As you know, I am now half way round the other side of the world basking in the sun. It’s been eight years since I left sunny Brunei, and in that time, friends have moved on to the bigger and better, I somehow feel as if I had only just awoken from a long coma, as the world is not the same as I remembered it. I have been catching up with some old friends from high school and I remember the days when Terry was the bonafide babe magnet at St Johns – I mean, girls used professed their love for him in the playground and all, very public. Good times, that was a long time ago. Today, Terrance is the chef/owner of his cafe in our home town, Kuala Belait, aiming to bring a sense of style to the humble town – coffee, elegant puds and a cosy laid back setting. I have much respect for independent cafes and so I thought I’d ask for the opportunity to gain an insight into what it takes to run a cafe.

The first thing I noticed about Terry was his passion for cooking. He spends fourteen hours a day at his cafe and as the chef proprietor, he not only does all the cooking himself, but also manages the cafes finances as well as the logistics of produce. Save for a couple of waitresses, Tez Amore is pretty much a one man show.

“Gordon Ramsay’s food always looks so nice on TV, what does it tastes like?” His eyes trained on me but I decided to tell him that Ramsay’s cuisine wasn’t as respected as it once was, instead I directed the conversation toward a more contemporary figure of London gastronomy – Bjorn van der Horst. He loves food and I could tell as it beamed out from his decidedly upbeat character. I sat with him for a session on his only day off during the week – Wednesday – to chat about this behind the stove thing I wanted to do with him.

“So you must be busy these days” I said. “Well, I’ve become a blur at home, when you see me, I’ll have gone [to work at the cafe]“. His culinary awakening began while he was pursuing his tertiary education, initially his interests were business and law, but he was lured by the grandeur and spectacle of the illustrious career of a chef, in particular he was enamored with his house-mother’s brother who runs a kitchen in a Hilton in Adelaide. With a clear idea of where he’d like to steer his future, he applied to the Adelaide TAFE commercial cookery courses and then to the Regency cookery school specialising in pastry. The real world then beckoned, and Terry assisted various kitchens with assignments as a pastry guy as well as a baker. As with all independent setups, funding was always going to be a challenge, but with the little he had, he used it to put together an efficient space, simple yet cosy, in his words, almost like a home. In the background, he had a cookery channel on TV and in between our conversation, his attention would suddenly switch to the TV as he sees some new idea he could bring to his cafe. He tells me that his favourite is seafood, though his true passion is in the puddings. An admirer of regimental haute cuisine, refined elegance was something he aspired to in his work, “It has to be beautiful”. In a small town like Kuala Belait, starting up a revolution as it were isn’t exactly simple, the scale of economies are also several magnitudes smaller compared to say, London, afterall the population of KB is only about 40,000. The upshot of a quieter locale is that chef owners are closer, much closer to their customer base – something which is characteristic of eateries in Brunei – the personal touch.

Terry opens shop at 9am everyday, he dons his slick black and red chef gear, and armed with a smile says to me that he was going start his Thursday prepping a few of his favourite desserts for me to photograph.

Here he is holding a huge tub of Monin chocolate syrup – the chocolate he uses in his puds and his hot chocolate, an ingredient in his dark chocolate orange creme brulee.

Here he’s browning the demerara sugar top crust, I come very close to the action, very close because Terry was a little camera shy, so instead of shooting him, I started with the details. As the sugar caramalises, the kitchen starts filling with the aromas of a warm pud….ohh, can’t wait to dig in.

His recipe is quite authentic and the subtle hues of orange flavour stays on the back of my tongue. The custard is cold , while it’s a little grainy, the hallmark eggy sweetness is present making it a pretty juicy spoonful. I prefer his original creme brulee recipe, though his brulees also come in green tea flavours – something which is popular in Asia, but hasn’t quite picked up in the UK as yet…soon I suppose.

Brunei is a really sunny country, like seriously sunny and so the light is perfect for illuminating portraits. No strobes involved, this is all natural light, 100% at-the-edge-of-the-equator sunshine – great for some on location glamour shots. I finally got Terry to pose for me, he was still a little nervy but I think this shot came out rather well. I think he looks abit like a Hong Kong film star, Nicholas Tse… what do you think?

Here’s another of his creations – this is his Oreo cheesecake. It’s one of his ‘remixed’ recipes, the usual biscuit base is broken down and then mixed in with the rest of the cake, served with a dollop of vannila ice cream. He asked me if I thought the decorative chocolate syrup was a little OTT, I said I thought it was pretty cool.

This one I really enjoyed. He was very excited when he told me about his ‘on the spot’ tiramisu, which I would describe as a sort of reverse Tiramisu. On the spot, since he makes it to order. Made in a short glass tumbler, I was surprised to find the thing was warm. The mascapone cheese made with a white chocolate sauce all of which sits on top is cold, the middle has the sponge biscuits absorbing much of the espresso, and the last third of the glass is warm coffee. I think this was his piece de resistance, as the contrast between the cold and the hot gave way to a rather interesting way of having tiramisu, albeit a kind of deconstructed version and in the place of heavy cream, was a light coffee dessert. It felt as if I was having an espresso, and a latte and a pudding all at the same time, quite an interesting experience.

One of the best things about growing up in a small town is that you have friends for life, there is a kind of innocent charm where the neighbours are all friendly. The cafe is quite obviously geared toward fostering this kind of atmosphere.

In a way, I really admired the rather humble setting, furnishings are done on a tight budget, but it lends itself to a personal charm and character – to me, I feel that this was the beauty of the independent sole proprietor. I should say, soul proprietor. There wasn’t anything pretentious about the decor, it was cosy and I could freely let my hair down.

Time to go behind the stove.

I would describe the kitchen as being very homey. It’s not very big and he’s still in the process of acquiring professional ovens, it’s clean and but large enough to have about three people squeeze past.

I told Terry and his staff to pretend I was invisible, blending into the background isn’t always very easy with a camera as large as my D700.

Terry works fast, spirited and he is a jovial chap. If you hadn’t noticed, he works in the kitchen alone and manages all the cooking. Obviously, his two waitresses will pitch in every now and again, but mainly the kitchen is really a one man show. I’ve photographed many kitchens in the last couple of years, and every successfully run kitchen has a sort of heartbeat which jives to the rhythm of the restaurant. The more customers, the lively and more spirited the kitchen becomes. It’s a kind of organised chaos you know, full of life – this is the reason I love doing these behind the stove write-ups, the life and soul of a kitchen is inimitable, and one of the few work places which makes one feel so alive and so human.

Terry is only just putting the finishing touches to his Parmesan Chicken and Chips – its another one of his inventions. Again, like his puddings, his chicken is also ‘on the spot’ and made to order. He starts with pounding his chicken to tenderize it, before laying on his secret seasoning and then pan frying it. He finishes off his parmersan chicken with a creamy garlic gravy.

It’s a seemingly efficient dish as the robust sauce was a punchy knock on my palette. I’m more of a french fries sort of guy, though I can deal with the crinkly too. Mainly though, I really appreciated the hearty rustic sizzle this dish exhibited – simple, tasty, unpretentious and refreshing. I said to Terry that he really should bring abit of Asia influence into the mix, I recounted the story of one of my long time local favourites in the nineties, and my mum and I used to order take out at this place alot – KB restaurant. The food was in a similar vein, a kind of Italian inspired cuisine, but instead of chips, they complimented their meats with butter steamed rice with a hint of garlic. Something which I hope will makes its way into Tez’s menu. Before I forget, he’s a health nut too and so his cafe serves these healthy fruit smoothie drinks. He made me a low fat apple yoghurt smoothie kind of drinks to go with the chicken – refreshing.

As I write this, we are closing in on the 1st day of Chinese New Year. Terry is opening his restaurant for dinner service since it coincides with Valentines Day. He briefly told me about his rosemary roast chicken and heart shaped butter breads which he is planning for, though he hadn’t revealed the specifics as yet. He does have a facebook page to keep his patrons updated with current progress.

As my 48 hours with Terry came to close, I noticed how happy he was to be in the kitchen, for me, it was fulfilling watching a young’un take up the challenge of trying to make it in the world of food. “There is a big difference between $3.80 and $3.50 for a tub of ice cream” he tells me. “That’s 30 cents per tub, or $3 for ten tubs, $30 dollars for a hundred, the different between breaking even and risk running a huge loss”. The restaurant business then is a precarious one to get into – which is why it’s a labour of love. As with most of my kitchen assignments, I came out feeling rewarded and I only have the utter most respect for independent kitchens, this is where the human story really stimulates me and something which I hope you find exciting and entertaining as well.

Finally, Terry’s nickname while he was in Adelaide was Tez. He had wanted his cafe to be named the ‘Chocolatier’ or ‘Amore Cafe’ instead the authorities decided to merge his names when he was registering his business. And so Tez Amore translates to Terry’s Love, or perhaps more accurately, Terry’s passion.

Hope you enjoyed this little photo essay folks, I’m still roaming the lands in South East Asia, I will continue to bring you back stories whenever I come across something interesting. I’ll drop in on you again to say a few words on Chinese New Year… and also for Valentines.

PS: You can see the entire set of photographs on my flickr account.

The Gist of It

Tez Amore Cafe Facebook fanpage BND15 pp
Lot 8501 Unit 20 Wisma Yakin
Kuala Belait, Brunei
Tel: +673 8738583
Email: tezamore@hotmail.com

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Yup, I was there and it was brilliant. The first UK based food blogger connect conference saw 70 food lovin’ guests descend upon Levant restaurant right here in London, all of whom have a vested interest in the phenomenon that is food blogging. Most already have their own blogs, some were interested in starting up and many came from all over the world, some as far away as India, it truly transcended all kinds of boundaries and I was so glad I was there.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s all be witnesses.

28th November, 2009. This would be the first formal food blogging conference (of sorts) that I have attended, and boy was London on form – not only was it windy, it was wet and it was icy cold, Bri’ish weather innit. I got there early – 12pm – and it wasn’t until 1pm that people started flooding into the basement restaurant – Levant. I was really happy to see many faces in the community which I didn’t yet recognise. Not that I don’t enjoy hanging with the London crowd, but as a blogger, connecting with new faces has always been part of the agenda. The ice melted away swiftly, as we mingled and found common ground in food. From the outset, there was a good vibe.

We had a busy afternoon ahead of us and little time to spare. Bethany quickly gathered all the peeps when a sizeable crowd had arrived and kicked things off officially with a little speech about the afternoon. I don’t mean to turn into a sappy fool, but it was a little surreal, this blogging thing wasn’t just a solitary hobby anymore, here we were, like-minded individuals all passionate about the same thing and gathering to talk about it. Cameras and flashes everywhere, woo, historic. Right then, speech over – time to eat.

Let me introduce you to Chris – Beth’s husband – he was recording the entire event with his super swish video camera. I’m anxious to see what comes of it, I was sober throughout the entire event, but I just want to apply an advance disclaimer that there may be scenes of goofiness, and I may likely be involved.

Also the camera adds 20 pounds.

Ok guys, let’s now follow the camera and find out what went down at the first ever Food Blogger Connect.

People are only just starting to ooze into the buffet area, many are still chatting and connecting, here’s a shot of Mowie, one of the organisers mixing with the crowd. All of us had name tags, so it was ok for the boys to look below the neck when meeting someone new. Mark chose to position his nametag very south of his chest.

So here I am just joining the queue now for the buffet. In this shot, I was paying more attention to shooting the people than I was at food.

…And here’s one of the food, but nicely illuminated by the myriad of flash lights in the background. Also note the number of cameras around.

I didn’t get to talk to the chef about the spread of food, but I did catch him entertaining the crowd with his deep knowledge of Lebanese cuisine.

Naturally I was hovering where the sweets were. Dark chocolate and Baklava…

Bad boy Kang also took a sneak peek into the Goodie Bag holding area while everyone was busy filling their plates. While we’re on the topic, everybody got one and in it were an assortment of seeds by Linwoods, Unearthed pannatonne & olives, West Country Parkham mature cheddar cheese and a few boxes of Maldon salt & pepper.

And here she is, Bethany – one of the main thrusts behind FBC ’09 and here I’m just catching a shot of her running around. I’ve (virtually) known since my beginning days (that’s going back 1.5 years) but last Saturday was our first time meeting up, surreal.

Levant being in the basement meant colourful lights and a sort of darkly ambiance. Plush red silk (was it?) covered cushions everywhere, and here we just catch a shot of the bartender tending to his ladies. Among them, is Abi who runs the fantastic Rambling Restaurant, which I have put on my eat-list.

Now that everybody has found a table, the whole place was completely buzzing with chatter. I hovered around the girls (naturally), and they started pulling faces at me.

I did eventually get round to the food, and here is the obligatory shot in the dark. I really liked the breads and the hummus, but as I said earlier, it was all about the Baklava. I didn’t have much of an appetite for food though, I have to admit, my tummy was churning a little bit at the thought of my two speeches to follow after lunch. Gulp, I hope I don’t screw up.

Ahh – here we go a Kodak moment. Mint tea – warming and just a touch of sweet, just what I needed.

As we finish our meals, all of us shifted to the presentation area for the round of talks. There were four speakers for the afternoon, Jeanne & Jamie were to talk about finding your voice in blogging, Meeta was to talk about her food photography techniques, and I provided comic relief with a short presentation on how to take photos in darkness, before finishing off with a speech about social media. If you look at the top right of the picture, you can just about see Chris giving us the thumbs up!

Overall – I thought Meeta, Jamie & Jeanne really did a bang up job with their presentations. They chose to put together a content rich and comprehensive presentation of their subject material and I for one had picked up some great tips. For instance, I’ll be buying myself some white cards to bounce light off of my subjects when photographing, and I will dig abit deeper into my wardrobe to find the clothes to fit my blogging persona.

I leave you with this shot of Jeanne just starting the afternoon of talks with a description about the BloggerAid Cookbook – a cookbook put together by food bloggers from around the world and the funds of which will be donated to help the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

Oh just one more, shots of Lola’s Cupcakes, with some of the goodie bag items.

All in all – I was really happy to get involved with this, and it certainly was fun to be given the chance to talk about some of the things which occupy most of my free time. If you were there, I hope you really enjoyed the show we put on for you.

So what’s happening next? As I understand it, all the content from the afternoon will be slowly uploaded to the official FBC website in the coming weeks, and you’ll be able to download all the presentation material. Also there is also a plan in place to install some sort of forum/discussion facility on the official website, so I’ll keep you up to date as and when things go online.

It was nice meeting all the other fishes in this tank, and I never really knew there were so many out there who wanted to know abit about taking shots in the dark. Perhaps the major problem we had for the afternoon was that we were really pressed for time, and we ran out of it for questions and a forum – still not bad for the first time, and I’m sure all the feedback will be vital for the many FBCs to come in the near future. Here’s to another smashing one in 2010.

PS: More pictures of the event on my flickr page here. There’s a shot of Chris with the camera in there I really like, but chose not to use it in this one.

Links and Thanks:

Speakers : Jeanne, Jamie and Meeta
Organisers: Hilda, Mowie, Jamie and Bethany.

I met lots of foodbloggers, and have tried my best to put together a little list, but my memory ain’t what it’s suppose to be so where I have forgotten you, my sincerest apologies:

Davina, Michelle, Carla, Food Rambler, Jassy, Georgina, Deeba, Claire, Suyin, Kavey, Paul , The Daily Spud, Sarah , Sarah & Sarah, Greedy Diva, Sarka, Katrina , Ozoz, Kerrin and finally Mark and Catty.

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Links to other bloggers who have written up their FBC experience:

The Daily Spud
Cook Sister!
Get me cooking
The Sugar Bar
Maison Cupcake
Food For Think
Meals with Sarah
Kitchen Butterfly

In between my kitchen waltz (see Part I), I was alternating with the parallel of events at the front of house, and of course, the two are completely different worlds altogether. I had arrived early at 5.30 pm when most of the staff were only just starting up. I stood at the front door, nervously waiting to be greeted by the owner. I hear the clacking of heavy leather shoes coming down the stairs behind me, before the man extends his hand.

“I’m Walter, welcome to Gazette.”

My immediate impression of this place is that of a charming neighbourhood brasserie. In fact, the restaurant is based on the ground floor of a block of connected purpose built flats. At 5.30pm, there are a few patrons in the restaurant tucking away swifties. The co-owner of the venture is Walter Lecocq who greets many of the patrons inside. As I arrived, he sat down for a quick chat to briefly talk about the restaurant and his background…

….while my eyes were drawn toward the cheese trolley…

Here we see Walter in a quiet moment before the evening service begins. He is mainly responsible for front of house, while Chef Pascal takes care of the Kitchen. Both men have good looking CVs, Pascal had previous been involved with Le Meridien and worked with Michel Rostang (2 Michelin Man), and Walter had spent a few years within Gordon Ramsay and Richard Corrigans’ respective empires. I have a brief but pleasant chat with Walter, and before long I got to work with the camera.

Here’s the restaurant manager who works in tandem with Walter to keep service flowing along. The control tower, the phone keeps going off. The books were looking good that night – A Saturday – completely packed out, those phoning in were put on a waiting list, in case anyone drops out. Looks like its going to be a busy night.

Just like the Kitchen, the staff at front of house had found my camera to be a light hearted presence, smiles all round.

I like this shot. Notice the accordian on the ceiling, I shot about 12 frames until got one of the movement which the waiters perform when they are on duty.

As the day slowly turned to night, so the staff started gathering themselves, to get ready for the evening ahead. Here we are just joining them for their team briefing.

The softly spoken restaurant manager becomes a calm force in the group, giving an inspirational mini speech to basically remind staff that its all about making sure that the customer feels 110% comfortable. Being among the numbers, I felt drawn into the spirit of the team – just being around these chaps, you could feel that they were commited to their job and they really wanted to give it their all. I enjoyed this moment.

I’ve always been curious about when staff break bread. I know some places (in fact I’ve worked in some places) where they don’t eat until 9pm when things die down. I also used to clean the bar and was taught how to make cocktails at midnight. Anyway, at Gazette, front of house and kitchen staff came together for their meal right after their team briefing. I didn’t want to interrupt their time, but it was really nice to see such a strong team spirit. They joked, they laughed and they probably thought I was odd. I work in teams myself and I can only appreciate when the spirit runs high, the sum of the parts when a team is functioning at peak, can really lead to something special.

Now is probably a good time to start wandering around and admire the decor. Spread over two floors, the centerpiece is this long family dining room tucked into the corner, sort of a semi-private room of sorts, its very cosy.

Night time is here! Time to light the candles and let the bokeh magic out of the bag….

It was amazing how quickly the restaurant filled up. At 7pm it was still relatively quiet, but half an hour later, we’re packed to the brim. The house is now jumping.

Of course, we have to sneak a cameo from the kitchen. The hazy ambiance outside, a total contrast to the engine room churning out the food. I had observed close cooperation between the waiters and the chefs.

Food is starting to fly out of the kitchen now, and it parallels the events which took place during part I. At this point in time, the restaurant was getting so busy, I felt it was the right time for me to slowly back away.

Remember that massive chunk of steak from Part I? Well, here we rejoin Walter serving it up to a couple. I like the fact that he is concentrated in his carving, but more importantly he looks happy with the bustle.

Walter tells me that Pascal and himself wanted to build a restaurant that was closely connected to its neighbourhood. It’s patrons were the the people who lived in the area, and having a close relationship with his customers was something he valued. I admire that, I think of my local and I love it because I feel right at home at The Prince Regent, and with Gazette, it certainly had a warm buzzy feeling. Walter also said that the restaurant is like a mechanism, and this mechanism needs to get into its rhythm in order for it to work. Sometimes, this mechanism gets thrown out of whack, and it gets a little chaotic, but it adjusts and when it does, the mechanism gets back into the rhythm again. I was so glad to have watched part of that mechanism at work, when the rhythm was in full swing, it was marvellous.

And so I think it’s appropriate for me to leave you with a photograph of the face of Gazette, more than anything this series is to highlight the men and women behind what keeps an establishment churning. I declined to eat anything for this personal project because I didn’t want to miss a beat with the photographs, I wanted to fully capture the essence of the restaurant and I hope that this snap-shot has done just that. As always, I hope you’ve enjoyed this photo-essay as much as I’ve had the pleasure of preparing it, and hopefully there will many more kitchen adventures like this to come in the future.

(Read Part I here)

Restaurant reviewing continues on Monday..

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(Update: You can read Part II Here)

Yes I dropped the ball on the Friday review, did anybody miss me? I have a very good excuse though and I’ve been hard at work on producing something a little different.

The basic premise was simple really – I wanted to feel what it was like to produce food at a London restaurant, and have the chance to document that process. It is the part of me who aspires to documentary photography in the tradition of the great Magnum photographers, who amongst them, are my heroes. Of course, I’m no photo journalist and I’d never done something like this before, and so nervously sent out emails to see if anyone would grant me the kind of access I was looking for. Fortunately, Gazette thought it was an interesting proposition, and they gave me the opportunity to spend a Saturday evening service at the restaurant. Gazette being a lovely neighbourhood French brasserie in Battersea.

It’s about time the restaurant collector stepped behind the stove to watch the action from the other side. An enriching experience, a personal project of sorts and a bit of a labour of love. I hope you’ll enjoy this two part series folks.

Welcome to the Kitchens of Gazette.

As I pass through the doors for the first time, my senses are immediately saturated. The kitchen – as expected – is bustling, chatter and clatter and the rich smell of butter. Overwhelming excitement took over, I felt alive…. time to let that shutter rip…

…but not before the ‘No Pictures’ shot.

And now we go to the characters in the kitchen, starting with the main man – Chef Pascal – gathering his troops at the start of the evening service.

After a quick prep talk, the stove heats up, water begins to boil and the chef starts work on them beautiful steaks.

During the pauses of energy, the Chef introduced himself and his staff to me before he explained that they were prepping for a catering order. He zips back into his food, this time meticulously trimming what looks like a brisket to me.

On the other side of the kitchen, whole chickens were stripped of their meat, while two staff look to discuss their cooking plans ahead.

As much as I tried to remain invisible (as per my instructions to the kitchen), they couldn’t help but notice this fly on the wall and occasionally gave me a smile or two. The kitchen is calm so far, I am still disconnected but slowly jiving to the rhythm. Here’s hoping I don’t get in the way.

Like a well oiled machine, the cogs talk to each to keep the machine chugging along, by now this machine was near its peak performance and there was a good feeling around the kitchen. The kitchen is completely French so they could be taking a piss out of me for all I know, but they talked to each other and that camaraderie was evident. Warming.

The Chef is a busy man it seems, as the kitchen settles into its groove, it is time for him to tend to other matters. Gazette is based in two locations, this one in Battersea and a newer location at Balham.

Like the calm before the storm, all was quiet at half past seven, so I decided to sneak into the larder….

The kitchen is now business as usual…

… I first watched this guy prep the snails, and then watched him prepare the terrine starters.

Starters.

Here’s a little cameo from front of house, the restaurant manager and the co-owner, sneaking into the kitchen for a quick bite before service. You’ll see more of them in Part II.

My eyes kept peeling away from the characters to all the rich detail in the kitchen. The pots and pans, the blenders, the oven and all that steel.

Here, we follow the steaks again, this time, looking alot more cooked.

Here’s a close up of the awesome piece of meat resting.

At eight o’clock the restaurant is really buzzing. Outside it is completely packed out, and the kitchen is now keeping more and more pots cooking simultaneously.

I managed to squeeze into the hot area for a quick snap before pulling out again. It’s hot, but man does it smell good.

The obligatory shots of the green & reds.

The waiters are now bringing in more and more finished plates and at 8.30, the kitchen was so busy, there was hardly any room or corners left for me to squeeze into to take my pictures.

Oh yes, before I forget: The finished product.

As I stepped away from the kitchen, my clothes and my camera were infused with the smell of butter; Food was now flying out of the kitchen. I catch a moment where one of the waiters were sending them out. It was an intense three hours, and I somehow felt a sense of achievement, even though I hadn’t actually slogged it out. I was happy to have had this experience. It was certainly a contrast to watching unfolding kitchen nightmares on TV and swearing chefs and I think there really is abit of magic in such an atmospheric environment….

This story is far from over. In Part II, we follow the front of house and their efforts to cope with the busy service. You can read it here.

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