First of all, my apologies for the lack of updates recently, been crazy busy!
I hinted in one of my posts that I would talk a little about health and safety at some point in the future. The future has come, for I now intend to write about this subject. For those of you of the squeamish nature, STOP READING NOW!
Hygiene awareness is a big deal in the kitchen, as you would expect, and the larger companies tend to over-react and quite frankly get a bit silly over the whole thing. As with everything though, there are two ends of the spectrum, the lower end in this case being held by the small companies that slip through the bureaucracy.
In the UK, we are quite heavily regulated and very self conscious of hygiene standards in the kitchen. This doesn't mean we are perfect, far from it. I was once made to cook a curry with beef that was way to far out of date and stank to high heaven, the head chef seemed to think this was fine, the rest of us were disgusted though. I have to point out, this was the only time I have come across something like this within the UK.
Unfortunately, now comes the Yank Bashing. I have worked in several establishments within the US over the years, and I have to say, I'm pretty disgusted! Has no-one ever heard of cleaning? How the hell do these places get away with the build up of grime as they have? This stuff is thick! And as for the treatment of the food! There is no labeling, of ANY description. You have no idea what is what (unless you yourself made it) or when it was made. There is a lackadaisical attitude towards Health and Hygiene, what is worse, the health department let them get away with it!
Since I started at my job, I have been trying to implement changes to the cleanliness of the kitchen as a whole. It has been a slow process, and the kitchen needed a lot of work, but at this stage I can say I am a lot happier with the standards now than when I got there. About a week after I started though, we had a health inspection, no warning, just came in and checked us out. Do you know how much this inspector actually dragged us up on? One thing, just ONE THING! OMG! His request was that we clean the extraction fan, just that? Really? I tell you now, if that had been an inspection in England, we would have been shut down on the spot. Seriously, there are (or were) way too many things wrong with that place. We had rotten food under the tables, we had mice, we had broken and missing tiles on the floor and walls (this encourages dirt build up and is harder to clean) we had way too many problems. Nothing was clean, the shelves were all over the place with food, there was no stock control. I really can't list all of the problems with this place.
Rest assured, the situation is no longer such. All of these problems have been eliminated, and the kitchen is sooo much better. How the hell could the inspector overlook all of these issues though? I would have been dragged across hot coals in England! To allow the kitchen to get into such a state is a crime, and quite frankly dangerous. The previous chef is responsible, it's true, BUT SO IS EVERYONE ELSE WHO WORKS WITHIN THAT RESTAURANT! You can't argue, "well no-one else does anything about it" because that just does not wash. Health and Hygiene is the responsibility of each and everyone of the staff, no excuses. The only excuse that is valid, is such, "I tried to do the right thing but I was stopped from doing it" that covers your arse.
I would love to say that this place is an exception, but everywhere else I have worked in the US (and Israel) has been just as bad. I have heard that they are better in Manhattan, I can only say, they can't be much worse!
Have a good weekend all.

Being a chef for 15 years does not mean you know everything there is to know about cooking. Far from it, the longer you work in this industry the more you need to learn. Aside from this, it is always a good idea to look around for fresh inspiration. To that end, no chef worth his salt would go without brousing the cook book section of Barnes & Noble or Borders on a regular basis. So this week I picked up a couple of said books. Needless to say, I have hardly read them properly at his point, but I came across something in one of them that got my blood boiling.
This book is a collection of Fish recipes (the recipes look quite good so far) written by an American Chef, haven't yet read his Biography so I don't know where he was trained. All I can say for sure is this, he sure as hell didn't learn his trade in Europe or the UK! At one point in this book, he is explaining how Sushi restaurants will freeze their Sashimi grade fish to keep it's freshness (I would dispute this as frozen raw fish tastes very different and has a slightly different texture, trust me, I tried it!) This is not my problem with him so far, everything is reasonable, even if I don't agree. It's the additional comment that got me; "Freezing fish is also reccomended as the freezing kills most of the bacteria"
WTF!? How many people out there have read this in his book and thought they could freeze their fish that is on the turn, thinking that the bacteria would be killed? Is this guy nuts! Don't they teach health and safety in the USA? (looking at the state of the kitchens, possibly not, but that's for another blog) Freezing does not kill the bacteria, it puts them to sleep, makes them lie dormant, until you defrost the fish and the little buggers themselves. COOKING kills the bacteria, and even that is not definite as some of them are able to coccon themselves from the extreme heat, and break the coccoon when the heat drops back down. This is more likely to occur during gradual rises in temperature rather than flash cooking, any way, I digress.
What the hell is this guy on, anyway? I have never heard such rubbish (trash) in all of my life, and I would hate to eat anything that he creates, because who knows what other wierd health and safety ideas he has.
That is my rant of the day. I intend to get a recipe up within the next few days, once I work out how to downsize them to home use, which is after I work out the actual quantities I use in the first place. One draw back to asking a chef for a recipe, unless it is pastry based, we do not measure, everything is by eye, smell and taste. I will do my best though. Any specific requests? No promises though!

Ok, so I work in an "upmarket" French/Morrocan restaurant. Tonight was a mediocre night with only a few tables (tops to the Yanks)booked and a couple of walk-ins. I did something very simple today for one of the dishes, something that appears on almost every British menu. Saute Mushrooms with the Ribeye steak. Oh the reaction this brought! They were impressed, EXCUSE ME? WTF? They're only mushrooms for goodness sake! Almost every steak within the UK is served with them, it's standard. Then I realised, where-ever I have had steak within the US, there have been no mushrooms served with it. So I asked someone today if there is anywhere they have been and had mushrooms with their steak, the response was "only in the high end steak restaurants in New York City"
Ok, this is absolutely ridiculous. Such a simple thing, to get the response I did, there is something seriously wrong with the catering trade over here.

First Day!

So, for some strange reason I have had the urge to create my own Blog. I will endeavour to keep my subject matter to culinary statements, but inevitably I may end up straying off the subject, my advance apologies!
As my title page suggests, I am a British born and trained chef, now living in the US, New Jersey to be precise. I have been coming over to the states on a regular basis for the last 9 years to see friends, and have now imigrated here with my American/Israeli wife.

Every time I have visited, I have inevitably cooked something for the people I have been staying with or seeing over the weekend. It has always a surprise to me how easy they have been impressed with the very little I have done, as all of the dishes I have made for them have been very basic, mainly due to the lack of time, space or equipment. These blogs are going to explore some of the reasons behind this, and it may also give you an insight into the Catering trade. I hope I do not bore you too much. Just to keep your appetite sated, I will periodically put up some of my recipes, or recipes that I have been taught and use myself.