Pictures Of Africa....: November 2012

I spent four days last week working in the Tasting Room kitchen at Le Quartier Francais as my work experience. I was lucky enough for Margot Janse to let me work in her kitchen. It was such an amazing experience, nothing like what I had expected. I learned so much as to what its like to be a chef and what's involved in the work. It was an experience that I will never forget. Margot recently got Chef of the year in South Africa and the Tasting Room restaurant got second best restaurant of the year and I can see why. The Tasting Room food is incredible and so beautiful. There is no need for any art on the walls as the food is the art in the Tasting Room. Here's the website link if you want to have a peek lqf.co.za.
I got many odd jobs working with Chip (in charge of the fish section). The first job I was given was to take the good leaves of the parsley and separate them from the stalks...i know not very interesting but I was happy because it gave me a chance to look around and see where everything is and what everyone is doing. It gave me a chance to observe the kitchen while not getting in the way ! On Tuesday I worked from 14:00-21:30. One of the things I learned while working in the kitchen is that preparation is key, you have to have everything needed for that night prepared so that you are ready when the orders come in and you have to be a very organised person. In the Tasting Room they only serve dinner so no lunch or breakfast but the other restaurant in Le Quartier Francais, The Common Room serves breakfast, lunch and dinner for the hotel.
I'll name a few jobs I got to do some more interesting than others... peeling leaves of herbs for garnishing, peeling the leaves of the gooseberries(they freeze them and then use the juice of the gooseberries), Chip then allowed me to carve holes in the squid ink meringues (I'll put up a pic on the side), peeled + chopped + then cut four cucumbers into tinsy tiny squares which took me about an hour! (no joke), I then peeled + cored + halved apples that were then vacuum packed. I had plenty of other little jobs a lot like those. Tuesday night I helped with the snack platter to send out to the customers as they sit down (I'll include a picture of the snack platter). Doing the snack platters I noticed how hectic it can get all of a sudden, you have to be fast but at the same time neat and well focused. I also got loads of tasters of the spare dishes they had which was amazing, the food not only looks amazing but tastes amazing too! I got a taster of the snack platter, the beetroot dish, the nettle and artichoke soup, the curry monk fish,the wildebeest and the flower salad.

Snack Platter:black rice cracker, chakalaka & pap cigars, fois gras biscuits wrapped in edible silver and squid ink meringues.

Klein karoo Wildebeest loin, kamut, sorghum, rainbow carrots and celeriac

Klein rivier gruyere, pressed rusk, mebos custard. currants and pickled onion

Baobab, coconut, honeybush and caramel. The caramel was poured over this coconut dome when it arrived which melted it and revealed everything underneath it!

Coconut ice-cream, meringue and biscuit base

Sweet corn and parsley bread with caramelised butter

Beetroot, buttermilk labne, dill and cucumber granita. This dish was on Masterchef SA

Flower summer salad.

Sting nettle, jerusalem artichoke and granadilla soup. Yes, it’s amazing.

Curry dusted silver monk, yellow dahl, kale, braised spices and confit tomato

On Friday, my last day I worked with Diego and Amy at the pastry section which I loved as this is by far my favourite, I definitely have a sweet tooth! When I got in to work Diego gave me the task of baking a biscuit base for him which was one of his experiment recipes. I also helped him with preparing his deserts for that night. Towards the end of the day Amy gave me a few recipes one of them is corn bread, that they put in the anchovy tins accompanied by caramel butter. I'm sorry but I don't think I can share the recipes! Over all i had an amazing experience and I'm so grateful to Margot and her team for not only allowing me in their kitchen but also showing me and letting me work alongside them plating up and preparing the dishes.