29. The Fifth Floor
November 2002-May 2003
Whenever I stand in the kitchen, I feel the existence of invisible man right behind me. Whenever my station is not spotless, I hear the voice "CLEEEAN! SO DIRRRTYYee!!" When I season and taste something, I hear the whisper "more sherry / salt / lemon jus" When I'm going down during mise en place, I can hear that voice "PUUUUUSH!!!" I hear the voice every day when I stand in the kitchen. To me, if I don't hear this voice all day,that means my performance is great on the day. I always work in the kitchen as I believe the invisible man watching my job all day. This way I feel I can push myself every single mins and moving forward as one culinary professional. Who's this invisible man? His name is chef Laurent Gras.
I was stagiaire at the fifth floor twice a week for half year. So I don't need to put the name on my resume, I guess. But it has been on my resume. It just simply because the experience I had at the fifth floor changed my culinary life or one meeting with chef Laurent changed my life.
Say: this blog or my future restaurant name, Passion, Spirit, Inspiration. Those three things I learned from chef Laurent 8yrs ago. I think lots of(but not all) cooks/chefs have passion in cooking. Food & cooking is endless, like universe. Chef's imagination, ideas, creativity, billions of ingredients, always full of inspirations. And "Spirit" .... Compared with those previous two words, this maybe kinda hard to get it. "spirit" in cooking? But, yes... I definitely want it in my kitchen, restaurant and culinary life.
This single word "spirit" I chose for my restaurant containing lots of meaning, say some:
1. mentality as a culinary professional, eager to learn, push own to next level every single day.
November 2002-May 2003
Whenever I stand in the kitchen, I feel the existence of invisible man right behind me. Whenever my station is not spotless, I hear the voice "CLEEEAN! SO DIRRRTYYee!!" When I season and taste something, I hear the whisper "more sherry / salt / lemon jus" When I'm going down during mise en place, I can hear that voice "PUUUUUSH!!!" I hear the voice every day when I stand in the kitchen. To me, if I don't hear this voice all day,that means my performance is great on the day. I always work in the kitchen as I believe the invisible man watching my job all day. This way I feel I can push myself every single mins and moving forward as one culinary professional. Who's this invisible man? His name is chef Laurent Gras.
I was stagiaire at the fifth floor twice a week for half year. So I don't need to put the name on my resume, I guess. But it has been on my resume. It just simply because the experience I had at the fifth floor changed my culinary life or one meeting with chef Laurent changed my life.
Say: this blog or my future restaurant name, Passion, Spirit, Inspiration. Those three things I learned from chef Laurent 8yrs ago. I think lots of(but not all) cooks/chefs have passion in cooking. Food & cooking is endless, like universe. Chef's imagination, ideas, creativity, billions of ingredients, always full of inspirations. And "Spirit" .... Compared with those previous two words, this maybe kinda hard to get it. "spirit" in cooking? But, yes... I definitely want it in my kitchen, restaurant and culinary life.
This single word "spirit" I chose for my restaurant containing lots of meaning, say some:
1. mentality as a culinary professional, eager to learn, push own to next level every single day.
2. self pride in cooking, what we are, why we cook
3. respect to people, ingredients kitchen, tools and knives,
4. dedication to hard work, commitment to the company, willing to sacrifice to achieve own goal
5. focus & attention to the details & cleanness
3. respect to people, ingredients kitchen, tools and knives,
4. dedication to hard work, commitment to the company, willing to sacrifice to achieve own goal
5. focus & attention to the details & cleanness
6. anger against mistakes & laziness
Those're things I learned from chef Laurent, or rather say Things slowly I realized after couple yrs I left the fifth floor.
Chef Laurent's foods are full of inspirations and just tastes SO DAMN GOOD!! His signature crab avodcado, rabbit 5 ways, pork dish, macadamia vin... I loved every single moment I spent at the fifth floor. But again I learned something bigger than cooking itself at the fifth floor,those were true passion and real spirit. It was priceless invaluable life lesson as one human being.....
Thanks list:
Chef Laurent, Francis, Sean, Travis, Jennie, Aaron, Nathan, Daniel, Greg, Andrew, David... and all those I forgot just momentary...