Now this was a spin out, ( good and bad ), the restaurant kitchen is in the basements
( bad ) under the Villa Crespi. The amazingly laid out kitchens all with their stainless-steel and every possible gadget ( good ) and are where the real works go on and not a place for the faint hearted. The working conditions although the height of modern are one of the mosts cramped and confine location I have every been in ( bad ) It was a work out for my spray thats for sure.
The ceiling and wall are all white and stainless-steal to cover any sign that you are on a low vaulted ceiling basement. No natural light ( bad ) and the light coming from the lights shone like your were outside a weird feeling. The heat coming from the cooking stations was intense and no amount of air-conditioning was helping another ( bad ). We are now playing with the real big boys and the playing field is for real, it was awesome. ( good )
Our one on one class today was under the guidance of the head chef and we will work along side of him to create two dishes and get some tips on plating while he is watching his team for the afternoons prep work for tonights dinner service.
We are introduced to the head chef and the class begins. There are 12 other chefs all working busily away, one was deboning the pigeons, others were doing sauces and making all the various ingredient needed for diner tonight. It was interesting to see how what we ate last night was created down here.
Kamal wanders past and with a big smile he tells me he is multitasking and has finished his morning shift up stairs as a porter and heads to the washing area to start his next round of tasks for the day. The other porter a very tall Nigerian man who is so tall that his head almost touches the ceiling is working rolling by hand the thin match stick size rolls of Grizzini, theses are about 600mm long and look very impressive when served last night, he is still all suited up covered in a long black apron ready to head upstairs are any moment to assist with guests needs. He is lucky as he is working in the chocolate area so the temperature is about 10 deg. One of the main chefs in this section is preparing chocolate sphears and creating holes in them for one of the deserts to come out of. This is also where all the petie fors are made so a tasting platter is handed to us to have a sample, yum that's another ( good )......
So after the tour of all the work stations and a few sample it's into making our 3 dishes. The first was a skewer of fish and scollops with a bright green apple and celarack sauce, ( good ) the second was a seafood pasta using dry pasta and a risotto technique these guys developed 10 years before marking them the first Michelin restaurant in the world to successfully use dry pasta and be accepted, it was amazing BIG ( good )....the 3rd was a panacotta, well sounds easy BUT this one was square with a round hole in the middle for the coffee granita, floating on an expresso jelly and covered in gold leaf. Yep another BIG ( good ) real big good this one.
All the time we were being taught when any of the other chefs got to an interesting part of their prep or a technique we moved to their stations for an update or taste ( good ) it was just fascinating being in such a big kitchen, so close to service, surrounded by talent and produce you don't usually get to play with.
After the cooking class I ask if we can have a looking into the wine cellars which I could see out past the deserts section. Our chef hands us over to the cellar master for a walk through. Again all the space is vaulted, but are as it was made, so still the raw dark brick and the musky smells, a rabbit warren of bottles in small man made caves. The main corridor walls have all been covered in bottle corks that have been discarded over the years. This corridor divides and connects the kitchens and the cellars to the outside world, at one end to the villa via the steep original stairs and the dumbwaiter and to the far other end someway out in the garden via a ramp to the daylight and loading ramp for incoming goods.
That is where we leave our chef and cellar master in the loverly fresh air
( good and bad ) so they can get back to the duties that they need to do before the nights rush starts all over again.
Well tomorrow we are off on the next adventure and heading to the mountains so is a farewell to the most exotic place I have ever stayed and great memories of great food and the experience of how to prepare it.......
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