A Sit Down With a Sous Chef at Cafe Boulud

I have blogged about Cafe Boulud once before when I talked about the importance of food presentation. If you missed that post, you can read it here. This time, I asked their sous chef to answer a few questions I had regarding her experience working in the kitchen. Her name is Kiki, she is from Korea and this is what she said...

Q: What sparked your love of cooking? And why did you decide on French cuisine?

A: My love for French cuisine is based on the similarities it has with Korean cuisine. It is very simple, yet elegant. This is what I want my future restaurant to be based on. A mixture of French and Korean cuisine.

Q:How do you motivate your employees to work hard and care about the food that they are preparing?

A: It is sometimes very hard to do by yourself. Loving your job is important which shines through when you are working. Your employees mirror your own work ethic.

Q:What was the most stressful situation you have faced in the kitchen?
A: When unexpected things happen it gets stressful. For example, a cook not showing up for work or being short on ingredients to make the dishes.

Q:In your opinion, what is the most important aspect of your job?

A: Consistency. Having to be in the kitchen every day both mentally and physically. This is a mentally taxing job and subduing emotions from your personal life is very important.

Q:How do you feel about racial diversity in the kitchen?

A: My current kitchen is very diverse. Most chefs respect diversity within the kitchen. You can see this in our voyage menu because many cuisines from around the world are displayed. Having this voyage menu allows all of us to learn from each other's culture since there is such racial diversity in this kitchen. I even was able to do a Korean voyage dinner.

Q:Do you feel the role of women is different than the role of men within the kitchen?

A: Mentally there is no difference but yes, physically. My arm is currently injured after two and a half years of grueling hands on labor, so I cannot lift heavy things or do repetitive tasks which slows me down. Men have an easier time completing their daily tasks because of their physical strength.

Q:What is your favorite food to eat? What about to prepare?

A: Korean food is my favorite to both eat and prepare. I like to cook all Asian cuisines. Southeast Asian and Japanese are some of my other favorites.

Q:What individual has had the greatest impact on you?

A: Chef Aaron who is the head chef at Cafe Boulud has always given me opportunities to grow and has always pushed me beyond my limits to make me grow extremely fast. There is never nothing to do.

Q:How do you evaluate success?

A: I rely upon feedback from my coworkers. I make something good, it tastes good and I feel good.

Q:What is your greatest strength? How does it help you as a sous chef?

A: I am a very organized person and as a sous chef prioritizing and keeping the rest of the kitchen organized is extremely important. It makes delegating tasks faster and more efficient which keeps the machine going.

Q:What do you do to stay educated about new food trends?

A: I use the internet to look up current top restaurants and visit those restaurants. I do this because the top restaurants are basically the canon in which our industry relies upon for trends.

Q:Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

A: I want to start out small with my own restaurant with a unique style which is Korean food with French influence. I want it to be called Bottari which is a cloth that Korean's used during the war to carry all their belongings when traveling from place to place.

I want to thank Kiki so much for taking the time out of her busy schedule to complete this interview with me. I also recommend you check out Cafe Boulud next week during Restaurant Week to catch their $29 Prix Fixe Menu while you can!

The Art of Food Presentation

Before I began dating my food savvy cook of a boyfriend I never realized the intimacy and importance of food presentation.  Now that I pay attention to food presentation, I can not not pay attention to it. I have become extremely judgmental towards certain dishes and have learned that the better the food is presented, the better it tastes. Think of it this way: sloppy plating usually means sloppy cooking, which directly affects the taste of the food.

One restaurant that cares immensely about food presentation is an Upper East Side restaurant called Cafe Boulud, one of the many staple restaurants by Chef Daniel Boulud. With one Michelin Star and three stars from The New York Times, Cafe Boulud has to make sure their food presentation is always perfect.

Below is an image of one of the plates currently served at Cafe Boulud. With the help of my boyfriend, who prepares this plate daily, I am going to explain to you the process of creating such a beautiful dish.

This dish is composed of apricot honey glazed duck, honey seared apricot, chantarelle mushroom puree, chantarelle mushrooms, chickpea panisse, garbanzo beans, mustard frills, and chive blossoms.

Restaurants like Cafe Boulud are focused on a balance of flavor and symmetry when plating the ingredients. Since there is only one apricot in this dish, it is forced to be in the center due to their focus on creating balance on the plate. If you look closely, you will see that besides the apricot, there are three of each of the other ingredients: three pieces of duck and three components of the other ingredients.  After the apricot is placed, the puree is put into an almost perfect triangle surrounding the center. Then the other ingredients are carefully placed on top of the puree, using tweezers to maximize precision in order to create perfect symmetry. The three pieces of duck are placed last, because they need to be the hottest ingredient on the dish. Two pieces of duck are placed sideways to display the temperature (rare, medium, well) requested by the consumer. The last piece is placed upright to display the crispy skin, which is especially important when cooking duck. 

Another thought that goes into each dish is the color choice. For example, in the dish above bright colors are sued such as green, purple, orange and the pink center of the duck. (Summer colors!)

So next time you go out to eat, remember to pay attention to the food presentation. It is an important part of the restaurant experience that too many people overlook.