Leaving Nahm...and heading to Bangkok!

After more than 18months the coming week will be my final one at Nahm London.... Heading back to SEAsia: I finish at the restaurant on the 1st of March, and fly to Bangkok for 2 months in Thailand (plus a side trip of 2 weeks in Vietnam) on the 3rd March. I'm going to be spending some time in the kitchen at Nahm Bangkok, but also in two other restaurants in Bangkok and one in Chumphon....plus as I say, two weeks eating in Vietnam. Plans still being finalised but suffice to say it should be an absolutely awesome trip, and one where can take my knowledge of Thai and Vietnamese food up up a notch. I'm planning to put loads of stuff up on my blog while out there....pics, recipes, videos of street food and insights from the kitchens of some amazing restaurants. So watch this space. Leaving Nahm: I'm sorry to be leaving such a special restaurant. I've learnt a amazing amount working for Matthew Albert (the head chef), David Thompson and alongside some really good chefs over the last 18 months at Nahm. Coming out of Masterchef as an amateur cook I felt it was important to understand how far I still had to go, and so working in a top kitchen alongside some great chefs doing a cuisine I'm passionate about was, for me, the only thing to do. I've still got a long way to go in terms of where I want to be as a chef, but I've definitely come a long way from where i started before joining Nahm, and I worked a good number of sections...entrées, salads, relishes, soup, stir-fry and pastry. There's no other restaurant in Europe where you can learn Nahm's unique food, the cooking techniques or be exposed to such an amazing array of South-East Asian produce, and with some amazing Thai chefs in the kitchen it's been very special place to work. There's a great team of people there and I will miss it. I believe the greatest compliment you can pay David Thompson is to state the fact that he has inspired almost every chef that has ever worked for him. I am no exception; David has totally changed the way I look at Thai food and the experience has made me 100% certain that South-East Asian (and especially Thai) food is my passion & my vocation. DT: the main man. And when I get back.... When I'm back from my two months away I'm going to be doing some private catering and other freelance cooking work for a couple of months, perhaps even longer. So! If you're interested in having a dinner party or alike catered by me, or some South-East Asian cookery lessons over the summer, then please feel free to drop me an email: oliverandyj@googlemail.com And after that? Well I'm planning to work in another top Thai or SEAsian restaurant, exactly where I'm not yet sure. Andy

Not to be tried at home

Me setting fire to stir fry section.

Nahm in Bangkok

Apologies for lack of blog-action of late: I’ve been away on some much appreciated R & R in Turkey. Before that I also spent a few blessed days chilling and eating in Provence - where I had planned to take some food snaps to get on here, but my camera has mysteriously developed a serious technical hitch (of the not-working variety). Off to fix-it shop this morning.

Anyway, in the meantime a quick note to mention the fact that my boss David Thompson has just opened our sister restaurant Nahm in Bangkok. Pretty exciting (well for me at least).

David takes his food very seriously but, I'm sure, that for him, nothing gets more serious than feeding high end Thai food to Thais in Bangkok - he'll be in the kitchen 24/7....cooking, tasting, checking, yelling and tasting again.

Apparently the food is seriously good, but seriously uncompromising - e.g sometimes hot enough to injure you, sometimes using ingredients of the not-for-the-faint-hearted variety (hands-up for fish-gut infused curry?) etc.

Nahm BKK - some of the best Thai food in the world (so don't let the odd mention of fish guts put you off).

I spoke to David briefly yesterday (he rang the restaurant) and, amazingly, he seemed his normal wry self. He kindly said come out and visit, see the restaurant & he'll take me round town.

Not before Christmas I won't, but it would take some sort of ash cloud + natural disaster combo to keep me away in 2011.

Oh and see this article from Sunday's Observer Food Monthly on David, Nahm BKK and his new street food book (which is out in October, more on that soon).

A Chef's Life

My previous sous chef is now writing a blog called 'A Chef's Life'

He was sous at Nahm for 2 years, is now sous at Zuma, he's also had the same position at Nobu Berkeley and Mirabelle and has also worked at The Square, so clearly i taught him everything he knows ("boooollllox!" as he would say).

There's some good stuff on there, find it here http://chefchrisjames.blogspot.com/

Let me know if he starts stealing my recipes though.



















Chef Chris (he's the one on the left!)

Nahm - few more snaps

A few more snaps from Nahm kitchen taken recently...

One of the new stir-fries - a smoky chilli beef, with fried shallots, toasted chillies & cumin. A personal favourite.















Here's the 'Hots' section plating up.



















Razor clams with grilled gola (a kind of thick curry with a roasted-coconut flavour), then topped with crispy shallots and fresh coriander.







Chef Prinn in action - the man's a topgun on the wok.




















Dishes on order prepared ready to be stir fried or steamed.
















Chef Dtew tucking in to some after-service leftovers (dont think i've ever seen him without that cheeky grin on his face).








Before we all push off home heroic kitchen porter Nicolas arrives with a doff of the hat - to clean the kitchen top to bottom through the wee hours.

I regularly bump in to him again the next day as he finishes his shift and I start my next. He's stopped bringing the previously standard issue 2 cans of redbull... as I think he's now got a dodgy ticker!

Nahm - some snaps from the kitchen

Nov & Dec have been, errr, pretty busy at the restaurant...so not been much blogging going on here.

But did recently manage to take few snaps at the restaurant which thought i'd stick up here.

Obviously taking pics during service is little tricky, especially as i've only recently learnt one end of my camera from the other, so they're not gonna win any prizes.

But it does give a wee snapshot of the Nahm kitchen where i now spend the majority of my time.



Early morning shot of two of of many Eastern European kitchen porters - Christof and Sasha in this case - cracking on with daily chore of making fresh coconut cream / milk.

It's a mission of a job, which involves smashing up a tonne of coconuts, squeezing em in a big press and warming the pulp with water...































The happy couple: sous-chef Chris with Ireni (our elderly, Lithuanian, ball-breaking kitchen porter).

She has fists like clubs, is old enough to be my granny and has a repertoire of broken english phrases to give you what for... like "very not beautiful!" (when you make a mess) or "NOT bring!" (when you leave a pot in the wrong place where she refuses to pick it up from).

But of course everyone loves her all the same.













Here's Choi deep-frying some long dried chillies before service.




















The wok station ready to go - with jet engine like burner already firing.

















Desserts lined at the pastry section - ready for wrapping and then steaming to order.





















Julien knocking up coconut black-ash pudding in a copper wok...






















Close up of said pudding, it might look like engine grease but is surprisingly tasty.











As ever, Curry section's ready for service at least an hour before before the rest of us.





















Alessio and Choi manning their posts.











































Me and sous-chef Chris, and in the background Dobbie 'giving the finger' right behind his head.













Our runners that night - Aggi and Roman.














One of my fav dishes on the menu: pork n squid salad with chilli jam dressing, ma hor canape in the background.




















A Thai meal on the runners tray - all the dishes plus rice come to the table at once, the idea being they compliment and balance each other.










A stack of spiked cheques on my section come the end of service.

Update!

So it's seems that since starting at the restaurant I'm destined to begin every post by apologising for how long it's been since the last hint of blog activity...So yep apols. Will try harder!

Planning on get new recipes up soon, but in the meantime thought I'd write a bit of an update on my life as a chef at Nahm.....

So it's been a little over 3 months since i started there. The time has flown by, even though my first week there seems an age ago.

Guess that's due to the number of hours you clock up. It's a far cry from my old office life of desks, meetings and presentations...just the same kitchen, with, give or take, the same handful of chefs, runners and kitchen porters every week.

The hours

The basic regime at Nahm works like this: you do 5 or 6 days, at least two of which are doubles (start 10am work til close), the rest are late starts 2pm. You have to be in the kitchen ready to go this time, not strolling through the doors with a latte in one hand.

In terms of hours it's not the worst kitchen I've been to (think Maze...which from what i could tell was 7.30am - 12.30am at least 5 days a week, with no hint of staff food or breaks) but it's by no means the easiest either.

On a good day we get 15 mins to grab some food, but it's not uncommon to have days when if you dont eat standing up, you pretty much don't eat. I can think fair few occasions when I've not really eaten, or sometimes gone to the loo, for 12 hours or so!

I should probably point out that this is not so much company policy; it's just because you're so busy (& often stressed) you don't have the time or inclination to stop...you go from doing one urgent thing to the next (thinking to yourself if i don't do X in the next 2mins, I'm screwed, then ok now if i don't do Y in next 30secs chef is gonna start shouting for it etc etc).... which is the way it goes in busy kitchens all over.

Weekends come and go with much less relevance than in my old life. More than once I've only remembered it was a Friday or sat night when I'm cycling home in the wee hours - as i have to dodge an especially large number of hammered people pouring out of Soho (fighting, puking, hailing cabs and so on).

The contrast between me cycling home along Piccadilly at 1am (sweaty, knackered, smelling of fish sauce, prawns or something) and the swanky crowd in their glad-rags mincing outside Nobu or Mahiki, is fairly amusing too; they'd probably call the police if i stopped to ask the time!

The hours, staying on your feet all day etc doesn't bother me really, you expect that and get used to it. The only time i get demoralised is if i don't think I've had a great service. If you feel like you've done a good job the whole thing makes more sense.

Conversely when you've worked bloody hard all day and not eaten but end up annoyed at yourself because of some silly mistake during service or because you didn't chop shallots fast enough, that's when i find it most draining.

'Sections'

There are 4 'sections' at Nahm - 'Soups', 'Hots' (curries and stir-fries), 'Larder' (salads, relishes, starters etc) & pastry (desserts). 2/3 of my time thus far has been on the 'Soup' section, with the rest on 'Larder' (aka 'Colds').

'Soups' has been good for me; it's a one man show, you run it yourself - manage your own orders, do all your own prep / 'mes en plas'. You're responsible for cooking dishes from start to finish, plating up and getting it up on time. Then finally you clean down and make sure you're good for the next day and have a prep-list of what ya need to do ready for you or whoever is on there tomorrow to crack on with the following day.

Oh and there's also the small complication of the soup section also doing room service for the hotel (Nahm restaurant is in a 5 star hotel, called the Halkin). So at any time you gotta be prepared to knock out a sirloin steak & Caesar salad for room yadda yadda, salmon and clams for table blah blah in the bar....etc etc.

Finally it's also the soup guy's job to knock up staff food, from whatever is available, for about 30, to be ready for staff canteen at 5.30 each day. Needless to say being put on soups was a plenty challenging start to my first full time job as a professional chef.

Being 'in the shit' (pardon my french)

Being in the shit (ITS hereafter) is basically being 'in trouble' / 'up against it' / 'swamped' etc.

On soups it might happen like this: you've got a busy service looming in the eve with some nice big tables coming in early, you're trying to knock up some decent food for staff while getting stitched up by constant room service orders every 20mins..... you start to get behind, but every time you get back to your all-important prep the bloody ticket machine chugs out another order for a club sandwich or cauliflower soup. So before you know it service has started and you're still trying to finish prep which you're going to need any moment now....e.g your praying you don't get an order for mussel soup because you haven't had time to shell that tray of mussels you just steamed off...and what's that order chef is now shouting out? "duck curry, blah blah....4 mussel soup" Doh! So you start to frantically shell clams, when you should be working on the table that's going out in 3 minutes, another order comes in, then another, and because you were rushing you didn't hear table XYZ being called away and you realise with only minutes to go that you need 2 more soups on.........you get the idea!

You are now well and truly ITS. You can feel like a rabbit in headlights, about to be squashed. Sometime you get a merciful lull in orders which can give you breathing space to get back on track but, if not, it can then get to the point someone from another section has to drop what their doing to come help dig you out. Not much fun. Happened to me fair few times in my first few weeks and even experienced chefs find themselves thoroughly ITS from time to time, but it's rare and they handle it pretty well.

N.B From what i can tell being 'in the shit' is generally such a thoroughly unpleasant experience that the fear of being back in it is probably the number one source of motivation for chef's all over.... you just close my eyes and imagine yourself well and truly ITS in a few hours time - trust me, is enough to make anyone work faster!

So you learn the hard way....to try an push and be more organised to get yourself ahead of the game. So if the sods-law run of room service orders arrives while your trying to get ready for service, then, yes, you swear at the machine a bit but you've got the time to knock the orders& get pretty much back on track for when the opening salvo of restaurant orders arrives.

When i started i was ITS quite a lot, i know I've come a fair way since then. But am still far from being immune to it, and as soon as i get comfortable i get thrown on to new & different section on busy night and the learning the hard way cycle starts all over...

Quick 'Scudding' update

Before i finish i should provide one update though: in my previous diary post i mentioned 'scudding'. This is basically sneaking bird's eye chillies in to fellow chef (waiter, runner or whoever)'s food or drink and watching them unknowingly consume - a proud Nahm tradition. I previously mentioned the fact that no one had scudded me yet...

Well that didn't last long, in fact i foolishly mentioned it to David Thompson when he asked how things were, i said "good, i cant believe i haven't been scudded yet" or something equally foolish.

Needless to say David sent the word out and i got a multiple scudding that day - in my double espresso (saw that one coming, but David kindly encouraged me to down it anyway, interesting flavour sensation it was), rubbed around the rim of my water bottle, in the water with my tasting spoons etc etc!

So never fear, i haven't missed out on this important rite of passage, and i now have integrity when i share the love and scud others (in fact i get so much childish amusement from it that i think i might give a few family members the treatment over the Xmas period!).

Scudding: these little beauties, hidden in your food & drink.









Will write more soon, some recipes coming too.

Andy

1st week @ Nahm / as a chef!

Ok so a quick post on my first week at my new job...

Started at Nahm on Monday. While I've done a lot of cooking, dinner parties, Masterchef shenanigans and part time / temp experience in pro kitchens this is my first full time, full on chef's job. Feels good.

The more i think about it the more I'm sure the restaurant is the right place for me - David Thompson is an all time food hero of mine, it's really interesting & authentic Thai food and it's full of great chef's who i can learn loads from.

In general it also feels good to be settling down, focusing on one restaurant, one cuisine and on becoming a valued member of a brigade. I feel like what i put in i will get out sort o thing, which is a new and refreshing concept.

But what's it like? Well it's hard work: the hours are long, the breaks are short or non-existent and the level of professionalism expected is v.high. But that's what i want.

I'm working on Larder at the moment, and v.likely for the next few months at least. Larder at Nahm is a great section, it does almost half the dishes on the menu...Thai hors d'œuvres, salads, relishes, lons (mild coconut cream based relishes) some of the soups, and some of the street food stir-fries like the infamous Pad Thai. Plus i work right next to the pastry (dessert) section so get to help out there a bit / learn stuff / scoff stuff. There's often 4 chefs on this section alone.

At the moment I'm taking charge of about 3 dishes:

• Mar Hor - hors d'œuvres made up of fruit pieces topped with a salty - sour -sweet paste
• Miang - crazy concoctions of fresh ingredients with a complex sauce placed on betel leaves (see previous recipe / posts)
• Mee Grob - crispy noodle dish with among other things: prawns, pickled garlic, beansprouts, garlic chives and a v.complex sauce soured using a rare citrus fruit called Som Sa.

I'm responsible for all the prep for and for delivering them as ordered during service, and they're popular...so you gotta work quick, precise and clean. I'll be doing more dishes (i.e having more rope to hang myself with) before long!

The chefs there are an eclectic mix of Aussies, Italians, french, Americans, English and Thais. Most of them have worked at top restaurants in London or around the world before. E.g Frederico - who's on my section at the mo - came from Locatelli's top Italian restaurant Locanda Locatelli and did all the bread for Giorgio's 'Made in Italy' book (his mug is on full page spread in the back).

Everyone there is re all uber professional and will send plates back unless they're perfect / tell you to speed up even though your chopping at 100mph and are generally good people to work around and learn from. Despite the super professional vibe you'll be reassured to hear there's also plenty of the humor, banter and smut that you'd expect in any kitchen worth it's salt too.

The experienced chefs will 'break your balls' a bit, give you some stick now and then etc but there's none of the macho chef nasty bullsh#t you'd get in some places. Basically if you can take a bit of stick, learn quick, work hard... and be a bit of a degenerate, then you'll fit in just fine! Think I'm getting there ;-).

Oh and everyone who works there (and some who dont!) gets 'scudded' at least once....

'scuds' being super hot bird's eye chillies - and sneaking them into someone's sandwich/cake/ rubbing round rim of drink and watching victim's eyes bulging, their sweats and vain attempts to cool mouth down is a Nahm institution.

Not got me yet, though i fully expect to be unexpectedly chomping on some scuds before week 2 is out.

After service there's a late night clean-like-an-animal fest, often followed by a v.welcome ice cold beer (new guy has to get the beer on ice by 8pm - forget at your peril!) before dumping your whites and doing the final sweaty cycle ride home, bowl of cereal, shower and bed part of the routine.

Will tell more as it unfolds. But so-far-so-good.

Andy

Cookery schools (& a chef's job for me!?)

Few bits of news from me for any peeps who follow this blog (have not been tracking... it could be just me mam for all i know!).

My main bit of news is that i'm almost certainly going to take full time chef work at a London restaurant come August.

I'm 99% certain the restaurant in question will be Nahm (http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/reviews/686.html). It's a Michelin starred, super authentic (e.g make their own coconut milk fresh everyday, pestle and mortar everthing, dont use mandolins, source the very best rare produce from Thailand each week, flavour their rice with fresh jasmine flowers etc!) Thai restaurant right nr Hyde park corner.

The guy who set the place up, and who still spends much of his time there, is executive chef David Thompson - an all time food hero of mine. I did some work experience there last week and was honoured when the man himself offered me a job at the end of the week.

Not signed on the dotted line yet but, all in all, pretty exciting!

The other thing i wanted to mention / plug was that I'm hosting a couple of cookery demos / lessons...

Firstly on 17th and 18th of July @ Dublin cookery school, see here: http://www.dublincookeryschool.ie/courses.htm

And, also, a 'Taste of the Far East' workshop at the Culinary Arts School at Brighton Uni (on Eastbourne Campus), see here: www.cookery-holidays.co.uk

I think there are still places if anyone is interested in getting involved.

Andy