Culinary Adventures

Been busying myself on my days off cooking up a storm. I was watching a program about Gordon Ramsay trying to save some restaurants from closing down on Tuesday after MasterChef. He threw away a whole stack of cookbooks that the owner who is also the chef of the restaurant, owns. He taught him to create a menu that is easy & fast to dish out. At the end of the show, he told the owner that he is no longer a cook but a chef now. It got me thinking. What's the difference between a cook & a chef? What criteria do you have to meet to call yourself a chef? Then it came to me. A chef creates while a cook reproduce. A chef is someone who looks at the ingredients on hand & creates a dish from nowhere. A cook follows a set recipe. So I feel that you don't have to be a professional to be a chef. I'm too far away to be a chef. 

Being fans of the MasterChef, the question of whether we will even consider taking part in the contest ourselves is inevitable. We both said no. I love cooking at my own pace & leisure. I cook what I love to eat. To have a time limit & have someone else dictate the ingredients I can use is just not for me. I have some ideas but I'm definitely not creative enough to be a chef. Besides, my plating sucks. I don't have the skills & ability to perform under that kind of pressure. Cooking is a hobby. Not something I want to do for a living.

My 3rd attempt at making gnocchi & this attempt turned out perfect. They look awful becoz I should have cooked them as I made them instead of making the entire batch at 1 go. Even though they were well floured, they stuck together & pulling them apart distorted their shape.

Blueberry rice pudding. A recipe from MasterChef Australia season 1. 

My fusion dish. Chorizo & ricotta ravioli with Bak Kut Teh nankotsu.

Rendang with tumeric glutinous rice & pandan wrap. Recipe by Poh, runner up of MasterChef season 1 during a recent episode. The wrap was supposed to be lattice in design but I didn't have a container with a narrow spout to create it. So it became a pancake instead.

Served with cucumber & coriander relish.

The contestants had to recreate Duck a l' orange in an invention test. I decided to do my own version of it. But I couldn't find duck breast. I have such terrible knife skills that I don't want to attempt deboning a whole duck. Duck breasts are available in markets but it was a last min decision to do this so I used a chicken instead. 1st, I cured the chicken in orange juice. I used an onion & sage stuffing (that came out of a box) & added orange zest. Instead of water, I used orange juice to moisten the stuffing. Next, I made candied orange slices. I then seasoned the chicken with salt & 5 spice powder (my own asian spin to it). I baked the chicken for 50 mins covered with foil. In the last 10 mins of the bake, I basted the chicken with the syrup from making candied orange & baked uncovered. Finally, I served it with the candied orange slices. No recipe, just something that I created from nowhere. Can I be a chef now? :P