HTN Blog

I look back in awe and amazement at the palate from which we cooks and chefs have to choose our produce and products from and I say look back from when I started cooking in 1970. For example, when writing menus in those days, Avocado was listed for two only because they were very seasonal and rare and expensive. Now, look at avocados and their year around availability.

The other expansive effect on the palate has been the brilliant range of ethnic cuisines from which to choose and the mighty Australian appetites that have embraced dishes from all over the world. Doesn’t that make choosing the dishes to capitalise on seasonal glut products easy?

Tradition also plays a big part in our choice of dishes. How long is it to Easter? – not long and naturally one thinks of Easter eggs which were originally hens eggs that had been painted or decorated in some fashion. However, the egg was and is significant as it culturally represented the start or rebirth of life and living. The old one of which came first…the egg or? Let’s leave that out.

But there are so many different ethnic dishes that have a traditional value and some rules by which we have to adhere – traditional Jewish food for example. When you start to explore the availability of the traditional dishes, you’ll find a richness of dishes from which to expand your menu knowledge and recipes.

Happy Easter and enjoy – even though you’ll be working hard through this busy period.

When you’re a cook, chef, or apprentice you’re never far removed from the supplier of the basic we need to ply our trade. The primary producers (farmers) that make it possible to use the superb produce to cook to satisfy our customers.

So we need to spare a thought for these extraordinary hard working people who continue to work in these days of record heat, fires and personal confrontations. Can you imagine how difficult it is to do what they do as we ride to work in air conditioned comfort be that is trains to cars or buses? No such luxury for most of the farmers.

Watching tour produce turn to mush because of the heat or watching your grapes turn to raisins on the vines or having to euthanise your sheep because of fire damage must be challenging and heartbreaking – yet farmers are having to face up to these dilemmas and worse. Our hearts goes out to them.

On our side of things, it is inevitable that prices of goods rise and consequently, restaurateurs, F&B managers are faced with increasing the selling prices of the dishes that compromise the menu – or find another way around passing on these unwanted hikes in prices. Customers hate price increases.

Whatever way you look at it, we are a part of this chain and we must empathize with our primary producers and say thanks to them for all their efforts and professionalism.

Happy New Year to everyone and may 2017 be all you would want. Time goes so quickly for me and your busy life as a Chef/cook, I am sure it goes just as quickly – maybe even more so.

In my retirement, I can only reminisce about this time of year and in my restaurants/work places, as in everyone’s; it was still a busy time of year. It is even more so now with so many more people to serve as people eat out for all meals and at all times of the day. Needless to say, in my early years of cooking and restaurant operation, breakfast was only ever offered in hotels. Now it is a major part of trading in cafes and so on.

Only another example of how the world of hospitality has changed (and continues to changes) and again it emphasises the fact that we, in the business of hospitality, have to be able to meet those changes and satisfy our customers’ needs.

From all the mates I know in the business, their take is the need for fluidity and going with the flow as they say. Meeting the growing expectations of our expanding customer base is the challenge that has to be met. And it is our bosses that have to make those decisions (maybe you are the boss) to keep their businesses going to pay our wages.

It’s all a part of a busy time for all concerned in hospitality, especially when you are a Chef or a cook. Happy New Year!

It’s hot here in sunny Queensland – very hot! For me the high temperatures herald Christmas is near as we are so used to being hot, sweaty and humid right now. You could say it is traditional.

Then this time of the year is full of traditions, Christmas traditions. And one of those traditions is that we as cooks, chefs whatever, will work our butts off as it the busiest time of the year for most business we work in. And our customers are looking for traditional fare. No matter how much we think we can create new dishes for the holiday period, it will always come down to the expected Christmas food – the roast pork and apple sauce, the turkey and the trimmings, Plum pudding and custard…soon it goes. You know what I’m talking about as so many of your will have been reared in this Christmas fare.

As much as we try excite our customers to try something more suitable to eat for this time of the year, the old favs will always win out. Comes back to the fact that we must give our customers what they want; after all they are the reason we do what we do. Funny thing, you give ‘em what they want and they come back for more.

We are charged to use our skills in cooking the meals for our customers. Nothing new about that but then some of these dishes may not be what you cook regularly. Cooking a whole turkey takes real skill as does getting the crackling right on the pork. So few businesses make apple sauce from scratch which is a shame as it is so delicious.

So Christmas is nearly on us and from me to you all, a Happy Christmas. Remember you are a part of making so many peoples’ lives happy with you cooking skills over this traditional time of the calendar.

Terminus on Darby is located at Shop 1/88 Darby Street, Cooks Hill 230 and is the perfect place to sit back and let the world go by!

With word of mouth, Google and Facebook reviews going through the roof, they MUST be doing something right!

From sandwiches, wraps and finger foods to Cocktail style and share meals they are able to either cater at your function or you can simply pick up from in store.

It’s simple, all you need to do is give them a call or flick them an e-mail with the details!

Bookings – (02) 49069195

Email: [email protected]

Monday through to Friday they aim to cater for those who are working with fresh, healthy and quick breakfasts and lunches from our display fridge so you don’t have to wait – these are available eat-in or takeaway. Of course they also have more substantial eat-in options and importantly, they have an extended weekend breakfast menu as well as their quicker options still on offer.

Dinner is a variety of bar snacks, share plates and main meals to suit all tastes – and of course craft beers, wines and cocktails.

Hello there or should I say Aloha, the traditional hello here in Hawaii where I sit and look at the stunning azure ocean waters off Kona on the Big Island. It is so good to be here not only to holiday but to see the locals in action and it is a place where lots of examples of native ingredients being incorporated into the local eating scene.

Sure, you can find any number of hamburger joints as a result of demand by customers and that is a given but there is also the remarkable laid back, but yet, efficient waiter service ensuring we get what we want and always with a huge welcoming smile. Lots of Mahalos, thanks you!.

As I write this I find myself reflecting on the fact that I came to the United States of America (via Hawaii) for the first time in 1979 – amazingly, nearly 40 years ago and the one constant I find in the numerous consequent visits to the USA, is excellent service on the floor. There are so many factors to this excellence in service, including the appallingly low wages paid to waitstaff (in comparison with Australia) and so therefore the reliance on tips is to considered but then, there is also the natural friendliness of Americans.

Travel allows learning and indeed that was very much a part of the inspiration of the Peter Howard Culinary Scholarship. As you may know, it is an annual award run by HTN from which the winner receives an international return airfare and $5000 spending money. There have been loads of winners and they return with so much information from their travels that ultimately goes on to benefit our local industry.

It’s not too late to enter – look in the HTN website and please excuse me as I get back to this neglected MaiTai sitting here and looking lonely.

In my minuscule veggie patch in the back yard, the green peas are bursting out all over. It is another reminder that winter is in full swing and to reminds me that, once upon a time, we cooks were tied to seasons.

Of course, all that has changed with the use of technology and our adapting to having produce we want, and more importantly what our customers demand, all year round. In one way, it certainly makes life easier for us when we are planning menus.

However, there are some ingredients that will always demand seasonal use and coming up is one such succulent item, Spring Lamb. Delicious. And vegetables like the brassica family are at their best now, however Brussel Sprouts, Cabbages and other members of this family all year round. Such is the range of climates in our great country and of course, glasshouses etc that let primary producers provide us with produce and products we need, whenever we need them.

With the hard work of people like the CSIRO and food manufacturers, we are well supplied with all the right stuff to give to our customers and fulfill our love of cooking and we are once again reminded of our place in the food and wine industry.

The recent corporate debacle that has turned the Dairy Industry upside down should be a reminder to us that we, as Chefs, cooks, apprentices and anyone involved in the massive Hospitality Industry, are a part of the Agri-business of this great country of ours.

I was fortunate that, during my career, I got to work with so many rural people and got to know about their hard work and dedication. I was reared in a Dairy region and did have first-hand experience of milking cows and being involved in farming, albeit as an observer mostly. I was a ‘townie’ to my farming cousins. However, whatever I’ve seen and done during my 6 decades +, I know that we simply don’t exist without our farming brothers and sisters.

What do you eat if it doesn’t come from the ground and is produced by our farmers and graziers?

I know this is a very simplistic discussion but so few of us understand the dynamics of farming and so few acknowledge that without farmers, we are non-existent. So the next time you pick up a potato, a carrot whatever, a good piece of beef recognize that it is from our farming friends and say thanks.

The only other group of people I know that work as hard as farmers is the cooking fraternity.

Throwing out some old documents from my files the other day, I couldn’t help but notice just how many cooking jobs I’d had during my younger days. So many different kitchens and so many different locations around Sydney and Australia – it was, in those days, the way to get the experience to make for a well rounded cook.

Somehow it was acceptable to have all those different jobs, provided the places of employ were recognised as being ‘good’ work environments. Not a lot has changed in the last few decades since I was training but it made me realise that HTN apprentices get this varied work experience as a part of their employment through HTN. It has to be a better way to gain experience than the way I did.

The downside to my gaining experiences was that I would be one of those employees that employers still complain about – “…I just got him trained to where I want him and he left me!” This is still a constant complaint of everyday employers and yet young cooks and chefs move regularly to gain experience here and around the world.

Perhaps the is the way it is and provided we keep on gaining new experience and give our employers and customers the very best we can while we are there, we are fulfilling the essentials of being in the service industry. Giving service.