. And the second news item that caught my attention? The state of trash on most plane flights as large amounts of empty scans, plastic bottles and cups, as well as discarded newspapers and food - all of which could be salvaged - end up as garbage. A new report by non-profit environmental group Green America estimates that airlines in the US alone throw away enough cans every year to build 58 new Boeing 747s and that each passenger leaves behind 1.3 pounds of trash - 75% of which is recyclable, but only 20% of which is actually recycled. This might not be obviously related to your F&B operation, but how assiduous are your kitchen and serving staff about recycling?

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Your guests deserve the best.

UP FRONT / out and about

A decade long celebration Chefs and other food lovers gathered at the Westin to celebrate French gastronomy in the annual Aperitif a la française, organised by Sopexa. From oysters to cheese, chocolates to macaroons, wine to beer, the annual Aperitif a la française at the Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort was hugely enjoyed by the capacity crowd of chefs, trade and dedicated food lovers who nibbled, sipped and talked food and French all evening. The event was organised by Sopexa and supported by the French Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry with the aim of promoting French gastronomy. Similar events in June are held worldwide, as part of France’s strategic plan to increase food sector exports. Last year, quality food and beverage products imported into the UAE from France were 50% up from 2010.

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

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out and about / UP FRONT

PARTICIPATING COMPANIES Food: A la Lorraine - jams Andros - fruit Belle de Cancale - oysters Boncolac - bread Bongrain - cheese and dairy Bridor - bakery and pastry DGF - fine food Elle&Vire - dairy Eurovanille - vanilla Gaillard - truffles Grain d’Or Gel - bakery Jean Rose - delicatessen Lescure - dairy Les Freres Marchand - cheese Lor’ Truffe - truffles Maille - fine food Maison Francis Miot - jams and honey Marguerite - pastry Mons - cheese Parcs Saint Kerber - oysters PatisFrance - pastry Paysan Breton - dairy Percheron - condiments Princesses de Kermancy - oysters RegiLait - dairy Sabarot - fine food Salaison Bentz - delicatessen and salted meat Saline d’Einville - salt Sicoly - fruit products Soulard - foie gras Valrhona - chocolate Weiss - chocolate Beverages: 1664 - beer Badoit - water Brasseurs de Lorraine - beer Chateau d’Aumerade - wine Domaine Laroche - wine Domaine Ott - wine Elixia - lemonade Evian - water Pure - sodas Teisseire - syrups Veuve de Vernay - wine Catering: Traiteur de Paris Non food: Arcoroc - tableware Bragard - uniforms Chef & Sommelier - tableware Comatec - packaging Outsign - equipment

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July 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

UP FRONT / out and about

Gourmet delight from Belgium There's another option for pastry chefs on the market with the introduction by Masterbaker of the Belgium Gourmet chocolate brand. Famed Belgian chocolatier David Austraete - who trained at Patisserie Bogaert in Brussels, Ecole Gerard in Luxembourg and Lenotre in Paris - held a one hour masterclass of chocolate techniques at JW Marriott Marquis and then invited the capacity audience of pastry chefs to sample an all-chocolate buffet created by himself and the hotel's Executive Pastry Chef Herwig Knapen and his team. The event marked the launch by Masterbaker of the range of professional couverture chocolate in the UAE, extending the company's offerings of baking products. "By introducing a premium brand that is very reasonably priced, we are simply ensuring that hotels, restaurants, cafes and chocolatiers in this country can deliver crowdpleasing products at competitive prices," said Ronnie Khajotia, CEO of Masterbaker. Belgium Gourmet is now available as dark chocolate (53% cocoa), white chocolate rondos and milk chocolate rondos (32% cocoa). The products are sourced from Dawn Foods and developed by Uniﬁne Belgium, one of Europe's leading specialists in value-added pastry ingredients.

Made of iron? The challenge was to ﬁnd an Iron Bartender, according to Baqer Mohebi and Teisseire for the second annual Teisseire International Bartender Showdown 2013. Most such competitions test knowledge of classic cocktails or individual ﬂair, but the Iron Bartender needs 'the full package'

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

and so the competition also tested other basics of bartending such as speed, accuracy and knowledge as well as entertainment while mixing the drinks, speed of making multiple drinks, accuracy of the pours and overall knowledge of the products and bar service. A shortlist of ten outlets were chosen for the UAE round: Mahiki, Buddha Bar, Radisson Royal, Royal China, Patiala Restaurant, Y-Bar, Studio F,

Cavalli Club, Meydan Beach Hotel & Amwaj Rotana. Other finalists from Warsaw, Prague, Moscow and Paris came to Dubai for the finals, which involved creating an original cocktail based on a Teisseire syrup. Overall winners were Alexey Balashov from Moscow in first place; Rachelle Escalona from Royal China, Dubai in second place; and Matthias Aso from Paris in third place.

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UP FRONT / out and about

A taste of new Zealand

Young winners For a whole week, young chefs showed off their talents and competed in the BurJuman Junior Chef Competition as part of the second annual BurJuman World Food Fest. Teams from Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek and JW Marriott Dubai performed well. BurJuman Junior Chef 2013 is Chef Rahil Rathod from Radisson Blu Hotel and the hotel’s team again enjoyed the most wins across the competition’s 16 categories, including a win again for Best Effort by an Individual Establishment. The award for Best Effort by a Corporation went to Carlson Rezidor. Open Showpiece saw the talented Chef JPKM Jayaweera from Nad Al Sheba Private Club awarded a Gold with Distinction - a rare distinction indicating a perfect score of 100/100 points. For a week, 500 of the UAE's most talented young chefs from 65 organisations fought to claim gold, silver and bronze medals up for grabs in each category as well as the coveted title of BurJuman Junior Chef 2013, presented in co-operation with Emirates Culinary Guild. 23-year old Chef Rathod accumulated the highest overall score after an impressive performance in the Emirati Cuisine, Live Chicken and 3 Course Static rounds. After winning, he said: "The competition is a real test of our skills in so many ways and it's highly rewarding to see my

efforts appreciated by the judging panel.” The BurJuman Junior Chef of the Year 2013 concluded the second edition of Treat - The BurJuman World Food Fest which, for 13 days, saw a free masterclasses, cooking demos, audience competitions, rewards and free samplings. JW Marriott Hotel Dubai's team of six young chefs also participated and all of them walked away with medals, despite being of differing culinary skill levels. They created Arabic mezzah, desserts, three-course gourmet dinner menus, practical cookery skills and a freestyle open showpiece made out of edible food material. The best result came from Chef de Partie Richard Charlie who won a silver medal in Practical Cookery - Chicken. Bhavesh Rawal, director of culinary, JW Marriott Hotel Dubai said: "I'm delighted that the team has been exemplary ambassadors of the hotel, and culinary excellence that we continuously strive for. It is great to see all six chefs awarded medals in their categories, following tough competition from fellow chefs."

"The competition is a real test of our skills in so many ways and it's highly rewarding to see my efforts appreciated by the judging panel.” - Chef Rahil Rathod, BurJuman Junior Chef of the Year 2013

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

Anna Jentgen from The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management was named as the Champion Chef in the Taste New Zealand Chef Competition after a tough day long contest. The competition was open to senior executive chefs across the UAE, judged by a panel headed by Chef Uwe Micheel, President of the Emirates Culinary Guild. Jentgen emerged as final winner from 60 chefs who entered the competition and won an allexpenses paid, two-week business and leisure trip to New Zealand, Consul General and Trade Commissioner Steve Jones commented: “New Zealand’s natural advantages were clearly evident in Anna’s winning menu, which combined Maori Lakes lamb raised on abundant fresh, green pastures and seafood sustainably harvested from the clear waters of the Pacific and Southern Oceans.” Also on the judging panel were Michael Kitts, Director of Culinary Arts at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management; Reif Othman, Executive Chef, Zuma; Tom Urquhart, Dubai One presenter; Samantha Wood of the respected Foodiva blog and food journalist; and private chef Andy Campbell. The competition was organised to raise the profile of high quality New Zealand products to participating chefs, buyers, food service and retail industry leaders. it was supported by MMI, The Emirates Culinary Guild, Miele Gallery, The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management and Madinat Jumeirah.

“New Zealand cuisine is largely driven by local ingredients and seasonal variations. The country is known to yield produce from land and sea which is widely used in most cuisines." - Steve Jones, New Zealand Trade Commissioner and Consul General in Dubai

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development that will take place on the opening day of the show. With the continuing growth of the hospitality sector, we all know the problems of ﬁnding the right staff. We are bringing together 15 top hotels in Dubai to allow people to meet HR and Recruitment Managers face-toface in one place. We think that’s a concept that will grow extraordinarily in future shows but it’s starting well, with Fairmont The Palm, JA Resorts, Hyatt Hotels, JW Marriott Marquis and Emaar Hospitality amongst others already committed.

Welcome to the show! The Hotel Show, now in its 14th year is one of the most important business events within the hospitality, hotel and tourism industries for the MENA region. Although the show does not cover food, there’s still a lot to attract F&B professionals, says Christine Davidson, Exhibition Director at dmg::events. What’s your overview of the show being held September 28-30th at DWTC? We believe The Hotel Show is already a key meeting place for leading suppliers and buyers. This year’s show, as well as reﬂecting the strength of the region's robust hospitality industry and being the largest hospitality event of its kind, will act as a barometer for the entire sector. To cater for this, we’re expanding our content programme to cover all the the renewed conﬁdence and activity in the sector. For F&B professionals, I’d say this: we don’t have a focus on food at the show, but there are major equipment suppliers and a

number of HORECA companies exhibiting. We’re a broad based supply show and, like any other business sector within the hospitality industry, F&B is part of a greater whole that needs to be aware and on top of general trends - both in terms of suppliers and, perhaps more importantly, in the conference sessions and networking opportunities. In terms of new activity, what would you point to speciﬁcally as interesting for F&B professionals? The Hotel Show Career Day is an exciting new

And conference sessions? We're still finetuning the sessions to reflect a rapidly changing industry! But some key sessions that should be of interest to your readership include sessions on social media, so critical these days both for marketing and for responding to customers. We’ve seen here in Dubai over the past few months how a food blogger’s comments quickly brought bad publicity after a careless response from the restaurant concerned, so I think it critical for anyone involved in F&B or, indeed, other parts of a hotel’s activities to understand and take advantage of social media. We’re also putting together a couple of sessions on the African market which, I think, will impact us here. Plus there’s going to be lots of discussion about 2020 and the huge opportunities that will being to this sector. There’s also a session with key executve chefs on food waste especially during the holy month which I think will be fascinating. Clearly, The Hotel Show is a work in progress. What do you have planned for the future? Well, apart from our flagship show which is the only trade-only hotel show in the region, we’re also soft launching The Leisure Show at the 2013 event. This is a very interesting sector and enjoys huge synergy with The Hotel Show. This year’s introductory event will be content driven and cover the huge number of leisure projects in the pipeline, including Expo 2020. Investors, developers, government, suppliers and global leisure brands will be invited to use this forum to meet and discuss opportunities and collaborations. And following on from this we have Hospitality 360 to be held next March in Singapore that will have both equipment, design and beverage focus and will, I hope, attract lots of people from here in the Gulf. And finally, for now, next April, there’s the second edition of The Hotel Show Saudi Arabia in Jeddah, which will combine both equipment and food suppliers. We have a very strong brand to develop. Watch this space!

“This year’s show, as well as reﬂecting the strength of the region's robust hospitality industry and being the largest hospitality event of its kind, will act as a barometer for the entire sector.” www.cpimediagroup.com

July 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

UP FRONT / the eggs factor

New to town After initial training by his pastry chef father, Wolfgang Wagenleitner's abilities have taken him worldwide over nearly three decades, with stints in Japan, Austria, Greece, Switzerland, Thailand and Russia. Newly employed as the Executive Pastry Chef at Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, he answers the question: What's in your fridge, chef?

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

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the eggs factor / UP FRONT

constant search for perfection has taken Executive Pastry Chef Wolfgang Wagenleitner a long way from his childhood in Austria as one of 15 children. His dream dish dates from those days: his mother's mashed potato with sausage goulash! However, as a born traveller, he's always on the look out for new foods and craves authenticity. Learning the elements of pastry from his chef father, he trained in Vienna and then, aged 19, spent his ﬁrst working period abroad, in Japan. His ability also took him to Switzerland, Thailand and back to Austria, via a decade working in Russia.

"Quality is the most important thing, where people can identify us with what we can do.”

He also spent time teaching in Greece after a chef tasted his White chocolate mocha cake. “They hired me because they tasted my cake - they didn’t know who I was,” he recalls. Created nearly 20 years ago, he uses this as his calling card. "I’ve always believed that wherever you go you have to impress ﬁrst. Wherever I go, I bring this ﬁrst.” He joined Jumeirah Zabeel Saray as Executive Pastry Chef, after time spent in Doha as Executive Pastry Chef at the Sharq Village & Spa. His plan in his new position is to specialise in international dessert buffets, plated desserts, molecular elements in pastry, chocolate and big banquet operations.

his fridge? But what's in

mbers and tomatoes, cucu y "I always have ge and mainl eese in my frid ch ily er m al fa th y en Em e and m e I cook at hom ea m ca be fe when I have tim wi y ,m much. In fact we changed enjoys it very ar ago and so ye a er ov st ju according es bl ta vegetarian ge ve h habits. So fres ng pi op we sh r ou idge, as ll as e also in our fr to the season ar . seasonal fruits from reece, olive oil ars living in G ye also e re we th d er An ft "A tchen. must in our ki se in our ee ch m Kalamata is a ea cr a me Philadelphi s are always keep so Other favourite e rich flavour. th t ge eese, if it ch a ell fridge to ar oz M d nice mash an potatoes for a e. bl is availa ch ingredients su ok with Asian e, green uc sa i ill "I also love to co ch ur e, sweet and so urse as oyster sauc Austrian, of co d so on. As an an e ble 24 st la ai av is curry pa n, or ly dark or volk bread, especial tchen! ki e th hours in the fridge when what I have in u yo l tel e t liver m "Now let ever heard abou ay… Have you d, aw an is ria fe st wi y Au m lty in ? It is a specia some back g in dumpling soup br I , wn to my home to whenever I go e. with m e some cheese me that there ar d "A friend told e in Dubai an bl la Vienna avai u yo , st be eir sausages from ! At th purchase them the cheese so em I can’ t wait to th ill gr d em before you should boil th dark bread an only a piece of n he T is s. th elt e m et inside ired to compl ustard is requ some Dijon m meal.

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FEATURES / round table

Back to basics? Too often dismissed by other chefs as they don’t work with sharp knives, clattering pans and stovetop ﬂames, pastry chefs are a key part of any restaurant’s F&B operation. We gathered a group of them together to discuss trends in desserts, the problems they face and the challenges of dealing with multiple allergies amongst their customers.

Julien Laronde Pastry Chef, Ocean View Hotel

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

Tarek Mouriess Executive Chef, Fujairah Rotana

Prashant Sabne Pastry Chef, JW Marriott Marquis

Philippe Agnese Executive Pastry Chef, Atlantis The Palm

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round table / FEATURES

Paul Hayward Resort Executive Pastry Chef, Madinat Jumeirah

Roland Eitzinger Executive Pastry Chef, RafďŹ&#x201A;es Dubai

Achala Sanieewa Weerasinghe Executive Pastry Chef, The Address Downtown

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Keith Taylor Pastry Chef, JW Marriott Dubai

Herwig Knapen Executive Pastry Chef, JW Marriott Marquis

July 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

FEATURES / round table

ith a multinational clientele and a seemingly insatiable demand for all things sweet from both Emiratis and expats, the life of a pastry chef should be easy. However, as we found out, things are not that simple.¶

For those of you who haven’t been in the region for too long, can you sum up your view of what customers want? Philippe Agnese: I’ve worked in a number of properties in Asia, both in Japan and Korea. There, customers want the best - they demand the highest quality not the largest volume. Here, I find that produce quality is not so good so maybe people don’t have such interestin this region in high-end desserts. Herwig Knapen: This isn’t my first time in the Middle East. I’ve worked in ten different properties over the years and here I think customers are easy to please: just provide good quality and add gold leaf! Paul Hayward: And a date!¶ Knapen: I believe customers here have a different taste than other regions. Hayward: For the first few weeks I was here, I was looking hard for trends. I’d been in the US for 15 years and really customer demand is very different here. Everywhere I see beautiful pastries, both traditional and with a modern style, but nobody’s buying anything. In cake boutiques, everything looks amazing. As pastry chefs, we

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

want to create beautiful food but, increasingly, I think guests want home cooking. You know, they’ll gaze at a nice glazed dessert and then buy cheesecake. Roland Eitzinger: We recently refreshed our in-room dining. The most popular dessert choices from guests? Cheesecake and carrot cake! Is this because of the customer mix? Hayward: At the Madinat, we get more European customers but they want American ﬂavours. There’s a shift away from pastries to slices of cake. Cupcakes are still huge, of course, but we’re looking at extending the concept - so, lemon meringue cupcake, for example. End of the day, I want to make what our customers want. Julien Laronde: I worked on a French line of cakes but everybody wants cheesecake. Why can we not come at this with something different? Hayward: In the US, you get baked cheesecake

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FEATURES / round table

and we were serving more of a mousse and getting some complaints. I think everybody is trying to do more modern versions. One thing I did discover is that the Philadelphia cheese sold here has a different one from the American original I’m used to - apparently there are different recipes for it all over the world and that, of course, will change the taste of a cheesecake. Knapen: Yes, the American one you cannot ﬁnd here, I believe. Keith Taylor: It’s certainly different. If people aren’t buying the more elaborate desserts or pastries, why are you still providing them? Hayward: They love the way things look but they don’t buy them. However, you have to offer them. And then I look at the crowds in Starbucks... Tarek Mouriess: I think most of what you’ve all said is absolutely right but let me give you the perspective of someone who’s been here since 1989. I believe we’re at least one step behind here and part of the issue is to do with ingredients. Too often, we’re given second quality ingredients from Europe. What’s your view, Tarek, on the customer mix? Mouriess: It’s cosmopolitan, of course. There’s a very interesting mix but with a very sweet tooth. So what sells? Millefeuille, eclairs, anything with loads of syrup. Arabs tend to have a small range of tastes they go for: chocolate, milk, rice, dates and cheese. We’re hard-headed here and don’t change easily so getting Arabs to eat anything different is challenging. In a sense, it’s about greed desserts and the market is very oriented in particular ways. Hayward: But most of our clients are European.¶ Mouriess: So what is stopping them choosing the elaborate pastries? Is it the price? As chefs, are we structuring the wrong prices? However, look at the amount of chocolate people buy or the kilo upon kilo of baklava. Eitzinger: I remember one customer wanted the same dessert every time he came, for 11 years: sponge cake and custard! The exact same cake, every time. Mouriess: The issue is this. All of us try to create great desserts but then customers will go to an ice cream parlour and happily spend Dhs 120 for a cake! Knapen: You guys are making real points but I’m working in a business hotel. For us, it took a while

“At large banquets in the States, we had to deal with as many as 112 allergies! Sugar and dairy, eggs and gluten, of course, but so many more that I used to have photographs of packaging to show guests what was in some dishes.” - Paul Hayward, Resort Executive Pastry Chef, Madinat Jumeirah 16

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

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Inspiring poets since 1862

FEATURES / round table

to get the mix right and we used to throw away a lot, I’m afraid. What’s your best seller? Knapen: Bread and butter pudding! Laronde: Yes, people want comfort food. Knapen: It’s back to basics. Hayward: I still think that people want quality, that’s fresh and made with love and care. Laronde: We have a high proportion of Arabic clientele. The ﬁrst thing I was told to change when I joined the hotel was to change the cheesecake. It was horrible!

“Let me give you the perspective of someone who’s been here since 1989. I believe we’re at least one step behind here and part of the issue is to do with ingredients. Too often, we’re given second quality ingredients from Europe.” - Tarek Mouriess, Executive Chef, Fujairah Rotana

Has anyone tried camel milk in their desserts? Weerasinghe: I find it very rich... Hayward: I’ve been thinking about a camel milk pannacotta, but would Europeans try it? Do you face different challenges during Ramadan? Knapen: What we offer is very traditional during the month. I remember when I was in Kuwait, we’d offer a dozen different honeys for Iftar. People would pile dry fruit into a bowl and then just cover it with honey, pure honey! Chefs from hot and cold kitchens often talk about supplier problems. Do you find similar problems with the quality of produce? Mouriess: It’s not that we have bad ingredients, but that the quality can be poor. Knapen: In Japan, for example, people are focused on quality and they are ready to pay for it. Here, I haven’t found a supplier who comes to me to sell things properly. Nobody fights for my business. Mouriess: I wonder how much we’re being driven by convenience foods. After all, there’s a feeling in the market that everything now is instant. Knapen: Certainly I’ve found that some ready-mix products are really good. How much is finding the right staff an issue for you all? Hayward: I’ve come from a place where you hired anyone with a pulse! Here, I see people with all kinds of skill levels. Knapen: I’m very disappointed with labour here. You get a Commis 3 wanting promotion to Commis 2 after a few months... Weerasinghe: Yes, that’s true. Knapen: I was shocked. Roland Eitzinger: I’d rather take someone from housekeeping who checks out the pastries and desserts every time he passes. If he’s interested, that’s great. Weerasinghe: It’s better look for a person who cares. Agnese: Unfortunately, there are not that many. Laronde: We need to ask what a Commis 3 here earns. We’re all passionate but what did we earn

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

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FEATURES / round table

in the same position back in Europe? Sabne: I’m afraid passion is not required any more. All of us here are passionate and I think we got there by looking up to chefs who were also passionate. Young chefs now look more for money. I believe it’s our fault - it should be our job to create that passion in the younger chefs. Agnese: But you cannot train passion... Hayward: When you do something new in the kitchen, you see excitement in some chefs’ eyes. You know, when you reach my level, you lose some of your technical skills because the job is more about running a business. Sometimes, to be honest, it’s also like being a therapist! So recuitment is tough? Hayward: There are more positions available than pastry chefs to ﬁll them. With a good resume, a chef will get lots of offers. Basically, there are not enough people coming into the profession. Mouriess: I believe that if you don’t understand pastry, then you’re not a chef. Everything we do is aboiut consistency and accurcy. Hayward: For me, I didn’t want to be a ‘chef’. Doing pastry is what I love. Laronde: Certainly, a pastry chef can run a kitchen better than a chef. Knapen: I think more and more young chefs are thinking that they can’t get to the top as pastry chefs. As a ﬁnal topic, how much do you think pastry chefs should take a lead in providing more healthy food to customers? Knapen: Concern about health is a trend now. As a diabetic, when I eat dessert I just take a pill as well. Agnese: So do many diabetics. Knapen: And, if I’m doing lots of tasting, then I take two pills! What can I do, not taste my dishes? However, we’re not seeing much demand for healthier food. People tend to laugh at health concerns. Hayward: There are alternatives to sugar and other ingredients, of course. I used to use them a lot in the US. However, there are big arguments about the whole gluten issue. Personally, I’ve never met anyone who says gluten will kill. Mouriess: No, but people can get sick for a month! Hayward: Most of the time, it’s more of a discomfort. And many people don’t even know they have an intolerance. At large banquets in the States, we had to deal with as many as 112 allergies! Sugar and dairy, eggs and gluten, of course, but so many more that I used to have photographs of packaging to show guests what

was in some dishes. Mouriess: It’s really only over the last ﬁve years that all this has been an issue here. It was never here before and now it’s huge. Agnese: I think much of thr worry is not because of allergies but because the whole subject is a fad. We get lots of requests to match different diets. Mouriess: It’s a lifestyle choice for many people, I think. Agnese: There’s always the problem of cross-

contamination, especially when a bakery is too small. Weerasinghe: Every day, I’m baking sugar-free cakes! Taylor: We seem ten years behind gluten-free products that we have in the States, but it’s going to catch on. Our thanks to Rafﬂes Dubai for hosting round table and its F&B staff for hospitality.

“We recently refreshed our in-room dining. The most popular dessert choices from guests? Cheesecake and carrot cake!” - Roland Eitzinger, Executive Pastry Chef, Rafﬂes Dubai 20

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

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FEATURES / skills

STEP 1 - 5 Firstly, ďŹ nd the aitch bone (the hip bone) with the tip of your knife and follow it along to outline.

A cut above

Chef Tarek Ibrahim has worked for MLA (Meat & Livestock Australia) since 2006 as a Senior Consultant. He has played a key role in increasing Australian meat brand awareness, building culinary bridges and offering cooking and meat cutting training sessions to young chefs. Here he offers a lamb rump masterclass, focusing on how to cut one from a whole lamb leg.

3 STEP 6 - 9 Next, loosen the cup joint which holds the hip bone with your knife and slide it under the bone to loosen the meat on all sides. Then, with your knife held against the bone, completely remove the bone.

4 22

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skills / FEATURES

MEAT & LIVESTOCK AUSTRALIA

STEP 10 - 13 Find the seam between the rump and its cap (fat) and gently, using small scrapes with the blade of your knife, remove the rump from the rest of the leg.

Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) is a producerowned company whose mission is to deliver world-class services and solutions in partnership with industry and government. Promoting the quality, safety and nutritional value of Australian red meat both domestically and internationally, on behalf of the meat and livestock industry, MLA manages and operates a portfolio of marketing activities aimed at maintaining and increasing demand for Australian meat and livestock. MLA in the Middle East North African region works with retailers, foodservice operators, importers, manufacturers and Australian exporters to maintain and increase the demand for halal red meat and livestock to the region.

12 17 9

13 STEP 14 - 17 Finally, trim off any excess fat and use the rump as required.

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July 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

FEATURES / skills

Making the best of cheese Whatever the variety of cheeses you present in your restaurant or use in dishes, different types need to be handled and ultimately cut in different ways. In conjunction with USDEC (US Dairy Export Council), we offer some solid practical advice for any kitchen.

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skills / FEATURES

hen receiving cheeses in the kitchen, as with any perishable product, it’s important to check the packaging for damage. Have any seals been damaged? Are there signs of seepage or leakage? What is the temperature of the product and delivery truck? If your cheeses are not vacuum sealed or otherwise protected, is there any evidence that other products in the truck leaked on to your product? Most of this is common sense, but needs reinforcement. Once in the kitchen, chefs have the responsibility for quality control. Cheeses need to be rotated on a FIFO (ﬁrst in, ﬁrst out) basis - this is extremely critical for soft-fresh and soft-ripened cheeses. If you do not follow this rule, you are certain to shrink a lot of product. Temperature is the most critical factor in preserving the quality of cheese so keep most cheeses stored under 4C. Humidity is another important aspect of storing cheese. For most cheeses in vacuum packaging, location in the cooler is not critical. But for cheeses that are either soft-ripened, or naturally rinded, it is important to remember that refrigerators are dehydrators as well. Keep these cheeses out of the direct cooler fan, preferably in a covered area, in order to mitigate these effects. Losing water affects the quantity, as well as the quality, of cheeses. If you are storing cheeses longer than one month, it is important to turn

"It is important to physically turn the cheeses over regularly, at least twice a month, to keep natural oils evenly distributed throughout the cheese. This is true of whole wheels and cut pieces."

CUTTING LOAF CHEESE

Type: Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Mozzarella, Muenster, Swiss

Type: Brick, Cream Cheese, Edam, Havarti, Monterey Jack, Muenster, Swiss

Note: Break 20 kg blocks down as appropriare. 1

Use: Paring knife Chef’s knife Stationary wire platform cutter Fish line cutter Note: Square loaves yield different shaped pieces than rectangular loaves.

Molds are naturally occuring organisms in the atmosphere and, despite your best intentions and sanitation, molds can easily show up on your cheeses. If the mold is the normal greenish-bluish mold often found on cheeses of different varieties, you can safely trim the mold off by removing about 1 cm of cheese behind the mold. Change the wrap as well. This remaining piece of cheese can be safely eaten, but once it has molded, it is prone to mold again, so use it quickly, by reducing the price or sampling it. If the molds you encounter are unusual looking, either their colour (pink, or black) or their appearance, discard the cheese.

them over, at least twice a month, to redistribute the oils, which migrate with gravity. Another concern is cross-contamination. When storing cheeses, it is impossible for most people to segregate their blue and soft-ripened cheeses to separate coolers. The molds on these cheeses will spread, if not contained carefully. Keep these cheeses tightly wrapped and as far from each other

CUTTING BLOCK CHEESE

Use: Paring knife Fish line cutter Stationary wire platform cutter

CHEESE MOLDS

CUTTING SOFT-RIPENED CHEESE

CUTTING WAXED WHEEL CHEESE

Type: Brie, Camembert

Type: Cheddar Daisies, Cheddar, Fontina, Gouda

Use: Paring knife Chef’s knife Brie knife

Use: Double-handled cheese knife Paring knife Chef's knife

Note: Once you cut soft-ripened cheeses, they will not ripen as well. It is best to cut the whole wheel once you start. Until you cut into these cheeses, leave them in the special wrap in which they were shipped, this wrap allows the cheese to breath and continue to ripen. 1

Note: For waxed wheels, score through the wax with a paring knife first. Leave the wax on for cheese displays.

6 3

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July 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

FEATURES / skills

and the other cheeses as convenient. If possible, keep these cheeses in secondary containment, like a sealable plastic bin, to avoid any possible problems. It is also critical to follow the sanitation procedures to the letter when dealing with moldripened cheeses. Cutting cheese This is not a complex process but different sorts of cheese need to be kept in mind. Here are important guidelines to keep in mind when cutting or slicing cheese: Wear foodservice gloves to discourage mold growth. This prevents leaving fingerprints (particularly important with soft-ripened cheeses like Brie and Camembert) and prevent skin acids from affecting the cheese. Never cut more cheese than you can wrap in 1530 minutes maximum. This will help prevent the cheese from molding and drying out. If you are wrapping cheese to be displayed plastic film do so immediately to keep air out and moisture in. Check all seams to ensure a tight fit and sealed coverage. If cutting cheese for fairly immediate use, it is best to wrap cheeses in wax paper or butcher paper, as plastic wrap has distinct odours and particularly softer cheeses can pick up flavours and aromas from the wrap. Do not reuse plastic film! A fine layer of oil from the cheese will prevent the wrap from clinging properly a second time, allowing air access.

CUTTING BLUE WHEEL CHEESE

CUTTING HARD WHEEL CHEESE

Type: Blue, Gorgonzola

Type: Asiago, Parmesan, Pepato, Romano

Use: Paring knife, Fish line cutter, Pull wire cutter Note: Sanitise cutting boards and tools before and after cutting blue-veined cheeses. 2

CUTTING CYLINDER CHEESE

CUTTING CHEESE PORTIONS

Type: Colby, Provolone, Smoked Gouda

Type: Any firm cheese Use: Cheese cuber

Use: Paring knife, Chef's knife, Double-handled cheese knife, Fish line cutter

Use: Paring knife, Double-handled cheese knife, Hand wire, Parmesan knife

Note: Before cutting, score through the wax or rind with a paring knife. 1

3 3

Note: The first cut from the cuber forms slabs that can be cut in half to form small triangles. The second cut on a cuber produces sticks - rotate the slabs away from you to do this. The third cut from the cuber will then produce portion-controlled cubes.

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skills / FEATURES

Wear foodservice gloves to discourage mold growth. This prevents leaving fingerprints (particularly important with softripened cheeses like Brie and Camembert) and prevents skin acids from affecting the cheese. It is important to physically turn the cheeses over regularly, at least twice a month, to keep natural oils evenly distributed throughout the cheese.This is true of whole wheels and cut pieces. After cutting dense cheeses like Cheddar and Gouda, draw the flat of the knife over the cut surface of the cheese to close up exposed pores and prevent further moisture loss. Blue cheeses and Gorgonzolas may arrive to your location in vapour barrier bags (commonly called Cryovac) that keep virtually all air out. The molds will go to sleep under those conditions; so these cheeses are almost white when first opened. This will change rapidly as the cheeses are cut and wrapped. Keep the exposed time for these cheeses down to a minimum, as excessive mold development will adversely affect the appearance. It is important to follow cutting diagrams until you are familiar with the proper ways to cut each shape to minimise waste or odd shapes which are more difficult to sell. Always use the proper tools for the type of cheese with which you are working. This will help ensure proper procedures as well as better safety.

THE RIGHT TOOLS The tools for cutting and slicing cheese vary depending on the density of the cheese. Cheese knives 1 Double-handled cheese knife. Also known as a double-handled cheese, this knife is used for cutting large blocks, wheels or cylinders of semi-soft to hard cheeses. This knife reduces the incidence of injury associated with using a knife too small for the job. 2 Case cutter/Package opening knife. Whether it is a case cutter or a small paring knife, be sure to use a separate tool to open boxes, plastic wrap or foil that covers the cheese to avoid cross-contamination. 3 Paring knife. Essential for any kitchen, this is used on all smaller pieces of cheese, for serving or trimming. Available in a variety of sizes and shapes, this knife is the most used piece of equipment in your arsenal, so choose one that ﬁts your hand and style. 4 Parmesan knife. Used as part of a set for splitting a wheel of hard grating cheese, like parmesan. Also used to break off chunks of hard cheese for serving. 5 Chef's knife. The most versatile knife in the kitchen, used for almost any cutting job. 6 Soft cheese knife. Serrated, ﬂexible knife with cut-away style blade for cutting soft and soft-ripened cheeses. The serrations cut the rind while the cut-away metal face

reduces the area to which the soft cheese may stick. The typical two-pronged knife tip is for serving the cheese after cutting. Cheese plane. An ideal serving tool for any semi-soft to ﬁrm cheese, delivering a paper thin slice. This is the best tool for sampling as it delivers a small sample with a big surface area for ﬂavour, while sealing the body of the cheese each time it is used. Spreader. Used for soft cheeses and spreads.

Cheese wires 1 Platform/Pull wire cutter. Ideal tool for large volume production. Works well with all cheeses through semi-ﬁrm, not recommended for the harder grana-type cheeses. 2 Fish line cutters. Great for breaking down 20 kg blocks. Also for cutting soft cheeses, like cream cheese, brie or blue, as it leaves a clean edge. Fish lines do not kink or break as frequently as wires, and if they do break, new knots can be tied easily. They are also easy to clean and can replace cheese wires for many tasks. 3 Cheese cuber. Excellent for portioning cheese. 4 Hand wires. Available in varying lengths and strengths, these are ideal for breaking down larger pieces of ﬁrm to hard cheese. Care must be used not to kink the lines, as this renders them prone to breakage.

PHOTOS AND ILLUSTRATIONS COURTESY: WISCONSIN MILK MARKETING BOARD.

Information kindly supplied by the US Dairy Export Council.

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July 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

FEATURES / ingredient

The dulse of life Dulse is a red alga that grows on the northern coasts of the Atlantic and Paciﬁc oceans. It is a well-known snack food. In Iceland, it has been an important source of ﬁbre throughout the centuries. A somewhat acquired taste, it is full of health-giving properties.

he ﬁrst record of dulse as a food source dates back 1,400 years with an account of monks harvesting it. It is easily gathered from rocks, its possible 50cm length being held in place by a single root. It is is similar to another seaweed known as dilsea but is more leathery. It grows around the middle of the intertidal zone (between high and low tide)

to depths of 20 metres or more in sheltered and exposed shores. As a food, dulse is a good source of minerals and vitamins compared with other vegetables, since it contains all trace elements needed by human and has a high protein content. It is commonly harvested and used in Ireland, Iceland, Atlantic Canada and the Northeast United States both as food (human and livestock) and

Dulse is a clinically proven antioxidant, protein source and plant-based source of iodine and potassium. medicine. It can be eaten directly off the rocks but is more commonly sun dried and then used as flakes or ground to a powder as a flavour enhancer. In Iceland it is eaten with butter, but it can also be pan fried quickly into chips, baked in the oven covered with cheese or simply microwaved briefly. It can also be used in soups, sandwiches and salads, or added to bread.

Quinoa and dulse salad Ingredients 250g quinoa 500 ml water 1g salt 250g thin green beans, trimmed 30 ml extra-virgin olive oil 10 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice 1/2 English cucumber, julienned 125g dulse fronds or 60g dulse ﬂakes 2 green onions, chopped black pepper to taste carrot curls

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

Method 1 Drain and rinse quinoa, then cook in boiling salted water for 15 minutes until grains are tender but still crunchy. Rinse in cold water then drain and set aside. 2 Blanch beans in boiling water until bright green but still crisp. Rinse in cold water, then drain and set aside. 3 Combine oil and lemon juice and blend with a whisk. Add quinoa, beans, cucumber, dulse, and green onions. Gently toss together until evenly mixed. Season and serve garnished with carrot curls.

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toque to me / CHEFS

“Oh no! It’s raw!” For a Scottish chef, it’s ironic that Gordon Ramsay’s biggest disappointment was probably the failure of his restaurant Amaryllis in Glasgow. Not that the rest of his life hasn’t been beset by drama. We look at the iconic TV chef whose restaurants gather Michelin stars with ease.

is restaurants hold 14 Michelin stars between them but, to most people, Gordon Ramsay is that shouty and sweary chef on Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares. Still, he must be doing something right - his current net worth is over $30m, despite financial shocks to his global empire over the last few years. His childhood was not the happiest - he’s described it as “hopelessly itinerant” as his family moved continually thanks to the failure of his alcoholic and violent father. He moved out of the family home at the age of 16 and look forward to a career as a professional footballer. Injuries led him to the kitchen instead and he studied at Technical College in hotel management, a decision he has described as “an accident, a complete accident”. After early jobs, he moved to London aged 20, ending up working for Marco Pierre White at Harvey’s, a tough gig that he survived for nearly three years. Instead of shifting to France, White encouraged him to work for Albert Roux at Le Gavroche before he moved to Paris to work with Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon for three years. Returning to London, he became head chef at La Tante Claire before White set him up in Aubergine, which won its first Michelin star 14 months later, followed by a second. In 1998, Ramsay opened his own restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, with the help of his father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson, gaining its third Michelin star in 2001. Then the flood gates opened with Petrus, Amaryllis, Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s, Verre, the Connaught and other properties in Tokyo, New York City, Ireland, Canada, Los Angeles, Paris and Las Vegas. He also branched out into gastropubs and consultancy. However, since 2008, cracks have appeared in the empire with proteges Marcus Wareing and Jason Atherton resigning and CEO of Gordon Ramsay Holdings, father-in-law Chris Hutcheson, leaving under a cloud. 1998 marked Ramsay’s first TV work with two fly-on-the-kitchen-wall documentaries, followed by a raft of high-profile shows such as Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and Hell’s Kitchen. Larger American versions followed. The future? More TV, more restaurants, more books, more intensity and, without a doubt, more search for perfection.

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“I’ve always sort of knocked vegetarians and vegans for missing out on the most amazing ﬂavour you can get from meat. But you can see why so many people change instantly.” July 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

CHEFS / chefs toys

I can’t do without it!

We all know chefs love playing with new tools in the kitchen - at least when they have time - but ask a handful of them what their ‘go-to’ gadget is and you get a surprising limited range of answers! What would you have replied in response to the question? Would you have gone beyond the old favourites?

Uwe Micheel Director of Kitchens, Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek and President, Emirates Culinary Guild The most obvious is my knife or knives - we need good quality knives and need to treat them with care. Apart from that, I would think of the hand blender - a great help for sauces, soups and foam.

Willi Elsener MD F&B Division, Bespoke Concepts

Sanjay Nayak

I love ﬂavours and my main gadget is my BBQ with real charcoal! - as it is so versatile and also instills fantastic ﬂavours in any type of food. It is amazing what can be done with it.

Executive Chef, Copthorne Hotel Sharjah My favourite kitchen gadget? We cannot work without a chef's knife because we use it for almost everything, but over a period of time chefs have more and more supporting kitchen tools to make our tasks easier. Some of my favourites are a salad spinner, a slicer, a pepper mill and a can opener. Last but not least, what I always like to keep with me is a thermometer.

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

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chef toys / CHEFS

Nicolas Smalberger Executive Chef, JA Resorts & Hotel Thermomix is a kitchen gadget, though that oversimplifies a kitchen machine that is not only a food-processor, but one that also weighs, cooks, chops, crushes, emulsifies, whips, mixes, steams, blends, kneads, grinds simmers, grates and mills! It also practically cleans itself. One could make soup, bread, stir-fry, ice-cream, pasta, rice, yogurt, butter, hazelnut-chocolate spread, pizza dough, rice milk, soy milk, salads, dumplings, steamed fish, meatballs, custards, sauces, baby foods, boiled eggs, poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, mascarpone cheese, juices, cocktails, mayonnaise, pat√©, ketchup, mashed potatoes, mousse, fish cakes, vegetarian meals, raw foods, gluten-free recipes, sorbet, and so much more. All in all it’s an amazing multitasking tool to have in both industrial and home kitchens.

Robbie Stokes Executive Club Chef, Al Badia Golf Club, Intercontinental Dubai Festival City

Jack Brennan Executive Chef, Chef Innovation I always go for the sous vide machine. You can create fabulous dishes to the exact cooking temperature that you require. You can lengthen the shelf life of items, stop discolouring and create a more organised fridge space with butchery and ﬁsh items! It is also great for portion control and smoother service - for example using beef cheeks, you can bag them up three at a time into each individual small bag with a little glaze and warm them up in a water bath when the order comes on.

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My top five kitchen gadgets start with a Pacojet. It’s not new on the scene but has many uses and makes some of the best ice creams and flavoured oils possible. You just need to know how to use it correctly otherwise fixing it frequently costs a lot of money! A Peugeot pepper mill is an essential gadget for me as I can’t stand using or buying powdered pepper. Freshly milled black pepper has a much better flavour but any other brand of peppermill will only last for months maybe even weeks - I’ve tried a lot and keep going back to Peugeot. A digital timer is essential for all busy chefs, especially during service time as, when it gets really busy, a mistake with cooking meat or fish can cause a big backlog. A microplane for finishing sauces with zests or tonka bean on a hot chocolate fondant. Finally, a diamond steel for keeping an edge on knives.

July 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

CHEFS / face to face

The inheritance of food A version of this interview by Editor Sudeshna Ghosh appeared in CPI’s sister publication, BBC Good Food Middle East.

Gastronomy is something of a family heirloom in the Rostang household. But, that didn’t stop ﬁfth generation chef and owner of multiple Michelin starred restaurants, Michel Rostang is still humble and still passionate about delivering classic French food with modern twists.

e comes from a family of restaurateurs, so becoming a chef was an inevitability for Michel Rostang. As he himself admits, “I can’t imagine not being a chef. It’s natural, I’ve been living and breathing food since I was a baby.” With seven restaurants – including one of the original three celebrity outlets at Atlantis The Palm - and over 30 years of cooking under his belt, many might say it’s time for him to enjoy the retired life. But the passion and energy reﬂected in his intense, yet friendly, blue eyes tell a different story. However, Michel ably aided by his two daughters Sophie and Caroline in the management of his restaurants is far from hanging up his apron. He is still very much a hands-on cook in the kitchen – a refreshing change from some other celebrity chefs

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

who lend little to their restaurants other than the name – his food is as much a work of art (his desserts, for example, rightfully come initialled with pastilles saying MR) as they are indulgent for the tastebuds. And the reason for this seems simple – he is driven more by his love for food than the celebrity aspect of being a top chef, by a nononsense, traditional approach to food rather than unnecessary gimmickry and this comes through clearly when he speaks. Your food has been described in the media as being classical and traditional. How do you see it yourself? My way of food is traditional. My food doesn’t have more than three tastes in a plate – when

there are too many flavours, I cannot recognise it. I prefer to have two, three, or even just one strong taste, which you should be able to identify blindly. You are known for celebrating ingredients and seasonality in your cooking. Would you say that is fundamental to your culinary philosophy? Absolutely, food should be of the season. Take truffles, for example. If you eat something everyday, it makes you blasé. It gives you pleasure to find something after a gap! You have been credited with bringing bistrostyle dining into French gastronomy. What was your thought process behind doing this? Yes, a lot of chefs are doing bistro style in France

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face to face / CHEFS

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CHEFS / face to face

Black trufﬂe sandwich (Croque au sel) Serves 6

Ingredients: 180g black trufﬂe 200g half-salted butter 12 slices of sourdough bread bunch of rocket

Method: 1 Spread the half-salted butter generously on the slices of bread.

Cut the truffles in 2-3 cm large slices. Lay them on six slices of bread. Close-up the sandwiches. Wrap them in cling film and then refrigerate for two days at least. When ready to serve, remove the cling film wrapping. Lay the sandwich on a non-stick pie plate in the centre of the oven under the grill. Brown it for three to four minutes on each side, turning it around a few times. Serve hot with rocket salad.

now. I was the first one to do it, 26 years ago! It was a challenge then to change the mindset of people. Basically, the idea is, you get the same quality of product as you would in a gastronomy restaurant, but the ambience is more casual, friendly and prices are lower. This style of dining is becoming more popular, as nowadays no one has the time, nobody has a jacket to wear to a restaurant! The ambience and décor is important for relaxed dining, as only 50% of a restaurant’s success is food. In a bistro, you need one chef to make a plate, but in a gastronomy restaurant, you need five. Speaking of modernity, what is your opinion on molecular gastronomy? According to me, in France there are two cuisines – the good and the bad. I cook what I love to eat. Molecular gastronomy is an experience, but it’s not to my taste. If you make something it should be real. Food shouldn’t be produced in a lab. Most celebrity chefs today seem more occupied with TV work and so on rather than cooking. What’s your view on that? All the trappings of being a celebrity chef – it is not my way to do it. I know it is important to be in the media, but it is not that important for me, personally. I have nothing against TV chefs however. To each his own. How would you describe your relationship with food? It’s simple – good food is good life. I’d rather not eat, than eat bad food. You don’t always need expensive ingredients – a sandwich can make a great culinary experience! So, what would be your ultimate comfort food? For me, Sunday night is a roast chicken and pomme puree. I come from the mountains, so I’ve grown up eating a lot of fish from the lakes and enjoy cooking with cheese and game too. And fondue! What is the secret to French cooking? There are three rules. The first rule is good product. The second rule is good product and the third rule is good product! I’m a big believer in being a locavore and eating local and regional produce.

Chocolate custard cream Serves 4 Ingredients: 125g dark chocolate (52 % cocoa) 500ml half-skimmed milk 85g sugar 1 egg + 4 yolks Method: 1 Crush the chocolate with a knife. Boil the milk. Add the sugar and the crushed

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

2 3

chocolate to it. Mix well and bring to the boil again to make sure the chocolate is correctly melted. Let it cool and refrigerate overnight. The next day, blend the egg and the yolks into the chocolate cream. Let it rest for another six hrs. Preheat the oven to 90C. Strain the chocolate cream through a funnel or a sieve and pour it directly into four ramekins in a bainmarie. Cook them in the oven for around 50 minutes. Let them cool and then refrigerate for four or ﬁve hours before serving.

How hard or easy is it to achieve this in your Dubai restaurant? We are also looking at using more local produce there, but I think the care of the food has to be better – I was surprised at the conditions at the ﬁsh market, it needs air conditioning with such high temperatures! I hope the authorities are listening! Finally, what are your plans for the future? I would really like the Rostang legacy to continue – my daughters manage the restaurants, but we don’t know what the next generation will do. Maybe we will open a new meat restaurant in Paris.

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Sascha Triemer Executive Chef Atlantis, The Palm

Olivier Biles Reﬂets Par Pierre Gagnaire Intercontinental, Dubai Festival City

The Pro Chef Middle East - the magazine for professionals If you work as a chef, restaurant manager, sommelier, banqueting manager or catering manager for a four or ﬁve star restaurant in the UAE, then apply for your free monthly copy of The Pro Chef Middle East, the magazine for ﬁne dining professionals.

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CHEFS / face to face

â&#x20AC;&#x153;For a long time, I thrived on stress and pushed and pushed myself. I have no intention of doing that again.â&#x20AC;?

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

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face to face / CHEFS

Health under control Like many other chefs, Michael Moore was in denial about his diabetes. However, a stroke on top made him rethink his life, his cuisine and his whole approach to food. Now he’s focused on getting a healthy message out.

ith a career in food spanning almost three decades, British-born but Australia-based Michael Moore has a passion for nutrition and a fervent interest in the science behind food. A popular television chef, food consultant and author as well as restauranteur, he is able to make high-end food preparation both accessible to the cook at home and desired by the discerning restaurant diners. A few years ago personal circumstances changed the trajectory of his career. While out to lunch with his family one day in late 2009, Michael, diagnosed as a diabetic ten years prior, suffered a major stroke that nearly killed him. Permanently changing his outlook on healthy eating, this episode sharpened his determination to educate others on the importance of correct nutrition, particularly for fellow diabetics. Raised in England, Michael developed a love of cooking at an early age, constantly winning his school's cooking competitions. It was while studying classical cookery at college that he

developed his keen interest in the scientiﬁc aspects of food and nutrition that have come to set him apart from his peers today. After completing his studies in the early 1980s, he worked in various London dining establishments before deciding he wanted to travel to broaden his experience. Choosing to experience the new world cuisine of Australia over the classical cuisine of France, he moved to Sydney for a year before travelling through Asia. In 1991, he became the youngest hotel Executive Chef in Australia and, in 1995, was offered the chance by Sir Terence Conran to be Executive Chef of The Bluebird Gastrodome in London. He lead a team of 120 chefs and was responsible for building the $30m project from the ground up, from consulting on the design and build of the kitchens and dining space to selecting each of the 25,000 products sold in The Food Store. He returned to Sydney in 1998 where he was appointed Consulting Director of Food at the Sydney Opera House and, a year later, opened his

own restaurant, Pruniers in Woollahra, followed by Bonne Femme. Since then, he has expanded his activities globally. Good to catch you when you’re not dashing about! Yes, I was determined to take it easy this year, but. Tell me about your early interest in food. I think I always wanted to be a chef - I was born with an appetite. My mother thought it would be cheaper if I were in a kitchen rather than having to feed me! Age of six, I made my own birthday cake. I was making jams and pickles too at that age, maybe even younger. My parents really encouraged me and my maternal grandmother had qualiﬁed as a chef, so that helped. At school, I was the only boy in cookery class and then I went off to catering college and got a distinction. You had a successful career, but also health problems. What happened?

Quinoa crusted fishcakes Makes 8 large or 16 small cakes Ingredients: 300g potatoes, peeled and diced 300g fresh or canned tuna 1 red/Spanish onion, finely chopped 1/2 tbsp fermented chili bean paste 1 medium red chili 2 eggs 1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped 2 tbsp milk sea salt and pepper 120g white organic quinoa flakes 80g flour vegetable oil for frying Method: 1 Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until soft. Drain well and mash until smooth, then set aside to cool completely. 2 Drain the tuna, then place into a mixing bowl with the diced red onion, chili bean paste and fresh red chili. Add the cooled mashed potato, one egg and finally the chopped parsley, then mix. Combine well and adjust the seasoning. The mixture should be firm and dry. 3 Divide the fishcake mixture into eight pieces or 16 small balls and roll in your hands. Place them on a plate and refrigerate for 30 minutes to set.

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To prepare for the coating, in a small bowl lightly whisk the remaining egg with the milk and season with a little sea salt and pepper. Place the quinoa flakes and flour into separate bowls. Roll the fishcakes firstly in the flour to lightly coat them, then dip into the egg mixture

and finally press into the quinoa flakes. Shape them into small patties and using a palette knife brush off any excess flakes. Pan fry the fishcakes for two to three minutes each side until crisp and golden, remove from oil and drain on paper towels.

July 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

CHEFS / face to face

Cooking as a profession is very different from hobby cooking. It’s a tough, hard job with a machismo approach that is still in many ways not a pleasant place for a female chef. As chefs, we tend to think of flavour and eating, rather than health. I had years of butter and cream and, when I was diagnosed with diabetes, I went hard at change for about six months then I guess I went into denial and just carried on with my previous habits. The trouble with diabetes is that it’s degenerate and you can’t turn back - the body can’t adapt that quickly. I thought I was pretty fit and healthy - I had no idea I was so vulnerable. And people just don’t realise that diabetes predisposes you for a stroke. It’s just a chronic illness, neither sexy nor fashionable. What changes did you make to your diet? I removed all highly processed things from my diet but I have a sweet tooth so I craved that. The solution? No desserts but small amounts of very good chocolate. Enjoy small tastes. How far do chefs have a responsibiulity to improve their customers’ health? Well, the problem is that if you try to point the finger then the industry has zero tolerance of any advice. Anything coming from official bodies or nutritionists start with very strict levels of recommendation, presumably because of the risk of legal action if they don’t. That, I think, makes it hard for sufferers of diabetes to cope so my belief is that we need to stretch the parameters of the diet. In other words, give people what they want: comfort food, but make it as healthy as we can. That way there will be no bingeing and people will be more likely to stick to their regime. To be honest, I havemn’t had much pushback from nutritionists mainly because I’m living with the illness and saying what I feel. In the restaurant, we don’t preach or dictate. we want people to eat, drink, indulge but as chefs we can make more healthy choices of ingredients and diners won’t know what’s in the background. Is the Australian diet becoming healthier? No, the country is in total denial, I’m afraid. The spread of Asian food has compounded the problem - white rice, palm sugar and coconut milk, for example, are in the top 20 bad things for diabetics. Anyway, I’m trying to lead the way and say ‘Look, if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.’ And the message is simple: eat local, grow as much as you can, cook positively and eat healthily. But across the industry, I don’t see any real commitment to this. Look at Australian MasterChef - when it started, it was hosted by three guys who looked as if they were about to drop dead! And the future? I want to build on the concept of the Blood Sugar restaurant and make advice more accessible. It would be great to have a small health centre on every high street where people can get check-ups and recipe advice.

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

Peach, pear and raspberry semifreddo Serves 4 Ingredients: 120g canned pears, drained to produce 60ml syrup 1/2 punnet fresh raspberries 2 tablespoons cornstarch/cornﬂour 2 tablespoons agave nectar 120g canned peaches, drained 230ml milk 175g natural yoghurt Method: 1 Warm the pear syrup and pour over the fresh raspberries. Place in the fridge to cool. 2 Mix the cornstarch, agave nectar and two tablespoons of the milk. Bring remaining milk to the boil and stir in the cornstarch mixture stirring well until it thickens. Remove from the heat, cover and allow to cool. 3 In a blender place the pears and peaches. Drain the syrup from the raspberries and set them aside. 4 Blend the pears and peaches until smooth, then add the cold milk custard mixture and combine together. Add the natural yoghurt and mix well. 5 Line ramekin dishes with plastic wrap and pour in the mixture. Drop one or two raspberries into each dish and place into the freezer for at least three hours to set. Remove from the freezer for 45 minutes before serving.

Strawberry mojito, basil, lime and ginger Serves 4 Ingredients: 1/2 punnet large ripe strawberries 2 fresh limes, cut into wedges 1 small knob of fresh ginger, ﬁnely grated 4 tsp agave nectar 600ml ice 600ml sparkling mineral or soda water or diet lemonade 8 leaves fresh green basil 8 leaves fresh garden mint Method: 1 Trim stalks from the strawberries and cut into quarters. Divide the limes, grated ginger and strawberries equally between four large glasses. Add a teaspoon of agave nectar and one basil and mint leaf to each glass. 2 Using a muddling stick, or the handle of a wooden spoon crush ingredients together for a minute or two until combined and fragrant. 3 Fill the glasses with ice, top up with the sparkling mineral water and stir using a long cocktail spoon.

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CHEFS / face to face

THE RETURN TO DUBAI

Returning to Dubai after a year working with Jason Atherton in Singapore, Colin Clague is pleased to be back. This time round, he’s in charge of new concept restaurant and lounge Qbara in Waﬁ, putting a modern twist on Ottoman and Eastern European dishes.

olin Clague is perhaps best known as the opening chef for Zuma in DIFC, helping to propel the outlet into its permanently fashionable position amongst Dubai’s food lovers. However, his career started in his native Isle of Man where, inspired by his mother who was both a qualified chef and passionate home cook, he first developed a love for fresh produce and seasonality. London called and he gained invaluable experience working with leading chefs like Anton Mossiman before working across Europe. Lured to Dubai as part of the opening team for the Burj al Arab, he then became Zuma’s Executive Chef, working for the brand for a decade between London and Dubai. Next he joined Caprice Holdings, overseeing all restaurants in the group and opening The Ivy. The chance to work with Jason Atherton in Singapore proved irresistible and he became Executive Chef for the opening of Pollen Gardens by the Bay. However, Dubai called him back - “My children grew up here so they see it as home,” he explains - to work as Executive Chef developing the menu for Qbara, a new concept restaurant due to open probably by Q3 in the old Planet Hollywood site in Wafi. What is the theme for Qbara? We’re focusing on the food of the Levant and the wider Eastern Mediterranean. That’s really the cuisines of the Ottoman Empire but we’re also looking at dishes from north Africa and even Greece and Italy. The idea if to take home food and modernise it to restaurant style. We don’t want to

obscure ﬂavours and, as far as possible, we want to source as much as we can from the region. So is it another fusion take? No, not at all. We’re using traditional spices and ingredients and, to be honest, many of them are new to me. It’s mindblowing what you can do! We’re doing a lot of sharing in the kitchen as we develop dishes and many of the chefs are presenting me with dishes from their families great stuff! Even with traditional dishes, there may be a thousand ways to make something so we’re just experimenting. Is this ﬁne dining? Although we’re dedicated to the best ingredients, we want this to be a restaurant where there’s something for everyone. I don’t believe you can survive just by focusing on the top end and I want the restaurant to be a place where a couple of students, say, can save up and come and enjoy the place. It’s also a great location. We need to become a destination restaurant - the name on everybody’s lips! What difference do you see to the dining scene here after coming back? After a year, there’s a huge difference. The market’s booming again. What made you leave? Well, after a decade with Zuma and then time with Juneirah, I wanted to open my own restaurant. I missed Dubai but working with Jason was great. However, after a time, I realised that my concept

“Although we’re dedicated to the best ingredients, we want this to be a restaurant where there’s something for everyone. I don’t believe you can survive just by focusing on the top end.” 40

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

wasn’t going to work in Singapore because of a chronic shortage of chefs. There’s a quota for local chefs and they just don’t exist in the right numbers. You said that the cuisine you’re now working with is largely new territory for you. What dishes have you found particularly exciting? There was one from Syria which was great meatballs with sour cherries. We then take a dish like that and take it back to basics and rework it for presentation. As I said, we’re not doing fusion but a meeting of different worlds. Why do you feel there are so few homegrown concepts in Dubai? I think the restaurant scene is very much driven by investors and the fact that they feel safer with established brands - you know, if something works in London or Paris, then it should work it. A lot is also to do with the hotel history scene. Chefs here really haven’t had the opportunity to do their own thing. Expense is another issue. Qbara starting hiring staff back in October and probably about a third of the investment has gone into HR. Is Qbara a concept that will work outside Dubai? Oh yes. Any nationslity will ﬁnd something in the food they like and our aim is to appeal to an international audience, whether that’s on Paris or New York. We need to deliver on quality in order to compete globally. Would you say the menu will be healthy? I think so - grills, olive oil and so on. Key are the ingredients - I want to know what I’m eating and we’re looking hard at local, organic sourcing. At present, I’d say we’re about 70% of the quality level we want and that will rise as we get closer to opening. So you’re still happy behind the stove? Absolutely - I’m delegating the paperwork! Honestly i’m loving it, experimenting the various spices and ingredients, some of which are totally new to me. It’s liberating!

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face to face / CHEFS

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July 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

LEISURE / book shelf

Swiss precision, recipe perfection With menus and recipes featuring 23 of the world's top Pacojet chefs, the recipe book released with the new Pacojet 2 offers an insight into how the Pacojet is used the world over. Each chef prepares a starter, main course and dessert. The book also offers a large selection of base recipes for ice creams and sorbets through to savoury concentrates and farces. We’re pleased to offer four typical recipes.

Smoked trout pate Chef Tom Kerridge The Hand and Flowers Pub, Marlow, UK

Poppy seed crackers Ingredients: 115g wholemeal ﬂour 345g strong white ﬂour 65g yeast 1lt warm water 1 tsp salt 10 tbsp poppy seeds

Trout pate Ingredients: 300g smoked trout 400g single cream 1 tsp lemon zest 1 tsp trufﬂe oil 1g cayenne pepper 12g Malden salt 20g glycerin Method: 1 Mix all ingredients together and freeze in a pacotising beaker at -22C for at least 24 hours. Pacotise twice. Pickled cucumber Ingredients: 500ml white vinegar 250g castor sugar 1/4 cinnamon stick 2 star anise 1 clove 5 white peppercorns

15 fennel seeds 15 coriander seeds 1/2 bunch of dill 1 cucumber, deseeded and cut into strips Method: 1 Bring the dry spices, sugar and vinegar up to a boil. Cover with cling ﬁlm and leave to cool for ten minutes. Pass through a sieve onto the dill and blend till green. 2 Pour onto the cucumber and leave for two hours.

Method: 1 Bring all the ingredients together apart from the poppy seeds with a dough hook and kneed for three to four minutes. Cover with cling film and leave to prove to double size. 1 Knock back and roll through a pasta machine to number tgree. Brush with water and sprinkle on some poppy seeds and bake at 180C for five to eight minutes till crunchy and brown. To finish: 1 Boil four eggs for nine minutes till hard, refresh and chill. Grate the yolks and discard the whites. Mix the yolk with tbsp capers, 2 tbsp chopped shallots, 2 tbsp chopped chives, 70g flaked smoked trout and 2 tbsp olive oil.

Lemon ice cream parfait on fresh fruit minestrone Chef Didier Arrandel Pont de Beauvoisin, France Parfait Ingredients: 5 eggs 270g sugar 125g butter 3 lemons, juice 250ml cream Method: 1 Combine the egg yolks with the sugar. Add lemon juice. Stir-in melted butter. Heat until the mixture coats a spoon. Chill. Whip the cream and add to the

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

lemon mixture. Place in a pacotising beaker and freeze at -22C for at least 24 hours. Minestrone Ingredients: 1 pineapple 2 mangoes 5 kiwis Method: 1 Make a syrup with 500g of sugar and 1lt of water. Bring to a boil and cool. 2 Peel and dice the fruit. Add to the syrup. 3 Immediately after pacotising, serve the scoops of lemon ice cream on the fruit sauce.

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book shelf / LEISURE

Fillet of lamb and chicken breast combi, vegetable texture and chocolate powder Chef Rolf Caviezel Station 1 Restaurant, Grenchen, Switzerland Lamb/chicken combi Ingredients: 300g lamb loin ﬁllet 2 120g chicken breasts Method: 1 Preheat oven to 150C. Pre-heat pan. Add olive oil, sauté lamb loin ﬁllet evenly. Season with salt and pepper. Put in the preheated oven and cook for 20 minutes. Take out and cut into thin slices. Pre-heat pan, add olive oil and sauté chicken breast evenly and season with salt and pepper. Put in the oven with the lamb. Remove meat from oven, slice thinly and serve in even portions. Vegetable texture Ingredients: 120g sweet red peppers 50g prepared carrots 20g prepared celery 3g xanthan gum 290g vegetable bouillon 145g cream Method: 1 Finely chop red peppers, carrots and celery and place in a pacotising beaker with the other ingredients. Freeze at -22C for 24 hours. 1 Remove beakers and pacotise twice. Heat in a frying pan and season with salt and pepper.

Chocolate powder Ingredients: 200g chocolate 100g maltodextrin

Method: 1 Process both ingredients with the 4-blade cutter of the Pacojet Coupe Set to a granulated/powdered consistency.

Melon cold cup, basil ice cream, blueberry snow Chef Lars Jungermann Jungermann's Genuss & Design, Germany Melon cold cup Ingredients: 1kg cantaloupe (ﬂesh only) 100g ginger 1 vanilla pod 1 orange, juice 1 lemon, juice

100g sugar 2g salt 200ml cream 60g basil leaves Method: 1 Heat the milk, egg yolks, sugar and salt to 82C. Remove from the heat and add cream. Allow to cool and add basil. Freeze in a pacotising beaker at -22C for 24 hours.

Method: 1 Peel ginger. Scrape out vanilla pod and purée together with the ginger and the remaining ingredients.

Blueberry snow Ingredients: 800g blueberries 10ml lemon juice

Basil ice cream Ingredients: 350ml milk 100g egg yolks

Method: 1 Lightly crush the blueberries with the lemon juice and freeze in a pacotising beaker at -22C for 24 hours.

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July 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

LEISURE / travel

WAY DOWN SOUTH

Everybodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s talking South American cuisine this year and, whilst the spotlight might be on Argentina, Brazil and Peru, more adventurous chefs and travellers should check out Chile - a country blessed by stunning scenery, unusual ingredients and a blossoming culinary landscape, reports Dave Reeder.

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

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travel / LEISURE

rriving in capital Santiago via a two-flight journey from Dubai broken at Sao Paolo, the last thing you want to discover is that your suitcase hasn’t quite kept up with you. The next thing is that, after seemingly a full day of travel, the legendary Latino trait of laid back acceptance of whatever tomorrow may bring strikes one as intensely annoying. After all, I had only a few short hours of sleep ahead before a long journey south to the end of the world, Patagonia. Disaster! Surely those bar codes on baggage receipts allow airlines to pinpoint a missing case? No, a better solution apparently, was just to wait hopefully and see if the case turned up on the next flight. It did and we began the long route south: after a three and a half hour flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas and a similarly lengthy van drive south, our party reached Puerto Bories, a small town deep within the broken landscape of the Ultima Esperanza Sound Sound of Last Hope), so called because legendary explorer Magellan was on his last attempt to find safe passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He found it here and a more spectacular place would be hard to imagine: air so pure it felt like breathing for the first time, deep clear water, lowering clouds promising rain parted frequently by vivid double rainbows and a remarkable lack of people - density per square acre must be hard to calculate outside the small towns that lie several hours apart. This is a rugged, harsh land for all its beauty. The border here between Chile and Argentina is fluid with the same families living either side and moving smoothly between the countries, except in times of war. It’s also an ideal spot to undertake expeditions to even more remote places such as the Torres del Paine National Park. Our party, including chefs Alfredo Lazov from Dubai’s Toro Toro and Phil Wood from Sydney’s Rockpool on George, checked into The Singular Patagonia, a sympathetically converted former meat processing plant - its original brick supplemented by natural wood. Views from the rooms were breathtaking but there was no time to rest - it was straight to table and the first of a series of meals in Chile showcasing local produce and how a growing number of chefs are rapidly raising the bar with a blend of traditional and international techniques. At The Singular, Chef Laurent Pasqualetto is committed to connecting guests to the region's terroir and heritage, using locally grown ingredients such as Patagonian hare, lamb, king crab, white strawberries, rhubarb, seaweed and honey complemented by a variety of wines from each grape-growing valley of Chile. Our meal included sea urchins and scallops in citric sauce, lamb sweetbreads and morels marinaded in seaweed and a rhubarb clafoutis. The remote nature of the hotel means that some fruits and veg are grown in the hotel’s own glasshouse and olive oil is sourced from the central region. Surprisingly, perhaps, no freshwater fish are eaten locally but, given the abundance from the sea, that is no real

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A LESSON LEARNED The Mapuche are an indigenous tribe of central Chile who have managed to preserve their centuries-old heritage, which include a community-driven approach to living. Their culinary traditions and culture are based on respecting the land: seasonal harvests, root-totip eating, responsible and sustainable farming. The rest of us are now catching up with them! Central to their diet and now seen globally as a super food is quinoa.

July 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

LEISURE / travel

loss, especially when salmon is smoked with fennel, for example. The next day started early with a full itinerary promised of the half million acre Torres del Paine national park - a landscape moulded by glaciers for over 12 million years and home to a number of micro climates. Access to the park is restricted and education is a large part of what the rangers try to accomplish - a carelessly lit campfire by some tourists a few years back devastated the vegetation over a large area. and led to massive evacuation The wildlife too is special - apart from the constantly circling condors overhead, you’ll see native species such as pumas (maybe!), guanacos, foxes, flamingoes and more. Touring the park, we were struck by the silence and the majesty of the surroundings but, as a party of food enthusiasts, food was never far from anybody’s mind! We ended up in a holiday village, Quincho Rogel, in the park for an asado - a traditional dish of whole lamb cooked on a grill, called a parrilla. The preparation lasts around five hours since cooking must be constant and on a low heat. There are no fancy frills at an asado - the meat comes in huge chunks in communal bowls, accompanied by bowls of lettuce, tomato and cucumber - the only diversion from the meat fest being pebre, a local condiment made from pureed herbs, garlic and hot peppers similar to chimichurri. The next day, we returned to Punta Arenas to visit the culinary institute Inacap (Culinary Institut), for a chance to meet students at the most southerly and one of the largest of the two dozen Inacap colleges across Chile. There are currently over

ON YOUR SHOPPING LIST These are amongst the great products to bring back from Chile: Merken: A great spice blend of dried and smoked red chilies, toasted coriander seeds, cumin and sea salt, widely used in Chilean cuisine. Use as a barbeque rub, sprinkled over salads or as a dip with olive oil. Pisco: The national drink of Chile, this sweet brandy-type drink is best as an aperitif, mixed with citrus. Olive oils: There are exceptional EVOOs now being produced. Jams/preserves: Unusual jams made from papaya, rosehip and other native fruits are worth seeking out. Dried chillies: Fiery heat is a stranger to Chilean food, although the mildish banana chilli is used. Look for dried red ‘cacho de cabra’ (goat’s head chillies) which add complexity without ﬁre. King crab: Its season is quite short, so acceptable tinned varieties are easy to ﬁnd.

100,000 culinary students in Chile, with 2,000 in this facility. Students specialising in culinary are trained to Commis level in basically French cuisine, though the enthusiasm with which they greated Chez Lazo as a successful expat Latino chef was astonishing he was mobbed like a rock star! A sampling lunch prepared and served by

students under the watchful eye of the faculty introduced us to the mix of flavours and heritage of Chile’s different populations. The Mabuche people, who successfully resisted colonisation, contributed cochayuyo (dried seaweed often used in a salad) and merken (sea salt, coriander seeds and dried local chillies used as a rub or condiment) to the diet. Croatian immigrants brought bruyet, a type of ceviche utilising cod. Spanish settlers ensured the spread of salsa verde, delicious with erizos (sea urchins). And the mix threw up strange dishes like cancato, a ‘fish sandwich’ from the Isle of Chiloe that layers salmon, tomato, onion, chorizo, cheese and oregano before being baked in the oven. Early colonial settlers soon realised that the large open spaces were ideal for raising livestock and much of the historical background to southern Patagonia lies in meat processing and shipment to Europe. A company continuing this tradition is Agromarin which specialises in halal certified lamb, which is exported to major markets such as the EU, the USA, Japan and China. It currently runs the biggest and most advanced lamb farm in Chile with a 160.000 hectare operation and a 10.000 genetic improvement flock developed to breed its own Marin Magellan Meat Merino Ram Stud. Like all the food and wine producers we spoke to on this trip, the Middle East market is being viewed with enthusiasm. With no rest in sight, we headed to the airport and our next stop at Puerto Montt - a story I’ll take up again next issue as well as some background on this final mystery ingredient...

You will not believe how to eat these!

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

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28th - 30th September 2013 DUBAI WORLD TRADE CENTRE

The largest hotel & hospitality supply event for the MENA region The hotel and hospitality world will come together to invest, develop and progress the industry for the year ahead. Pre-register now for your free ticket to The Hotel Show and you will receive many I\ZPULZZ ILULĂ&#x201E;[Z Z\JO HZ! ŕ Ž Meet, share and discuss key issues in one of the many scheduled networking opportunities and hosted events ŕ Ž (JJLZZ [V H MYLL [OYLL KH` L_LJ\[P]L seminar and events programme featuring world-class keynote speakers ŕ Ž 4VYL [OHU OV[LS Z\WWSPLYZ L_OPIP[PUN WYVK\J[Z HJYVZZ [OL Ă&#x201E;]L RL` OV[LS HUK hospitality sectors

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LEISURE / last word

Turn it up to 11!!! The latest hot item in the US kitchen is a wood-ﬁred grill. Interestingly, however, for many chefs it’s not an addition to range of equipment but a replacement for it. Well, chefs can never resist lots of ﬂames, can they?

ypical of the new trend in American kitchens is TBD in San Francisco. When it opens later this year, an eight-foot wide wood-ﬁred grill in stainless steel will dominate the kichen as Chef Mark Liberman will use to cook virtually all menu items, controlling the heat with hand-cranked wheels. In this kitchen, at least, there will be no stove or oven. However, there will also be the lack of predictability of consistemnt heat at the turn of a dial, eliminating the relative predictability of appliances that ignite with the turn of dial and provide consistent heat. Liberman is revelling in the new freedom, in common with an increasing number of chefs that are turn wood cookery into an art as far removed from classical BBQ as you can imagine, since the grill can also be used as an oven, a broiler, a smoker and a ﬂat-top griddle. Not all chefs are quite as committed to the cause

It's brilliantly thought out and well-constructed. - James Beard

The Pro Chef Middle East / July 2013

as Galen Zamarra from NYC’s Mas. He does all his cooking on four wood-fired grills in the basement, makes his own charcoal and even has a dedicated woodshed. So why are chefs so intrigued by this new piece of kit. Unlike a traditional grill with a grate above a fire, new versions from manufacturers like Grillworks give chefs more flexibility and more control as various cooking surfaces can be raised and lowered manually and the grills can also be fitted with racks and rotisseries. Enclose a grill on three sides, lined with brick or tiles, to get ovenlike conditions or use the more gently heat high up to cold smoke. The irony of this ‘hot’ new way of cooking is that it’s really about going back to basics - mankind began its cooking odyssey using wood fires and more basic grills have been central to Spanish and Latin American cuisine for centuries. Look, for example, at the very influential Spanish chef Victor Arguinzoniz who, at his Asador Etxebarri in the Basque region uses either a grill or smoke for every dish, including his smoked goat-milk ice cream. As well as a variety of cooking methods, chefs can also alter flavour by mixing and maatching wood with charcoal, or by adding elements such as herbs or hay. Even different woods will make a key difference to the flavour.

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Roasted Mushroom and U.S. Pepper Jack Ravioli Makes approximately 140 raviolis

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The U.S. Pepper Jack cheese makes a nice creamy blend with the deep ďŹ&#x201A;avors of the roasted vegetables. The pepper heat from the cheese is a great combination with a rich red sauce, but also works well in a white sauce. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forget to top the dish with some U.S. Parmesan or U.S. Asiago.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Chef John Esser, Consultant Chef for USDEC

Ingredients:

Procedure:

1k cremini mushrooms, quartered 300g yellow onions, chopped 150g garlic cloves, chopped 200ml olive oil 2 tbsp Italian herbs, dry 1 tbsp salt 1 tbsp black pepper 700g U.S. Pepper Jack cheese, shredded 15g ďŹ&#x201A;at leaf parsley, minced Pasta sheets, thawed (or your own fresh house-made sheets)

Pre-heat convection oven to 200 C. Place mushrooms and onion in a large bowl. In small bowl mix garlic, olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper; pour mixture over mushrooms and toss well. Place mixture on sheet pans in a single layer. Roast for 10 minutes; decrease oven temperature to 140 C and roast for another 30 minutes. Take mushroom mixture, chop ďŹ ne and chill. When chilled, mix in cheese and parsley. Place 10g of mixture into each ravioli and seal tightly. Filled ravioli can be steamed or boiled; they can be fresh frozen on parchment paper for later use.

U.S. cheese is already available in your market, check today with your local importer/distributor or contact USDEC for a list of local suppliers: # $! )* . !#(+* ! &'& . % #$ %- %! , !(# &!* $ . "'&!

The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) is a free resource to help you ďŹ nd additional information on U.S. cheese applications and distribution channels. We are a non-proďŹ t, independent membership organization that represents the global trade interests of U.S. dairy producers, proprietary processors and cooperatives, ingredient suppliers and export traders.