Monday, April 7, 2008

Living with a Chef

Because I live with a chef, people is always saying to me, you are so lucky to have a chef cook for you. Truth is, I do most of the cooking at home. When he's home, he usually indulges in his other passion - bricolage - doing work around the house. Not that I'm complaining cos I like to cook.

Admittedly it was very intimidating in the beginning. I mean how can what I cook measure up to a chef's expectations. I was not a novice in the kitchen but still, I used to stress cooking every meal, consulting him over every detail & of course in the process annoying the hell out of him. Fast forward 4 years later, I pretty much run my own show in the kitchen, plan our weekly menu & even sharing recipes with him.

That's not to say he doesn't cook at all when he's home. He handles all the special events ie when we are entertaining guests. Yesterday we celebrated his mother's birthday. So here are some images of the dishes prepared by X.



Salmon Sashimi & Maki Sushi.
This was the request of our guest of honour.


I managed to buy some mangoes & he used them in one of the makis.
That was my favorite.


Main course - Spring rolls with foie gras & magret the canard ala peking duck. Ahem I made the spring rolls - instead of the usual minced pork, I just added a piece of foie gras.
X marinated the magret with a peking duck sauce & then roast.


It's times like this that I wish he'd cooked more often.

3 comments:

Ello - Ellen Oh said...

Hello! Sylvia sent me over and I have been perusing your lovely blog! But this post! Yum! I wish my husband could cook more! I am jealous. That just looked too awesome!

Beau Lotus 涟 said...

Very lovely dishes. I must say that I usually fizzle out by the time I finish cooking and wouldn't know how to dress a plate. But then not everybody gets to live with a Chef - alas.

BTW, your spring rolls contained foie gras and vegetables? And did you use raw or mi-cuit liver?

petite fleur said...

Ello

Thanks for dropping by. I enjoyed reading your blog too. I wish mine would cook more often too.

Lotus

He makes everything looks effortless. What takes me an hour to do, he does it in 15 mins. Which is why he always cooks when we have guests.

I wanted to use raw - if you can find it, it's better. But since it's not the festive season, I couldn't find one lobe of it anywhere. So in the end, had to settle for the cooked ones - which is okay but I prefer using raw. The spring rolls were more Vietnamese style - with vermicelli, carrots, chinese cabbage & black fungus.