Chef for a day

 

 Calling ourselves chef just because we got to wear a chef's tall hat

Courtesy of Berjaya University College of Hospitality! On Wednesday, Shirley and me went there for 2 workshops, Culinary and Patisserie! I got to know about this workshop when I went for the Star Education Fair in KLCC last Sunday. More on that on another post. Omaigoddd there's so many things I want to blog about!!! 24 hours is not enough

Culinary is from 10am to 12pm. We barely made it in time. Left the house at 8am, reach KTM station, went to KL Sentral, took the LRT to Imbi. I think. And Shirley mentioned something about taking the Monorail also. .................. or is it the same thing? I'll be so lost without her. Thank god for her or else I wouldn't be able to reach Times Square at all and I'll probably have to spend the night in KL. Anyways! Only the staff entrance was opened when we reach Times Square. At 9.50am. We sneaked in through that door when the guard was too busy stopping a big group of people who wanted to go inside the building. 

Next problem! Berjaya UCH is on the 11th floor of the West Wing building and we were so lucky that the entrance you come in from after you come out from the LRT or monorail is the West Wing! And then we looked up to see if we can spot the 11th floor but noooo, the glass elevator only brings up to the 9th floor? Luckily Shirley with her big eyes spotted another elevator and thankfully it brings us up to the 11th floor. We got there early with 5 minutes to spare! 아싸!!!

Hahahahaha sound so dramatic right? It is okay? Heart pounding because we were afraid that we'll be late.  

I'm using a lot of thankfully and thank god and luckily in this post. Because I am. Thankful and lucky.

First session. Culinary! Sooooo many people. Even the organizers were surprised. Because parents and siblings of potential students attended the workshop. Luckily they have extra ingredients. Chef begin with a short introduction about pasta. 

DID YOU KNOW that pasta, although originated from Italy, it was copied from China? And, there are over 400 types of noodles in China and 200 types of pasta in Italy. Noodles in China are made with different dough/flour while pasta are all made with only one type of flour, the durum wheat flour. They have different names for different shapes.

And the chef demonstrated how to cook macaroni! Macaroni is the short hollow tube looking pasta. There's the straight one and the elbow kind. Pasta that looks like your normal kuey teow is called fettuccine btw.


[TIP] 
Blast your macaroni with boiling hot water (add salt into the water for flavouring). Take note that each pasta take different amount of time to cook

And you should cook your pasta to al dente that means to cook it so that it still leaves a bite. Think chewy instead of soggy.

At the beginning, you have to stir the the pot so that the macaroni doesn't stick at the bottom. And once it's al dente, pour the water out and run it under cold water so that it stops cooking because even if you drain the water, the pasta will still continue to cook. After the water is all drained out, pour olive oil and stir well so that the pasta doesn't stick to each other. (I begin to think that being a chef, you need to be strong and have good stamina and great heat tolerance - as in dead heat receptors on hands)

[NOTE] 
Notice how your instant noodle doesn't stick to each other? That's because they're coated with wax/chemicals to prevent them from sticking. 



 [TIP] 
Another thing I learned. OIL

Chef : You don't have to waste your money to buy expensive oil i.e extra virgin oil. It's not suitable for cooking because extra virgin oil is the product of the first filtering and has a lot of small particles and these will cook/burn and chance the flavour of the oil. (WARNING : Some information might be a little off due to the author's bad memory. Thank you)

Cooking the sauce! Chef demonstrated 2 styles of cooking, cheese and chilli padi. He chopped the onion and garlic at an amazing speed and he said to cut the onion partially through so that the juice doesn't come out. His cutting board remained dry and he didn't tear up because of the onion unlike when I chop onion and garlic for my mum at home. I always tear up. :'( 

Lack of photos because I didn't want to appear so suaku. But deep inside, I wanted very much to take thousands of photos wtf. 

After the cooking demonstration, which only took an hour instead of the estimated 2 hours, we got the chance to tour around the campus, i.e the 14th floor

1. Pastry Lab 1, 2 and Bakery Lab

First group at the Patisserie session

We got pretty much left behind from the group taking all these photos and peeking through the round glass window of the door. Panicked too much and ended up running in the hallways and I banged my arm on the door handle. It made a loud sound (Shirley claimed that the students inside even looked out the glass) My left arm is nao a little bruised. Naiseeeee

2. Coffee and Tea Academy (Coffee, tea or me? Hahhahaha)

Different types of beans being displayed

Various flavoured syrup

3. Samplings on the Fourteenth

This place has a panoramic view and also the Twin tower and KL Tower

And not to mention, behold the KL traffic jam
 

Picture of the open kitchen (stole from google because I forgot to take a picture)

Camwhoring with ze Christmas tree. An insider informed us that there's many Christmas tree of many colours on campus (11 to 14th floor)

With my partner in crime, Shirley!

Ootd. A very girly.... and sloppy look

4. Upper East Side Deli

We camwhored in front of every mirror we see shamelessly

Gingerbread house for sale! Made by students from Patisserie class

All the Christmas themed cookies for the upcoming holiday

5. Upper East Side cafe (just next to the Upper East Side Deli)

The short tour ended at the Upper East Side Cafe and we had lunch there (buffet style)

This is what I took. No need for me to list them one by one right? But I have to say that the macaroni was too cooked i.e not al dente and the chicken was too dry or maybe it's just that part of the chicken that was too dry.

Dessert! Had bread pudding for the first time, it's not bad. Then there's banana cake or is it poppy seeds? Nice fragrance and texture and then cream puff. I usually loveeee cream puffs but not this one because the cream they used was like the normal creamy and fatty cream. I prefer something a little more on the sweet and less creamy and fatty side. Lastly, pudding! Not bad also :)

After that, we had about 45 minutes before our next session start so we went down to the shopping mall

Christmas deco in Berjaya Times Square

Andddddd we're back to the Lecture Theatre. Took out my phone and snap a few pictures while waiting to go for Patisserie.

First try using the Panorama mode since updating to iOS 7. Damn fail

Second try and it's purrrfect! :D

We're finally in the Bakery Lab! Look at all these amazing cakes! :D

Today we are going to be decorating gingerbread using marzipan so said Chef Roizz who is the Head Chef of Patisserie of Berjaya UCH

*Marzipan is made out of powdered almond (aka almond meal) and icing sugar. It's almost like fondant but the big difference is that fondant does not use powdered almond

First, Chef Roizz demonstrated how to do it and then off we go. We were divided into 4 groups into groups of 2, and of course me and Shirley stuck together. Each group are to make a specific part and our team, Team 1 was to make hats using red marzipan and also the round white pompom ball that goes at the end of the hat.

Ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong and we're done!

This is mine! Not bad right? Actually my mustache copy Shirley's idea one

This is Shirley's! I like how she personalize hers

One with Chef Roizz. He's quite a funny person

 

Wearing mah plastic apron and a chef's tall hat

Camwhoring session marks the end of the Patisserie session!

After that, we got a private tour to the entire 14th floor, a more thorough tour and we were brought to the Coffee and Tea Academy where we were offered a cuppa

An almost heart shaped latte art by our tour guide, Jason who lack practice (so he says) and the scribblings at the back is my work of art! Muahahahaha

His second try at it! Not bad not bad

After drinking, he took out a black box (Le Nex Du Cafe) which contained tiny glasses of smell that exists in coffee ranging from Earth, Potato, Cucumber, Apple, Butter, Lemon, Peach, Roasted hazelnuts, Smoke, Rubber, Tobacco, Clove, Cooked Beef, Medicinal. No kidding. Everyone of these smell exist in that black box! Smelling is believing!

Le Nex Du Cafe is used to identify the most typical aromas in the world's finest coffees. It's place of origins, it's blend and even how well it is roasted.

Sound so pro, but actually all bluff one. I was asking Shirley for other smells she remembered from the box and she told me the name of the box, Le Nex Du Cafe. She seriously have an amazing brain power! And then she sent a picture of the whole list of smell or else I could have only managed to vomit out 3 examples, Earth, Lemon and Rubber and Roasted... meat. I forgot that it was beef. Specifically.

I managed to guess all of them wrongly. And despite having flu and very little sense of smell, Shirley got like 8 over 10 correctly wtf. 

Almost all the chefs we saw that day also came into the Coffee and Tea Academy. And they were promoting their course la. One said, do you know what is the difference between culinary and patisserie? Answer : Culinary is all about agak-agak and tasting - that's why you see all our chefs are bulat bulat *he proceeds to patting another chef's tummy* But in Patisserie, you cannot agak-agak! All must be measured accurately! Or else tak jadilah! In culinary, if you buat mistake pun, tak kira mistake, because it becomes a new recipe! Hahahahah!!! Okay. They're so funny

Next! To the Oenology Lab where Tourism students have to create a new drink as part of their test.

Jason being a Tourism student, (hopefully I remember this info correctly) explained to us about the differences between mocktail and cocktail.

Mocktail contains no alcohol while cocktail is all alcohol. So if you want a non-alcoholic strawberry drink, they use flavouring which doesn't contain alcohol. Meanwhile if you want an alcoholic strawberry drink, a flavouring with alcohol is used. As simple as ABC! 

Shirley's eyes were all big and sparkly because she loves alcohol. Like this is her favourite room in the whole 14th floor. And after that, we went down for some shopping. Omaigod I tell you, Times Square is like the shopping heaven. Cheap (in terms of price but there's also a lot of cheap looking ones) clothes although you can't try them on. Blah blah blah shopping shopping shopping and then it's time to go home. 

In the train on the way home!

Shirley's gingerbread in bad condition after all that shopping

Mine's still in good shape even when I reach home. Chef gave me his and another extra one from the previous session (they decorated with royal icing instead of marzipan) He wished me Merry Christmas along with all these gingerbread. Omg I'm so touched I can cry *drama-ing*

Camwhoring in the train *so nostalgic because we came to KL together last year around the same time. Read it here if you haven't!

And with our gingerbread!

Okay. I didn't remember making that face

Ending with another selfie with my very own decorated gingerbread! I'm so proud of myself. 
Can you tell? Hhahahha *pats own head*

I want to thank Berjaya UCH very very much for having us. (Not that they will read this anyway, but I need to express my gratitude somewhere) We had a good time and I remembered Shirley telling me this  

"Thank god today's workshop is not the typical boring type of seminar whereby we have to sit and face the screen for hours. If it is, I'm going to kill you."  

She's a little tired because she's been sick for a while now and I dragged her out to accompany me. All in all, we've learned a lot of new things and me, particularly want very much to come back - as a student next year >< someone please sponsor me. TQVM!!!

And to anyone who are interested in studying Culinary and Patisserie, please enquire at Berjaya UCH! Small classes and 2 person per station sounds very pleasant! And also internships and job opportunities at so many different companies under Berjaya sounds very promising right? Discounts for students who sign up early and for the January intake! For more information, you can visit their website >>> http://www.berjaya.edu.my/ and/or call KC Wong, Marketing & Student Recruitment. Talk to him and visit the campus and see how classes are conducted and you'll be brainwashed and wanting to study there :D