Working Holiday

Of the long months that Feuille Food Lab was not in service, I was busy having my hands full fulfilling my travel plans. To me, I think it's equally important to keep abreast of the current pace of the cuisines around the world aside from my own creations. Therefore I travel and tend to a variety of the currently world renowned restaurants. As colleagues in the culinary arts, I tend to approach the food from these restaurants from a different perspective. Notwithstanding the flavors, I try to determine if the menu offered takes into account the availability of the seasonal produce at hand and if the items on the menu display any connection or allusion to each other or if that they follow a particular theme.

Or through conversation, I want to find out why some ingredients are prepared this way and what trade-offs were considered in terms of the techniques rather than the flavors employed and what new discoveries or innovative techniques or technologies were attempted. How complex the dishes were also reveals a lot about the chef's experience and his/her thinking process. When it comes to the flavors, I find that it's quite common for some chefs not to realize how some flavors of various dishes resemble too similar in taste, texture and application.

Involving myself in this part of the process is important as it helps reflect myself from the diners' perspectives and helps me to avoid some of the mistakes that I, as a chef, may have unknowingly made.