Day 104 -110: Drained..

What a long week, the chef who trained me has resigned and will be leaving in a weeks time. I’ve been sick with the recent flash of cold weather.
The lunches have been quiet with less than 20 booked per day this week so soon we will be running the section solo for lunch service.

Our head chef will be appearing on Italian Food Safari tonight and heading up to the Noosa Food and Wine Festival to be a cooking at one of the restaurants.

I’ve been feeling tired and run down lately maybe its time to take a bit of a holiday before I get sick again.

Restaurant Review: Maze Melbourne

Crown Metropol is the new flagship hotel of the Crown Entertainment Complex in Melbourne and home to new Gordon Ramsay restaurant ‘maze’ this long awaited opening has been rumored for a few years but it was unsure which Australian city would play host to the new business venture. Two years after the first announcement made in 2008 maze’s grand opening was this week. Hand picked by Gordon himself the Head Chef Josh Emett delivers a experience which is unique to compliment the local produce.

Maze is situated on the 1st floor facing out toward Spencer St. the restaurant takes up ½ the floor with spacious bar and two dinning rooms, the first being maze and adjacent maze grill.

The floor plan is very spacious and the décor is classy and modern. The high walls opposite the silken drawn windows feature branches with birds perching overlooking the dinning room. During service the lights are dimmed for a beautiful and romantic ambience.

The menu comprises of 16 items both heavy and light dishes. The idea is to mix and match to create your own specialized experience. There’s also a 7 course chef’s menu available and a separate desert menu with 8 items.

The floor felt short of staff, there was no fuss and attentiveness you would expect to receive from a restaurant with the look and feel of maze. If you are a bread fan the in house baked bread is amazing, perfectly fluffy inside with a light crunchy crust outside it’s served with seaweed butter and Melbourne sea salt.

The menu is cheap with nothing over $26. we found the servings small but adequate, the food is simple and for everyone good clean flavours developed around the produce from Australia.

Queensland mud crab,
pressed watermelon, pickled ginger, rock melon sorbet


Applewood smoked kingfish,
fennel purée, pickled celery, globe artichoke, finger limes

 Jerusalem artichoke velouté,
southern rock lobster and green beans

Seared yellow fin tuna,
white radish, yuzu, enoki mushrooms, black garlic

Seared leg of rabbit,
jicama, green olive, almond and brown butter vinaigrette

Citrus cured king salmon,
soy salt, “succotash”, bok choi, white asparagus

Poussin “coq au vin”,
savoy cabbage, smoked bacon

Chocolate cremeaux and banana bread,
salted macadamia nuts, pearl barley ice cream

Hot chocolate and violet fondant,
salted almond ice cream

Strawberry Ice Cream coated in White Chocolate petits fours

I expected more from Gordon Ramsay's first Australian Restaurant, but I was happy and would definitely come back again to try the rest of the dishes. My most memorable dish of the night was definitely the desert! the fondant was perfectly cooked with the chocolate just oozing out at the lightest touch of the spoon.

Address: 8 Whiteman St, Southbank, VIC 3006
Reservation: 03 92928300
Menu: Maze Melbourne Menu
Website: http://www.gordonramsay.com/mazemelbourne/

Day 101 - 103: Char Siu Bao, Cleaning and Cake

Long and boring nights. I think I would rather get slammed than sit around waiting for tables to come in. With nothing to do we resorted into cleaning things. We took advantage of the night by making a few recipes we always wanted to try. I started on bread dough to make steamed pork buns and someone else attempted a Stephanie Alexander adaptation of a flourless orange cake which I really liked.

Both recipes turned out very well. But my buns could have been whiter instead they were a dirty white and in some areas which were somewhat kinda see through allowing the meat to show through.



Flourless Orange and Almond Cake

6 eggs (beaten)
2 large oranges, washed

250 g ground almonds

250 g sugar

1 tsp baking powder

Boil oranges in a little water in a covered saucepan for two hours. Allow to cool, then cut open, remove pips, and chop roughly.

Preheat oven to moderate and grease and flour a springform tin. Blend oranges and remaining ingredients thoroughly in a food processor. Pour batter into prepared tin and bake for 1 hour.

I made a simple cream cheese icing with just Philadelphia, orange juice, and icing sugar and finished it with some toasted flaked almonds. I wanted to try candied orange peel as well but i ran out of oranges and its raining so I really can't be bothered buying some.

Day 99 - 100: TEEVEE

Sunday dinner was very casual as always. For once i finished at 10PM which is the earliest I've ever finished since starting at Donovans.

No school this week due to prior arrangements and no school next week as well because it’s Anzac day. But finally I get to work on a public holiday for double pay score!

I’m on the pass tonight so hopefully its not that busy. There’s a few new dishes that I haven’t plated yet like the sword fish and pheasant and the Wagyu special which looks really nice because I have a thing for onion rings.

Masterchef is back on and I don’t get to watch it like I did last year. Hopefully this year will be bigger and better!

Day 95 - 98: Pleasent Pheasant.

The week was nice and quiet with 100 for dinner 15-40 for lunch until Thursday dinner as it usually get busy, having worked in a office before I thought that people don’t like going out on Thursdays or is this a new trend?

The Pot au Feu has gone off the menu in favor of our new pheasant dish which fill a gap in our menu where we don’t have anything familiar for someone who feels like chicken.

I’m on my weekend and I’m planning on trying to get a booking tomorrow night at the new Gordon Ramsay restaurant ‘maze’ ill let you know how it goes.

S.I.F.F. REPRESENTS!

Came across these food flags today, they were created as part of the Sydney International Food Festival. This is a great idea using the love of food to unite the countries using common ingredients to create flags representing the corresponding countries.

School Day 7: Use Basic Methods of Cookery

Big test day at Academy Sofitel. The test wasn’t as bad as I thought there were 25 questions over 7 topics on the basic methods of cookery. We followed that by doing a module on receiving and storage of stocks as well as a bit on food costing.

In case you were wondering the test involved questions like.

1)    Explain the process of roasting a Chicken?.
2)    List 2 Advantages of Steaming?
3)    What is a Court Bouillon?
4)    What is De-Glazing?
5)    Name 3 pieces of grilling equipment?
6)    Why do we seal meat?
7)    Name 4 classic stews? 
8)    What vegetables can be grilled?
9)    How does a microwave work?
10)    What are the temperatures for boiling and simmering water?
11)    Why do we skim stock?
12)    Do high temperatures inhibit yeast growth?
13)    Why must vegetables be refreshed after blanching?
14)    What must you consider when choosing a fat for deep frying?

These are some of the questions from the test feel free to answer them if you wish.

Day 93 - 94: Beans Beans Beans...

My Saturday AM shift was busier than expected on the books with 80 booked. We did much more. Getting in trouble for not working fast enough I was made to clean beans beetroots carrots and a few other vegetables before I could leave.

Opps last night I forgot about a sauce which was reducing and it over reduced and started to taste like vegemite. Remembering when it happened last time I was instructed to use tomato juice carrots and sun dried tomatoes to sweeten to sauce as well as further add in more veal and chicken stock. It took another 4 hours but I managed to get it tasting similar again hopefully whoever is on today says it’s acceptable.

Day 91 - 92: Mooooo!

Who said it would die down after Easter? It seems like the last two days have been a lead up to another long weekend. 130 for a Thursday and 150 for Friday! My relaxed mood almost got me in trouble but I managed to scrape through pushing out a massive amount of oysters tonight and last night.

I got to clean a porterhouse and a eye fillet today for the functions tomorrow, I’m getting better at it now. The first time I used my boning knife I stabbed my hand in front of Head Chef within a minute of starting. HOW EMBARESSING!

Day 90: Return

Feel like my first day back, after my weekend in Adelaide then followed by another two days off. I have all PM shifts this week, there’s not really anything new going on except hot entrée getting a new mussels dish to replace the current one and more wintery soup involving Harissa and lamb shanks.

I can tell its beginning to slow down again now. When I came in for my shift this afternoon they told me there was only 13 in for lunch and dinner was around 100. It was a pretty easy night we were out of the kitchen by 10:20 instead of our usual 11PM.

I have the big basic methods of cookery test coming up next Monday time to start cramming. 

Day 89: Easter Monday!

Well the pre Easter period was pretty calm I was sent home early Thursday and Friday because it wasn’t busy at all until Sunday afternoon, where a full dinner service of 165 was booked. Cooking until 5 the AM teams were completely exhausted. I guess they got shafted because Sunday PM dinner was very quiet with only 110.

I was lucky enough to get good Friday off and Saturday to join my parents in Adelaide for a bit. the Asian food up there is great, every restaurant we went  to had decent food though i didn't get to try any western restaurants I was excited with the possibilities of a whole new state with restaurants I could try.

I also got a chance to purchase a book I've been recommended by a friend at school. The Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal.