The Son

Jamie Oliver, My hunky-punky-cooky. He is more than the usual and incomparable to any celebrity Chef out there. Born and raised in Essex, his Dad owns a pub where he learned everything in cooking up to the butchery techniques. At age 16 he went to culinary school and after graduation--at age 20 he was on his way to becoming a successful and credible celebrity chef. Got married at an early age, and now lives a happy married life with two kids. His wife is very supportive of all his projects and activities. Now based in London after becoming famous with his Naked Chef TV show and more--plus all the books that he published. He is now into helping the youth to have better culinary education thru his restaurant 15 Cornwall London and late last year he opened a new one in Melbourne, Australia. He also helps children schools in London to come up with healthy meals versus lousy and unhealthy meals the canteens usually serve. He also promotes his own products, from pans to his famous shakers. The cooking method of Jamie is unique, young, very metro and helpful. A dash and bash of this, toss here and there. Butter, butter and more butter with his cooking. That is aside from all the herbs and spices. Maybe that's why I like him a lot. He is above all for me when it comes to cooking. He always says, "What I only want is to teach people to cook a decent but sumptuous meal." He is really one of the few good and handsome men that cook well. 3 words for this man--My favorite Chef.

The Father

Anthony Bourdain, My Daddy Chef. My favorite line from him is, “I write, I travel, I cook and I’m still hungry for more.” He also made the most significant statement in cooking history. He said that any dish without butter is lousy. Hep, hep, hep! I agree! Without butter it's really different. It's a chef's secret ingredient, as confessed by Bourdain. They will never admit it, like men when they cheat. Anyway, if I were to have a father in cooking, it would be Bourdain. He is a great writer of best selling books like Kitchen Confidential and A Cook’s Tour. Among his famous TV shows are: " A Cook’s Tour" and " No Reservations". Anthony Bourdain was born and raised in New York and is now the executive chef of Brasserie Les Halles in New York City. He is the anti-celebrity chef. He doesn’t wear starched, white jackets or fancy hats. This man has an infectious passion for food and producing gastronomic dishes. His passion and adventurous spirit have created millions of gourmet fans around the world. What’s very interesting about him is the idea of traveling a lot to discover different cultures and cuisines. He embraces and merges them, no matter how weird or scary they maybe. I'll never forget the day he dined with the gangster in Russia, swallowing the still-beating cobra, tasted the durian ice cream, ate oyster for the first time, convened with the Vietnamese local and got drunk with their famous fermented drink (similar to our tuba here). Aside from that, he visits different countries to share his cooking secrets. Too bad I missed him when he visited the Marriott Hotel in Hong Kong. I wish that one day he’ll visit Manila.

The Holy Spirit

Photos by: Herbert Lehmann / www.herbertlehmann.com
Ferran Adria, A man famous to few. Who among you know him well? Not many I guess. Did you know that he began his famed culinary career washing dishes at a French restaurant in Castelldefels, Spain? Here, he familiarized himself with basic cooking methods as he applied a variety of culinary techniques, building his gastronomic repertoire. As time passed by he joined the kitchen staff of El Bulli, and only 18 months later, he became head chef. El Bulli, situated on the coast of Catalonia on the outskirts of Barcelona, was known as a traditional French restaurant. He conducted lots of experiments; one of the most impressive and well accepted was his use of foams. This technique, consisting of aerating ingredients with a siphon, introduces minute bubbles, which alter the texture of food. His culinary approaches are intended to provoke, surprise and delight the diner.

His philosophy: he closes El Bulli for six months every year in order to travel abroad, in search of new inspiration and ideas. He is often called "the Salvador Dali of the kitchen," and has won global acclaim as one of the most creative and inventive culinary geniuses in the world. With those descriptions you will no longer wonder why he is my inspiration. When science becomes a big part of cooking, for me that's amazing. Now, I miss his famous TV show "Decoding Ferran Adria" most especially the episode where Anthony Bourdain visited El Bulli to witness the breakthrough in cooking history made by Ferran Adria.

The Holy Trinity

I’m back after weeks of erratic skeds from work and the fully booked Artist Chef Intimate Dinner this Valentine's month. Well I’m writing this blog because I feel that it is important for people to know who are my inspirations in my cooking. A lot of people say that I cook so well and they wonder if I am a product of the Culinary Schools that are popping like mushrooms nowadays. I proudly tell them that maybe that’s my gift from the Almighty. It’s like a calling that I have to pursue, a mission that has to be done. I believe that if I will further enhance this gift by going to a culinary school--I know the Almighty will take my life farther. All my life my passion is cooking and the arts. It’s my innate passion. I don't have to work so hard at it--it’s something that comes from within me. Since I was 10 years old I've dreamed of the day when everything will fall into place--I’d be an Art Director, a Painter and a Chef. True enough, one by one, I can see the road that will lead me towards that dream. In the meantime I take care of the gift I have especially my cooking. My cooking method is not restricted. I adapt techniques and styles from Chefs around the world. I research every step of the way and I can easily give life to my research by applying them in my cooking. This blog is dedicated to these 3 Chefs whom I consider the Holy Trinity of Cooking: Jamie Oliver, Ferran Adria and Anthony Bourdain. To explain why I admire them, I think I need to write a separate blog for each.

Potato Soufflet (Sayniyyet Batata) - البطاطا بالصينية

This recipe is served with
a mixed green salad in the photo,
but any salad goes with it.

Ingredients: (4-5 servings)
6 medium to big potatoes
1 onion
1 cup of bulgur wheat
1 pound (or half a kilo) of minced meat
1/2 cup of pine nuts
1 egg
Butter or vegetable oil
Grated cheese of your choice (parmesan, mixed cheese etc...)

- Peel the potatoes, then boil them with some salt
Meanwhile prepare the filling:
Chop the onion, put in pan and sautee with some butter or oil, after 1 minute add the pine nuts, after another minute add the minced meat until it lightly browns, remove to cool.
- After the potatoes are cooked all the way, drain and then put them in a bowl and mash them. Add the egg (after they cool down a bit, you don't want the egg to cook) mix well, then add the cup of washed burgul, add salt and pepper and mix well. Divide the potato mix into equal halves. Coat a baking pan with butter or oil and spread the first half of the potato, top it with the meat mixture, then add the last layer of the rest of the potatoes.

Top with grated cheese and bake for 25 minutes or until done. (Oven-350)

Fattoush (Lebanese traditional salad) - الفتوش

Ingredients: (serves 4)
8 leaves of romaine lettuce medium sliced
2 tomatoes (medium diced)
1 cucumber sliced,(small size, if other: about a handful or 2)
1 onion sliced half circle
1 clove of garlic mashed or very thinly sliced
2 handful of parsley leaves
1 small bellpepper, medium to small sliced
4 leaves of white cabbage cut in half and sliced
Few mint leaves
4 radishes sliced
2 green onions sliced
1 carrot sliced
1 cup of watercress or purslane
1 medium pita bread opened, cut in small cubes and toasted
1 tablespoon of summack spice (found in middle eastern foodstores)
1 teaspoon salt
Juice of one lemon
1/2 cup of olive oil

Mix sliced onions with salt and summack, add the garlic then add all the vegetables, add lemon juice and olive oil and mix well. Top with toasted bread right before serving.

Tip: Some people prefer the bread fried in vegetable oil (for 1 minute then dried on a paper towel), it's really good!!! Also some people like to substitute lemon juice with vinegar.

Hommus (Lebanese chickpeas paste) - الحمص بالطحينة

1 can of chickpeas (or garbanzo beans)

1 clove of garlic

2-3 tablespoons tahini paste (sesame paste)

Juice of one lemon

A pinch of salt

Put all ingredients in a blender or food processor, until you get the paste. You may want to add a little bit of water if the tahini is too thick. Add olive oil on top right before serving.

Baba Ghannouj: (Eggplant dip)

Replace the chickpeas with 1 medium grilled and peeled eggplant.

Tabbouli (Lebanese Parsley salad) - تبولة

Ingredients: (makes 2 servings)

1 bunch of parsley (washed, finely chopped, try not to include the long stems)

1 medium onion (optional: some green onions are good too)

1 tomato

Juice of one lemon

Few fresh mint leaves (washed and chopped)

1/2 teaspoon of 7 spices (or allspice)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2-3 tablespoons of fine burgul (or wheat germs)

6 tablespoons of olive oil (or eye ball it depending on taste)

Dice the onion and mix it with salt and allspice and put it the serving bowl. Dice the tomato and add it to the onion, then add the chopped parsley and mint, bulgur (soak the bulgur in a little bit of water if it's not fine, no need to soak wheat germs, just add it to the ingredients). Add lemon juice, olive oil. Mix all together and serve.You can garnish it with some diced tomatoes.

Tips on how to eat it:In Lebanon we serve it with romaine lettuce hearts or white cabbage. Take a soft leaf of lettuce, fill it with Tabbouli and enjoy a tabbouli boat!

Karakter

For the Artist Chef logo, I considered a lot of ideas. One of them is to incorporate a child-like character. Vector and line art are my favorite so that's the style I used. They give her a young and hip appeal. For the choice of color, I consulted the Chinese. According to Feng Shui, orange is a lucky since it's the dragon's color. And according to studies, orange is appropriate for food businesses. Just look at Cravings, Chowking, Cafe Bola, Crustasia, Shanghai Bistro, and more. Another color here is black, which I believe offers a good contrast to orange. Regarding the font, I think it's just okay. There are better fonts, I guess. But since I published it already, it's too late to change it. There are two charcters in the photo, and I guess you know which one made it. The skinnier one! Though the other one is also cute, a lot of people preferred the one that I used in the logo. They all said, "It's very you..." So finally I figured out that the skinnier one is the KARAKTER!

Welcome!

Hi there everyone :-)

Finally the "Artist Chef" has a blog site! Here, I will feature all my intimate dinner customers in chronological order and all the set meal menus I prepared for them. I will also post photos of my new concoctions. And lastly, I will also post all the paintings I have. If anyone is interested to buy, please get in touch with me. Everything will be up and running in a short while.