Rewards for Good Things

Some things in life truly surprise you. They are few and far between but they happen.

Someone recently queried my sanity at spending the Bd 20,000 or $75,000 on publishing Arabian Dreams on limited release, throughout just the Middle East. My reply, was , well "I BELIEVED IN THE PROJECT."

Many of us who cook, never invest in ourselves throughout our career . Yet we are our greatest tool. We are not about knives, but about ourselves. A chef does not stand back and point to his expensive knife box and say,"There, that is the sum of my career".

This is not my "ouevre", I believe there is more inside me yet to come, but its pretty dam close. If the remainder of my career I do nothing more than sit back and reflect upon the pride of the effort my team where I work,  made to help produce the dream which was ARABIAN DREAMS, then I will truly be blessed anyway.

I am not a religious person to any great extent, but I do believe if you put good things out into the universe you will be rewarded. (A harsh lesson a GM I know is currently learning on the opposite end of that scale)

ARABIAN DREAMS has definately been a good thing and has been accepted into the universe by thousands of people. Not only has the book become the BEST ARABIC TITLE COOKBOOK IN THE WORLD and on the list of TOP 57 COOKBOOKS of 2011 but it has also sold far greater numbers than I ever hoped for.

If "Success is based upon the amount of risk you are willing to stomach", then risk I did. 

Today Arabian Dreams is to be found in Abu Dhabi at Blossum Cakes store, In Egypt through the Egypt Chef's Association, In England through Squires Kitchen store and On-line, through Lebanesebooks.com can be found in Australia through Fred Mayer imports NSW, and throughout the Middle East in Jashanmal bookstores, booksarabia.com, and in all good bookstores (including Waitrose supermarket in Dubai) through the Middle East.
Starting this week ARABIAN DREAMS has been lucky to garner some truly blessed PR at the hands of amazing magazines. Three full pages in Spinney's FOOD magazine, Dubai, a whole 4 colour pages in HELLO magazine MIDDLE EAST Edition July 23rd publication and more in Dubai Voyager Duty Free magazine and we hear soon to come to Tabloid Saturday in the GULF NEWS newspaper.
Ten months it has been released now and yet sales continue to climb and PRess becomes greater every passing day. To those who joined the Arabian Dream and the most amazing book i have ever been part of, thank you from the bottom of my heart. This book is not about personal gain, but about proving that REAL CHEFS still have a voice in this world. Many publishers prefer home economists and designers who barely cook, because CHEFS are too professional (yes I have a dozen letters from publishers stating that). ARABIAN DREAMS was born, produced, written , photographed and paid for by a team a CHEF who had a belief that the words and the food meant something and deserve to be set free into the universe. Rewards for good things are truly a blessing,

For those of you who do not live in the MIDDLE EAST, please try and get your hands upon a copy to view photos of amazing food, the read the words of Gary Rhodes about the beauty of the Middle East and to read the text from myself and my team who labored over this book of New Age Middle Eastern Concepts.

Before you judge the Middle East based upon news broadcasts, learn about its history and its culture and especially its food. Do not be swayed by politics or fighting. Yes its bad, but there are millions more people working hard within the Middle East who are surviving and trying to tell the world how amazing this place really is. Like any country, there are problems, but below the surface and below the headlines, the people, the culture and the food are an absolute blessing. Even we who live here, are sometimes blinded by its sands. Yet take a day off and most of us wonder at why we would ever consider to leave its shores.

Inside the kitchen we have no boundaries, other than the limits of your imagination and your skill. Step inside a Middle Eastern kitchen and you will find the true United Nations, the absolute Gulf Co-operative Council and a world of absolute freedom.

Thank you to everyone for your interest in ARABIAN DREAMS and may all your DREAMS come true.

Spinney's FOOD magazine available throughout Dubai and the UAE August 2011

Third page of Spinney's FOOD Magazine Middle East 

HELLO Magazine Middle East Edition July 23rd 2011

ARABIAN DREAMS, now selling in Cairo through the Egypt Chefs Association, In Paris at the Librarie Gourmande, In Abu Dhabi at Blossum Cakes, Jashanmals bookstore in Bahrain and also in stores in UAE, Dubai, Qatar and Kuwait. Call Swiss Food in Bahrain for a copy in Qatar or Bahrain or go online at Amazon.com, Lebanesebooks.com, Squireskitchens.com and Booksarabia.com.

Another Day - A Few More Whims

Just posting photos to add to the collection added yesterday. Another day and a few more whims of plated deliciousness as well as three tarts made throughout the day.
Amazing how productive we are some days really !!
Enjoy and thanks for telling all your friends to stop by and sample the tasty treats. Spread the word and when we get 10,000 viewers i will start posting the recipes to go with all this stuff.
Have a delicious day

Chocolate tart with almond sponge, salted white chocolate, pistachio ganache and powdered pomegranate

Almond Chocolate Conceptual dessert

Salted Caramel and Chocolate Streusel tartlet served with Chocolate Fondant and Grau De Cacao Tuille

Almond and Raspberry tart with Vanilla Creme Chiboust

Banoffee Pie/ Tart Banoffee (graham cracker base, caramel creameux, fresh bananas, fresh mascarpone creme chantilly)

Coconut Chiffon Tart

Whims of Fancy - Plated Desserts

For the pastrychef there can be no greater fun than the plated dessert.
Like no time in the past thousand years have we seen such artistry in plated concepts than the past decade thanks to the likes of Heston Blummenthal and Ferran Adria, Pierre Herme and so on. Their philosophies and concepts make us all relook at visions, taste, texture and presentation.
As a close friend, mentor, Executive Chef and fellow food blog enthusiast, Paul Britton stated just yesterday,"I want the picture to reflect the dish, not just be a plate of food".
 Check out his food blog for amazing photos of the savory side of life, truly amazing stuff.   (http://paulbritton.blogspot.com/)

For those of you deciding eventually or not to become pastry chefs, let me tell you what an amazing career it is and secondly tell you that the different types of pastry chefs one can be within a singular trade name is amazing.
There are those who are first and foremost dedicated to training and elevating the trade, they are often career competition entrants or cooking school teachers, lecturers etc.
In the kitchen itself, there are those who work for restaurants and elevate the trade with momentary visions of splendor in the form of Plated desserts. There are Sugar Work specialists, sugar pulled, blown, cast you name it that can work it. There are chocolate specialists, petit four specialists, friandise, petit four sec, sucre, sale, etc etc.
There are you pastry chefs who simply do production in larger factories, pastry chefs for cafes and bistros who do a little of everything and hotel pastry chefs who work the kitchen , the budget and the crew as well.

I have had the pleasure of working almost every level over 30 years. I unashamedely state that I am a production chef. I love the thrill of organising a crew to produce amazing food and love the rush of so many different things being prepared all at the same time. I specialise in multi- tasking , and love it.
In 1980's I started in restaurants making plated desserts, I moved to hotels and eventually became a lecturer and did numerous competitions, Corporate pastry chef, private pastry chef, restaurant, hotel and consultant have all been in the titles on my business cards over the years.

Still to this day I love every aspect of the industry.
Plated desserts though hold a special place in my heart though. I enjoy them and I know they will be enjoyed. 25 years ago I remember putting a piece of rosemary onto a dish as garnish because we had run out of mint. I was summarily reamed out by my Executive Chef for mixing sweet and savoury and for not thinking. Today I adore rosemary in my desserts, perhaps because of that event.

Salted caramel and rosemary tartlet with rosemary and vanilla creme chiboust with a smear of italian meringue

My desserts DO NOT feature the espumas, and the airs, the clouds of aroma and the wafts of hand picked vanilla beans picked on the left side of the highest mountain tops of Kilamanjaro by certified eunics.

Perhaps if I worked in the truly high end restaurants and houses of fine gastronomy they would, but I don't.
As I stated before I am a production pastry chef.
And whilst I know that the airs, gravels and espumas can be done for thousands, I prefer to make simple, taste amazing. Thats the old school in me. I do not suggest that the others aren't fantastic, but I spent years on ships and the majority of what I do now is to try and work out a dish that can be produced in the kitchen foremost and sent to the plating area almost complete. The plating of such dishes should be achievable in under 5 elements. Touch a plate 5 times and times this by 1000 or 2000 plates and you need a lot of hands to complete service. Simple, fast, sexy, is a mantra I subscribe to.
Like I said there are so many different types of pastry chef in the world, and this is me. I like to work nice dishes but make them achievable for thousands in the fastest time frame possible.
We all have our need, space and requirement in this industry, thats what makes Pastry so amazing. We can all do the same trade, have the same skills, yet never work on the same type of projects throughout our career.

Here are yesterdays plated desserts. I wish you could have tasted them !!

Fauborg Pave with Argmanac soaked apricots and apricot, peach, apple, raisin and white vinegar chutney

Spiced chilli chocolate ganache with chocolate fondant, caramel chocolate macaroon, onion ring and chives

Chocolate almond perspective

Caramel Chiffon tartlet with green tea and guava coulis and draped white chocolate lattice

For my friend Jason gavin, the 2011 Plate of ten Chocolates.     Ball of four chocolates(4) (Caramel chocolate mousse, brownie,dark chocolate and glaze) on a carre chocolat with puffed rice(5), three chocolate soils (8)(caramelised white chocolate, chocolate sable and spiced chilli chocolate crush) with a chocolate sauce(9) and grau de cacao tuille(10).

Lychee and Kumaradeen delice with salted white chocolate shards with caramelised white chocolate and acacia honey

Giving Thanks, Every Day !!

I have been contemplating Thanks Giving lately.
I'm not American and I have not lived in or worked in the US now for 6 years, but the idea of a day dedicated to giving thanks for anything and everything has begun to weigh on me a lot.
I just like the idea of a day of family, friends, turkey and pumpkin pie. I miss that kind of life style. The Middle East is too hot to eat such an extravaganza, (although we try somedays).
As a Pastry Chef I also love the idea of pumpkin in desserts and the flavors that associate themselves so well with it. MR Skoolan was an American Exchange teacher I had in grade 3 or 4. I guess these days he has to be in his 60's. In the 1970's he spoke to our class of Independence Day , Thanks Giving and all things American. He taught us, about Pumpkin pie, Hungarian Goulash (Don't ask me why) and other favored dishes of his own youth.
His recipe for Pumpkin pie, which we only ever knew as Mrs Skoolan's Pumpkin Pie recipe (his mother's), has stayed with me since Grade 4 and is still the recipe I use in the professional kitchen to this very day. Perhaps it was as far back as Grade 3/4 that I really developed a desire for pastry, or perhaps it was just good luck that I retained such a recipe.
Today , everyone has a Pumpkin pie of choice. I still relish the flavors, but have changed them into a roulade and a dessert based on the "idea" of Pumpkin pie. Crust of cinnamon sable, Pumpkin mousse, and pumpkin tuilles and some extreme vanilla marshmallow to sweeten the plate and all topped with a sweet maple syrup mascarpone cream for topping.
The Roulade is a pumpkin sponge with walnuts, maple syrup infused mascarpone cream and Egg Nog and pumpkin mousse centre.

Modern version of Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin and Walnut Roulade with maple Syrup mascarpone Cream and Eggnog and Pumpkin Mousse Centre

To be able to cook and create like this, makes anyone want to Give-thanks every day of the year, not just in the US and not just on Thanks Giving Weekend.