School 27: Parmalat 3rd Year Final Round of Sofitel Culinary Acadamy.

I walked in not knowing what to expect from the finalist of this comp. All I hoped for was not to get yelled at by the guy/girl I was helping out.

6 of us walked in at 4PM were introduced to our partners and off we went. I was paired with a 3rd year named Petros Dellids working at Maha in South Melbourne, he is of Greek heritage and has been working in the Pressclub Group for a while and has had experience in all their restaurants.
His menu consisted of

Entrée: Twice Cooked Octopus, Black Olive Sponge, Roasted Lemon Puree, Poached Egg and Chorizo Dressing.
Mains: Pan Fried Barramundi, Onion Tart, Garlic Custard, Bone Marrow Jus and Broadbean and Samphire Salad.
Dessert: Textures Of Chocolate: Aerated, Moose, Sponge with Salt and Vinegar Tuile, Milk Sorbet and Rasperry Pearls.

The assigned first year apprentices helped prep for the 2 hours finishing jobs and getting walked through the competitor’s vision.
During the “service” We helped plate 10 plates for judges and guests.

As we were so busy I didn’t have time to take photos of any other dishes except for the dessert of my 3rd year. It was a fun day and I learnt a lot of new techniques and ingredients. We were all debriefed once everything was over by all the judges who were amazed by the level of food achieved. Leaving us with a quote saying that culture has changed so much that back in the 50’s people “Ate to Live and now they Live to Eat”

Congratulations Petros on 3rd! Thanks for all you taught me today, hope you have a bright  future in the culinary world.

Day 205: Broken Nails and Cookbooks

Sunday split back from a rainy miserable weekend filled with rain which was only good for sleeping and maybe a bit of shopping. Decided I’d take a holiday next year and use up some of my annual leave. Soak up some sun in Thailand and Malaysia, see what’s happening in the food overseas.

Sunday wasn’t too bad got to take a decent break and did some prep for main course. Had another little accident where I took off a bit of my nail and skin whilst I was slicing beetrroots for the carrot and beet terrine on the big meat slicer. nothing to serious though.

I dropped off at seven11 on the way home and pickled up those condensed cookbooks, which is always good to have just because they have some decent recipes and it’s a good idea to gather and keep these little tidbits when the chance arrives.

 

Day 201 - 204: Changes...

It been a interesting week, since the official announcement of the promotion of our 2 new head chefs, there’s been a heightened amount of resume’s coming in recently, I’ve been told usually this at this time most restaurants are looking to keep staff and settle in for the busy summer months.

Menu changes have already begun with the minor tweaks in some dishes and others completely changing altogether. Larder has the addition of a new caprese salad with micro basil and buffalo mozzarella, Front section, tweaked the warm asparagus salad with fried duck egg and truffle vinaigrette and a crab risotto.

School Day 26: Farinaceous

A super humid Monday, I woke up with my ankle where my burn was feeling like it was on fire.. again, it had begun to swell but for no reason, no sign of infection or irritation at all.

I limped my way up the hill to school where, we were told our first aid class next Monday would be postponed. We then made our way down to the kitchen to start our eggs and farinaceous class.

We made fresh gnocci and traditional omelets and a wild mushroom risotto.

I was also asked to come in and be a helper for the 3rd year Parmalat competition on Wednesday next week. No idea what my role will be though I guess I shall help prep and do what they tell me, sounds fun.

Restaurant Review: Ladro (Prahran)

Ladro of Gertrude street in Fitzroy has recently opened a much roomier version of the much loved pizzeria in the back streets of Chapel Street in Prahran.
The new Ladro looks very similar to the original in Fitzroy, same lighting and same white washed walls and black furniture, the only difference is the space is a lot more roomy, with a lovely alfresco dinning area surrounded by lovely olive trees.

The menu is similar and the specials are a bit riskier, but it has all the typical favorites. The woodfire roast was a Spatchcock which sounded divine, but I opted for the linguini carbonara just because I haven’t had a decent one in a while. My girlfriend went for the rich lamb ragu with orecchiette and for entrée we both had the special which was, a crumbed and fried chicken drumstick served on a leek puree.

Service was great, though there have been rumors that service was terrible. Though we did run into one major issue the chicken which my girlfriend got was still raw inside. Though this in many places is an unforgivable sin, the problem was taken care of swiftly and a new one was on the table within minutes.

For Dessert we had the Honey Panna-cotta with Flourless orange cake was a beautiful texture and much better than the one at Circa.

But this the new better than the old? Well yes and no. though the food and service was acceptable, the incident involving the raw chicken was the deal breaker for me.

Day 200: A New Era... And Sad Goodbyes...

On the 200th day the kitchen was rocked by big news. After 14 years Head Chef Robert Castellani, has stepped down to give the reigns of the kitchen over two the two Sous Chefs who have been with him for the last 10 years. Brining in a era of change, to whom some may argue for the better.

The announcement came as a huge shock, nobody saw it coming. He was a great mentor and father figure to many of us in the kitchen. I personally will be very sad to see him go. He taught me so much in the short time I was there.

He explained after 14 years and 24 chefs hats from The Age Good Food Guide, he felt he had given all he could for Donovans and he wanted to re-ignite the passion and be inspired, by travelling and seeing the world.

In coming months, Donovans will slowly but surely move into a more modern trend of cuisine, reflecting youth of the two new Head Chef’s, hopefully brining Donovans into a new era of modern Mediterranean Comfort food.

Day 197 - 199: Spring Specials

My foot is healing nicely, it my 2nd week back now and the skin is on its way back, hoping that there will be no scars.

This week was pretty relaxing. Everyone was back from holidays and for once we didn’t feel short of staff.

The days were quiet and nights surprisingly had a nice 100ish per night.

We had 2 specials on Wednesday night just as a bit of a change from our usual menu. We had beautiful pan fried whole flounder with lemon butter sauce and croutons, also a classic beef tartare as an entrée.

The special meant we all got a chance to clean flounders in a big Masterclass lined up like a production line. The dishes were a success selling out in the first hour of service.

School Day 25: EARL OF SANDWICH..

The Sandwich. Some might think this is a un-neccesary module but, like heirloom breeds of vegetables and fruit, if not taught this family favorite might die out one day lost in the world of new age and gourmet foods.

Though only a small part of the course, the test was still important, after all sandwiches have their place in history.
The test bassicly consisted of making a open sandwich, the first sandwich ever made “the bookmaker”, the pinwheel sandwich and the many different cuts of canapé sandwiches and my personal favorite the overly indulgent croque-monsieur..

Day 194 - 196: Back from the burn....

Ah back to work! I hopped for another quiet weekend since the replay of the grand final was on but my wish only ½ came true.

On my first day back one of my fellow larder chefs came in to give me a hand since I still was limping around, having freshly popped my blister. Its bandaged up now but, the shoe is very tight because of the wrappings so it rubs and causes pain when I move across large areas.

The 45 booked on Saturday arvo allowed us to play around coming up with a modern salad and a new spin on one of our beef dishes.

Sunday was a beautiful day, spring is truly here! I guess things will slowly pick up again now that its getting close to November.

Day 190 - 193: BURNNNNNNNNNNNNN

The road to the grand final weekend was a slow one. The week was quiet as the big day approached. I had my weekend early in the week so my splits would lie on Saturday and Sunday. Booking were low on grand final day I mean low like a Tuesday low.

On the day of the big game I was carrying buckets of hot stock when I had a accident I tripped over and poured hot chicken stock on my foot which hurt like hell. After swearing for a few seconds I got my shoe and sock off and my foot into cold water, it wasn’t long before it started to blister and hurt through the cooling effects of the liquid my boiled foot was in.


I was taken to the medical center on Acland street and I was told I had 2nd degree burns on my foot and I would need a week off. This was definitely not a good time since we already have no staff but I had no choice I saw my foot and it was pretty bad.

School Day 23: Congrats to all..

Walked into school and received many pats on the back. Found out that the 2nd and 3rd year competitors from Sofitel on the following days also placed in medal positions. As a celebration we have Mezzo booked out for a private masterclass and a 5 course dinner with wines.

Unfortunately I will be unable to attend, due to my flu. Which I thought was hayfever. School was buzzing with excitement though we all had to do the salads and canapé theory test which consists of definitions and the naming of some classic 80’s style hors d'oeuvres and identifying leaves of different lettuces.

Day 185-189: Just Flying by...

The lack of staff is getting out of hand, our shifts are getting more intense as the weather is picking up as wew get out of spring. The Stokehouse has finished their 6 weeks of renvovations. The start of the week was full of praise as people slowly found out about the competition. We had a very harmonious dinner service on Thursday, tables came in late, there were no fuck ups just a clean smooth service, food in food out and go home. PERFECTION

I got Friday Saturday off this week and came back to a nice Sunday lunch which wasn’t to busy. A nice way to end a draining week with tripple splits.