I knew I had to make a good first impression, so saying hello... sorry bonjour to everyone was essential to show the kitchen that us australians are very hospitable people. This is protocal amongst all chefs in this kitchen, as Jean-Luc the head chef setting the example. Once i met everyone i made acquaintance with the apprentices...
1st job, putting away deliveries - as the restaurant is closed monday and tuesday, wednesday is a big delivery day, I noticed that all the apprentices were taking the ingredients that werent that large, so I looked for the 2 biggest things I could see... 20 litre drums of oil, one in each hand and I was off to the dry store. It was good fun barging through doors and showing the french that we have what it takes to survive in this kitchen. The fruit and vegetable delivery blew me away... I have never seen produce be packed so perfectly before! There was only 1 type of ingredient in each box, nothing was squashed or cramped or even touching each other.
The kitchen setup is unlike any kitchen that I have seen or worked in. The cold entrees section is far away from a stove so temperature will not effect the product. Viande(meat section) and Poisson(fish section) are on opposite sides of the kitchen seperated by the flat top stoves. The pastry is secluded into its own room. There is a Mise en Place coolroom complete with benches, cryovac machine, thermomix's, robo coupes, juicers etc. Poisson has its own bench and sink also. This coolroom is where most mise en place is done and allows staff to do preparation during service as the kitchen this time of year is quite overstaffed.
Most chefs in this kitchen are here like us, doing work experience. EVERY chef in this kitchen is here for the honor of working for Thierry Marx. Some have waited up to 2 years to be able to enter the kitchen, some have come as far as Asia and most are paying Chateau Cordeillan Bages to work here. This is the norm across Europe. All chefs are provided with accomodation, and staff meal is served everyday at 1130 and 1830. I admire the apprentices the most, none of these 3 boys are older than 17, they are living away from home(usually bankrolled by their parents), working extremely hard as they are doing every job that all the more experienced chefs dont want to do, for example passing farces and purees, cleaning, and not being even near a stove or oven. However, they are living their dream and realise that their stay at the Chateau is life changing and wouldnt give back their sacrifice for anything. This is their mindset that is taught to these apprentices so early in their careers. Everyone in this kitchen is very passionate and committed towards the cause of working for Marx in his 2 michelin starred restaurant. I have seen this at Press Club but not to this degree.
The language barrier this week has been a challenge, ive had to call upon my training over the course of my apprenticeship in acknowledging french terms, the french language classes i participated in were handy before coming to europe, but mostly Brian the American commis chef who is fluent in french has been a massive help to me. Im not sure which is harder, trying to understand a frenchman who can hardly speak english attempt to speak it, or me, an australian trying to speak french with my aussie accent. The inevitable is I have to watch very closely when mise en place is being demonstrated to me, and try to pick out words that i know when the french are speaking.
The typical meet and greet, Q&A has been going on all week. I have told the french that kangaroos live in our backyards, and that koala's are drug addicts addicted to gum leaves. Something really interesting ive noticed is that i have never realised how international music is, the french hear english speaking music alot, so they memorise it... but dont understand what they are singing. Brian assures me that I shouldnt be alarmed when the kitchen breaks out into a rendition of ' i believe i can fly' by R Kelly. Apparently that song was a big hit over here...
My time this week has been eye opening towards the rest of our stay as well as the rest of my career. I have acknowledged and understood the emphasis on perfection in this kitchen but it is a long road to produce that level consistantly. But im not scared of that challenge i welcome it...
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Hello readers,
ReplyDeleteAfter working in the kitchen for the past two and a half weeks i have discovered that it quite a different experience than i was expecting. there is a surpless of chefs wondering about, majority of them working for free in the hopes of learning as are we, so there is always an abundance of hands to help. Come service time each person has a set job that he or she must do, wether it be to cook the meat or simply to carry plates everyone has there position and that is were they stay. The apprentices work out in the back rooms and scale the fish or strain stocks and i have spent some time working with them. I also spent i week working in the pastry section where i was able to plate up peti fours and dip lollie pops in chocolate. i also spent a lot of time working out in the bakehouse, a small room for pastry and flour only.
The menu never changes and remainds the same all year long, so the dishes for the menu have been perfected to perfection and the quality can be kept at the same standed. the fact that there are so many chefs means that everything is always completed and if it is not up to the standards of the head chefs request it gets done again.
The hardest thing so far is the language barriers, most of them can speak english but when trying to explain some of the questions i have asked they find it difficult to comunicate the answers, and i dont always understand what they are trying to say. The highlight for me so far is seeing so many different products in the dry goods store and some different fruit and vegetables that i havnt really used a lot of before,
i must go, i have to be in the kitcken again soon, thanks for reading,