kitchen baptism

So after one brief year at Libramont culinary school, I started my first real job at 14 in a pub called “Les Trois Colonnes” (or ‘the three pillars’). The pub was a casual meeting point for teenagers and served pasta, lasagna and burgers to the local community in the area.

There were four of us in the kitchen, led by a young trendy, energetic chef. It was a tiny kitchen and I spent most of my days on cooking basics, turning potatoes, cleaning salad and cooking spaghetti. Days were long and tasks were mundane.

One day, in a break from our regular routine, the chef ask that I make a trip to a Chinese restaurant to get a special “elbow oil.” As a young apprentice, I was really excited to be given a new assignment but when I got there after a long trek, the restaurant was closed so I headed back, disappointed that I was not able to get what we needed in the kitchen. Back in the pub, I was greeted by three of the other chefs, laughing themselves silly at my naivete. It turns out that there is no such thing as elbow oil and no Chinese restaurant nearby. This was the start of my “kitchen baptism,” a phase every young chef needs to endure when you are bullied, sullied, and constantly the butt of all jokes and kitchen pranks – before you can be part of the “brigade.”

But over the years, all jokes aside, I have realized that laughter is indeed the best medicine. It heals, it breaks the ice, it cajoles, it bonds, it brings people together and so much joy to everyday life.

belgium fries

So off I went to pursue my new “path” and started my culinary education at Libramont, near Luxembourg.

Every day, I had to attend cooking and service classes but what everyone looked forward to every year was the summer internship. I was fortunate one year to be placed in one of the most well-paid internship positions one season. Filled with excitement, I packed my bags and arrived at my new job. But when I got there, they told me there was no restaurant at the center. Instead, I was to work as “window sales” for a make-shift food counter that served belgium fries, burgers, sausages and ice cream.

So I spent the next month perfecting the fine art of peeling, washing, slicing and frying Belgium fries.

Sometimes it’s the simple things that matter, in food, life and love.

Tips for delicious belgium fries:

• Select Bintje potatoes, a soft and slightly sweet variety
• Poach in beef fat at 100 degrees
• Cool for a few hours on a kitchen towel
• Fry at 160-180 degrees and sprinkle with sea salt when done

my maredsous adventure

I have never been a great academic at school so when I was 13, my father decided to send me to Maredsous – a prestigious boarding school and Benedictine monastery also known for its locally produced cheese and beer.

During one of our soccer practices, I noticed that there was a cheese and beer factory at the side of the monastery so one day, my friends and I decided to explore the area. And boy, were we fascinated by the machinery and drawn to the smells. Every week then after, when the monks were asleep, we would make a secret trip to the factory late into the night. It was our little “escapade.”

But one fateful night, as we were heading back from the factory back to our rooms, a mate in our group tripped and created a racket as a row of fences fell behind us. We immediately ran for our lives, afraid that we would be caught by the monks but excited at the thrill of it all. As we passed the exit of the factory, there was a small iron window we had to crawl through. Our slim frames allowed us to all squeeze through the window grills easily but Dimitri, a fat boy with a large face, got stuck. So as he screamed, we pulled, and when he was finally released, we ran back to our beds and spent the rest of the night giggling till our tummys ached. We were safe but what an adventure it was.

As beautiful as the grounds were and as elite as the institution was, my time at Maredsous was unfortunately short lived. In less than a year, the Director of the School advised my father that I was best suited for “another path” and to perhaps consider enrolling me in a food apprenticeship.

It dawned upon me then that our clandestine trips to the cheese and beer factory were not quite a secret after all. And maybe, instead of books, I could spend the rest of my life discovering food.

It also turns out that one of the secrets of true love is to retain that child-like excitement and sense of adventure in a relationship. Because you never know when you can find a fine piece of cheese.

Here is one of my favorite Maredsous cheese recipes:

Lightly pressed and washed in brine, Maredsous is a loaf-shaped cheese with a firm orange crust and a pervasive aroma. This is a variation of quiche Lorraine on which I added slices of Maredsous cheese, which adds a nice creaminess to the quiche. Savor this with a chilled beer from the same abbey 🙂

Ingredients

For 1 quiche:

200g sliced Maredsous cheese

250g smoked pork belly

1 pastry

3 eggs

2 egg yolks

25 cl crème fraîche

20g butter

nutmeg

salt, black pepper

Preparation

Quiche pastry:

• Press the pastry in a pie pan previously buttered.

• Brush the dough with egg yolk and drill small holes in the dough with a fork

• Place the bottom between 5 and 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 200 degrees

The Filling:

• Slice the bacon into small pieces, taking care to remove the rind and gristle

• Blanch bacon by dipping 3 minutes into boiling water

• Drain the bacon

• Place the rind of bacon in a skillet over high heat

• Melt the fat from the rind

• Add bacon to skillet and sauté 2 – 3 minutes, taking care not to let it sweat

• Beat eggs and cream

• Add freshly grated nutmeg

• Mix everything in order to obtain a homogeneous mixture that is slightly foamy

• Salt and pepper to taste

Finally:

• In the bottom of baked dough, arrange the bacon

• Fill up 2/3 of the height with the egg mixture

• Top it up with slices of Maredsous

• Bake in oven for 20-30 minutes at 200 degrees

• Serve warm with a salad and a drizzle of honey dressing and a Maredsous beer!

Et voila!

my first taste

Food. Life. Love.

The kitchen, in many ways is a microcosm of life, and food, in many respects, has a lot to do with love.

My first taste of life in the kitchen was at the seaside resort of Knokke in Belgium. I was 13, and through a connection of my grandma, was doing a summer internship at a popular local restaurant by the north sea. My first assignment from the chef was to make a tomato salad. Easy enough, I thought, and I quickly put together something that resembled much of what my mom used to make – freshly sliced tomatoes with olive oil, chopped onion and a dash of parsley. The old chef took a look at my dish and to my surprise, picked up the tomato pieces from the plate and threw them on my face. This was my first review, and although unforgettable was clearly, not a pleasant one.

But that experience did not stop my love for food. 10 years later, I was an executive chef at the Renaissance Hotel in Brussels and at 34, had worked in kitchens across America, Europe, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Oman, Jordan, and opened my own restaurant in Beijing.

And it was in Beijing that I discovered true love. With the same determination that gripped me from my first taste as a young chef to the many kitchens I later worked in, I found love much later in my life with the same passion and perseverance.

This is where my story begins.

Tips for a great tomato salad:

• Choose the right one…such as coeur de boeuf
• Peel and slice the tomato
  
• Sprinkle some first cold pressed olive oil
• Add a dash of chopped spanish onion and a twist of freshly sliced parsley
• and finish with some sea salt flower…(this is it and I guarantee you you will not get this on your face!)