Everything you've always wanted to know about cooking, but were too afraid to ask
Posted in Chef's Tales on Jun 4th, 2010
29 trainees from Institute Technology Perak received a copy of the Chef’s Tales Book in recognition for their hard work and commitment while completing their training in the Kitchen Department at the E&O Hotel recently. Mr Michael Saxon was indeed proud to share his book with the hope that these young and upcoming chefs can [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales on Oct 9th, 2009
As Chefs Tales is a community blog and is quickly becoming a public source of information for everyone to share, it has been suggested that we offer Industry news that is available and for which people may be interested in. We have decided that we will offer this service to ensure that interesting information and posts are [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales on Oct 9th, 2009
This musing was first published in Flavours Magazine and is not in Chef’s Tales the book. The profession of a chef is a challenging one but offers opportunities that are beyond your wildest dreams. Recently, over lunch with a friend who’s in the hospitality training line, we were lamenting the difficulties of getting young people [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales, Cooking on Oct 4th, 2009
This beautiful picture is contributed by Josej Bloeth who is currently the Executive Pastry Chef for LSG Sky Chefs in Seoul, Korea. His pralines and chocolate box are all hand made in his production kitchen. Chef’s Tales would like to thank Chef Josef for his contribution.
Posted in Chef's Tales on Sep 30th, 2009
This musing was first published in Flavours Magazine and is not in Chef’s Tales the book: Hotel employee’s stay at a five-star hotel is a far cry from the pampered treatment that a guest would expect to receive. Given the nature of my work, I have travelled around the world and put up at the [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales on Sep 24th, 2009
There is nothing worse for an expatriate than having to deal with misbehaving tourists from his home country… Did I ever tell you about the time when I was working in Penang? It was during the Asian economic crisis and the resorts were doing better than ever due to the devaluation of the ringgit against [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales on Sep 17th, 2009
This musing was first published in Flavours Magazine and is not in Chef’s Tales the book: We were getting ready for a large function and the air-conditioning in the hotel broke down and was deemed beyond repair. We had to fly in a new motor from Germany and this was going to take at least [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales on Sep 12th, 2009
This musing was first published in Flavours Magazine and is not in Chef’s Tales the book: Did I ever tell you about the time when I had my first encounter with “The King of Fruits”? It was one I shall never forget as it was my very first romantic date with my dear wife Beatrice. [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales on Sep 2nd, 2009
Please enjoy my latest musing which was first published in Flavours Magazine and is not in Chef’s Tales the book: All hoteliers have to deal with difficult, demanding guests, but can the whole stressful ordeal have a happy ending? One of the most difficult components of our wonderful industry is the challenging guest, otherwise known [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales on Aug 27th, 2009
I was having coffee the other day with a new friend of mine and nonchalantly commented on how well they looked which surprisingly brought a frown to their face. I asked them if they disagreed with my assessment and they explained to me that they had been in a long verbally abusive relationship earlier and that [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales, Uncategorized on Aug 23rd, 2009
I Arrived in Hong Kong to work in my first five-star hotel in Asia in 1988, and was totally blown away, not only by the quality of the staff and services offered. Nonetheless, I thought that the quality of service could only improve as the industry developed and competition for supremacy in service quality standards [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales on Aug 19th, 2009
I have been on holiday for a while, so I must aplogize for the lack of postings, to make amends I would like to offer you one of my Musings which was first published in Flavours magazine. This musing is also not in Chef’s Tales the book….hope you enjoy. Junk food is the stuff of a [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales on Aug 3rd, 2009
Working at the E&O reminds me of why I joined the industry in the first place. It’s a luxury hotel with glamour, romance and intrigue, but most of all it has what many other hotels are unable to offer and that is the fact that this year it is going to be 124 years old. [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales on Jul 30th, 2009
Wacky and Wondrous fun at the poolside Depending on which hotel you work at, the pool can be either an incredibly boring place or the centre of all the action. Usually, the poolside scene at city hotels is not that exciting, but a poolside at a beach resort fronting the sea normally keeps the [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales on Jul 26th, 2009
When I was watching television last night and saw how President Obama tried to reconcile with a Harvard Professor and a Cambridge police officer, I could not help but feel disappointed with our level of tolerance and understanding that many of us share. I would not want you to think that I am overlooking this [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales, Personal on Jul 22nd, 2009
Michael wrote to me today and sounded as if he was heart broken due to the fact that, after he has now reached a certain level, has been over looked for a promotion as he has been told that he does not have a formal education in the culinary field. He explained to me that he has been [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales, Personal on Jul 18th, 2009
I always wanted to be a chef; I don’t know why it just happened that way. I remember the first time I walked through the back door of a hotel on my very first day of employment and it was like walking into a totally different world. A world of madness, lunacy and endless stress [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales, Personal on Jul 16th, 2009
As in any venture, business or private, if you are to be successful, you must listen to your circle of friends, advisors, readers or customers and include their constructive criticisms to your growth formula. I started Chef’s Tales wanting it to be a very basic blog, thereby trying to teach readers the cooking fundamentals needed [...]
Posted in Chef's Tales on Jul 15th, 2009
If you have made your beef stock correctly & have followed the basic stock recipe and method, your beef stock should be almost clear….but unfortunately thin. If you then made a sauce with this liquid stock, the sauce would have to be thickened with another thickening agent. Your sauce would then not have the depth [...]
Posted in 2) Recipes, Chef's Tales, Cooking on Jul 13th, 2009
1kg Potatoes 30gr Butter Egg yolk Cream, fresh ground black pepper and seasoning. Making mashed potatoes is the easiest of tasks when it comes to cooking, especially if you have the very basic knowledge of cookery and you are able to look at the process logically. Having a certain level of understanding when it comes to [...]
