The king of the skies

After my successful but short tour inside the Sandnes ship, my first encounter with a king crab and a cold beer, I couldn't resist my passion for flying machines, and decided to fly over the festival area and the surroundings.

Its a bit crazy to see houses built by the sea, just a meter or two above the ocean, to feel absolutely fragile in that small flying egg, hundred meters high.

But what I also felt was freedom, a huge endless freedom.

The freedom that I have felt only in a rapid boat sailing trough the norwegian fjords, or sitting on the top of a snowy valley in west Austria...or walking over one of the biggest glaciers in Iceland, or biking at midnight in Paris, sitting under the Londons Bridge and overlooking at the Big Ben, or walking to a dead volcano and climbing to the top in central Mexico.

This freedom that can only be compared to a chef's mind, picking the right produce, choosing the best way to make a recipe, being able to dress it as he wants, and present it just as his mind told him to.

The freedom to transform the basic into the most complex and amazing meal.

It was really nice to feel the freedom again.

The king of the seas

Its not a ship, its not a Captain; it's a crab, the King Crab.

Remember the sad food festival?

Well, I think I found some happiness after all, and it was at the right place, the Sandnes, a ship from the Rogaland District in Norway which docked in the harbour during the food festival, with the doors open to the public to admire it.

After three days of seeing it docked in the harbour, with a big cardboard saying "taste the king crab", and after three days of sad food, I decided to jump in and take a look, hoping for something more than the paella or the overpriced samples of norwegian food.

So more or less, this is what I found.

The red king crab was introduced into the artic coasts of Norway and Russia, but it became a plague. Despite that, there are very strict regulations that protects them, allowing only a certain number of tons. to be caught by a limited number of fishermen.
Now it's an expensive delicacy in most restaurants around the world, but here, where the salmon is cheaper than poultry, the king crab is not as expensive.

So here I got the chance to taste it for the first time, in a light butter sauce and asparagus, ah and of course, don't forget the bread and the butter. The taste? mild and sweet, that complemented perfectly with the sauce. To take it out of the shell of legs was extremely easy, and unlike other crabs, the actual meat was firm and with a delicate taste.
Of course, I was still hungry, but the experience was good, and spending a sunny afternoon on the deck of a huge ship, eating king crab and drinking a cold beer was priceless.

Sad food

Gladmat Festival, translated "happy food" was, from a chef's point of view..a sad food festival

As most of you can guess, Norway has very little -or none- knowledge about foreign food. Why? Because quite honestly, there are few Chefs who dare to come and settle down in this country to share their native food with the locals.
And those few ones who dared, like me, aren't being accepted by the government to settle down here and work, just as everyone else.

The result? A culinary oblivion, where norwegian or polish chefs, pseudo-chefs and wannabe foodies feel like making spanish or mexican food, serve it at a restaurant, charge you 300 nok (30 euros or 600 mexican pesos) and even claim its authentic!

Just because the norwegian Chefs Bent Stiansen and Geir Skeie won the 93' and 09' versions the Bocuse d'Or, doesnt mean that there is no place in this Country for other Chefs. Or that the Norwegian Cuisine is the best in the world, or even less, that norwegians can make ALL kind of foods!
I've heard many times that there are Mexican, French, Italian, Spanish restaurants. But have you been there and tried the pseudo-ethnic food they serve?
Its absolutely ridiculous.

I assisted to the Gladmat Festival, recommended by everyone, to be the culinary heaven, but sadly, It was nothing like that.

This cr---p, a pseudo "chile con carne" with corn bread and out-of-the-can corn was sold by some wannabe mexican restaurant during the festival, and they claimed it was authentic mexican food "from everywhere in Mexico"-as I was told by someone working there.

-Excuse me, but what is this?

-We have a tortilla wrap, ribs and this is chile con carne, all mexican specialties.

-Im sorry but, specialties from where, from which state?

-Everywhere in Mexico, really, all mexicans eat this.

-Oh dear...I see... And you got your recipes from?

-A chef from Maine, she came and gave us this amazing recipes.

-Yeah, with canned corn as topping, right?

But hey, it doesn't end here, lets see what else happened in other stands, because during the 3 days i attended, i found enough material to make my own version of kitchen nigthmares.

Actually at one spanish stand, I felt a bit like Gordon Ramsay, facing disgusting food sold as authentic goodies to all these poor people.

I have nothing about other people selling the food they like the most, I do it myself, considering my experience and education in France. But hey, I have a big respect for the food, and despite the facts we Chefs are allowed to make some minor changes to the food, I wouldn't fuck up a coq au vin and then sell it as traditional french food.

Said that, i approached the spanish chef, you know, chef jacket with the Spain flag, his and his restaurant's name all in spanish.

-hola, que tal? me puede dar dos platos de paella, por favor? (hi, can i have 2 paellas please)

-snakker kun på englesk! (speak english!)

-My apologies, I just thought you are in love with spain and its food, so you would speak some spanish, hein?

-I dont understand

-Yeah, you have a spanish restaurant, you serve spanish food, you have the Spain flag in your jacket, i would expect you to speak spanish

-Ja, ja....what do you want?(pissed off)

-I wanted paella but, why is it so mushy, and It looks overcooked from here.... you put saffron in it, didn't you?

Enough said, local restaurants participate in this festival wanting to make money before making food. What a wicked idea.
And hey it's not only my opinion. Its well known that the local newspapers gave a poor rating to many of the stands in the festival, and many other stands were shut down for failures to stick to food hygiene and food safety regulations. Damn but we all chefs have learnt that at school haven't we? Or wait are they real chefs or just a dude with a chef jacket and a hat?... or actually no chef jacket and no hat, and sometimes not even an apron. Just a random dude there that has no idea of what's going on, like at this oriental stand, where they couldn't tell me the ingredients inside the not amazing spring rolls. Or be clever enough to notice the rice is undercooked and cold.

Even at the cheapest nastiest chinese they would give you decent rice (a fool-proof dish), and know the basic ingredients of a vegetarian spring roll. And as a spanish friend, who also attended this festival said, we would have cooked, even for free, to make a real authentic food, but the norwegians are so proud that they wont ask for, or accept any help.
Just like him, I would have liked to be there next to their stand, with my own traditional mexican food, and see what would have happened. Next year, maybe, if norwegians realise that making food is first an art, and then a business.

All set for the Gladmat Festival 2009

This sounds like the best place to be in Norway this week, the Gladmat festival that , for 11th year, will fill the Stavanger Bay and surroundings with more than 30 different cuisines, special norwegian guests, cookbooks, food writers, chefs, foodies and tourists, all in the same place, for 4 days.
Unfortunately for me, a food-lover Chef, I wont be participating in the festival as an exposer as I was planning, however I will be there to cover the festival highlights, as well as visiting the back of the house, thanks to the festival organizers who have been helping me with the program, logistics and an all-access pass.
I will try to see what most people wont see on the guest's side.
I will try to get to know the Chefs, their experiences, and what they are showing to the world.
This will be the first part of my own project named "The food connection" but this is yet to be a surprise.

Hopefully I will get to shoot from the air, but we will see how this develops, and if the weather will be good enough for an helicopter tour.
As for myself, everythings ready!

Dressing up Sjokolade Fondant

After focusing in new ideas for the menu, I had to go back and review one of our best-selling desserts, the chocolate fondant. A sweet bite of dark chocolate and rhum, served with vanilla ice cream and wildberries.
I think we have never had a standard way to dress it up, however my first attemptm which was pleasantly accepted by co-workers, restaurant manager and guests. Now i find it a bit "empty", vague and definetely not space-saving!



Now with a round dish (smaller), higher in the centre, focuses the fondant and keeps the berries and the coulis away from the chocolate, waiting until the guest gives the final strike. Like?


Personally, I like this version more, and hopefully it will become a standard in our restaurant...Its a bit ironical that while I was working in Paris, and I decided to "upgrade" a little bit to please the guest (or to improvise), I was always told to stick to the standard, which of course I thought it wasn't that high for a 4 star hotel. All i could think was, "If i can do it better, I will do it better because your standards aren't right!". And that actually got me in some troubles.
But what I wanted to say about all this standarisation is that if its good then keep it, and if not then change it! Standards are never high enough!.

On other matters, but back into desserts, what i dislike is the prohibitive cost of fresh raspberries, or any other berry, which stops me for making a french chocolate macaron with vanilla scented mascarpone cheese and raspberries. That was a really good dessert, simple, eye-catchy and tasty! To read more about the Macaron, and all the information related to the menu developed (not by me) at the Marriott, go to Courtyard entry.