Why only minority Chinese are willing to exchange and acquire the best practices of other cultures
By ChefSarawak@NZChefSi
What goes wrong? Why after two years of chef school study, Chinese or third world countries Asian still carried their bad habits from home into the commercial kitchens? Is it because their pride for their own “outstanding culture” or “home education” influenced them more?
Cleanliness is infamous for Chinese operated eateries, why? Or this can even happen to any third world Asian countries’ kitchens. However, most Asians who could read and understand my English articles are mostly more flexible, open minded, well-educated and cultivated Asian, they will strongly agree what I pointed out here.
If you have learned something from my article here, you can apply it in your home kitchen as well to ensure clean home style kitchen practice as well.
Even a poacher would not be happy if he poached in a jungle with a group of hunters but didn’t get a fair share, of course, such a poacher must possess some skills that the hunters wanted to acquire badly, but he also could learn some dirty ways of how those hunters tried to trap and hunt down animals. Similarly, in life, we could find ourselves got stranded in this similar situation. It’s all about what were our initial intentions as a poacher, as long as we didn’t change our standing, ethical practice and moral standard, we could always keep our professional reputation and high standard in a long-lasting run. You have to be brave enough to set yourself a time frame and say no to yourself when you found the situation had changed by the greedy hunters which wouldn’t do you any good. We could be generous to people, but it is unwise that we extend our generosity and lavish our precious time to benefit mean and stuck-up minds.
Now here are some common scenes happened to new Asian kitchen hands or chefs:
1. Spit in kitchen garbage bin. If you told them if they didn’t mind do it in the bathroom, in their minds they would argue and curse you silently, “Well, I have no TB, I am not sick and since this is a garbage bin, what’s wrong? You bitch!”
2. Blow the nose in the kitchen next to the prep food and dump the tissue to the garbage bin. If you told the Chinese head chef that he better reminded his kitchen hand to blow his nose and dump the dirty tissue in the bathroom, he would curse you silently. Stereotype Chinese who kept quiet to you, it means they didn’t agree what you told him. “Well, I am the head chef, I didn’t say a word, mind your own business, I will grill you like a robot until you resign automatically!”
3. Here came the worst, spitting into either special washing basin or other washing basins in the commercial kitchen. They were either never aware of what they did was inappropriate as nobody has told them before or they would think their own saliva and phlegm is harmless, “Well, I flush it out with water, what’s wrong bitch?”
4. Why I mention a kitchen hand or chef shouldn’t spit or even washing their dirty face or lips with water into hand washing basin in a commercial kitchen? Worst in an emergency case, if a chef’s finger got cut, this washing basin is always the first basin a chef would go wash his blood away, there will be no time to rush into a bathroom! It happened to a very small kitchen of a western café I worked before, as the kitchen was so small that, eventually the hand washing basin was filled up with tomatoes or potatoes, although the chefs washed the tomatoes or potatoes later, I still found this practice was disgusting. What will be your rule and regulation as a head chef to your kitchen crew regarding this little hand washing basin issue?
5. Any perishable items wouldn’t be stored right away to the fridge, instead, they would wait until they were free, probably 4 hours later, in short, smoking and orders are always more important.
6. Often after shopping for fresh meat, the meat was not stored in a chiller, they would go yum chai first and only returned to the kitchen 3 hours later. Perishable food should be kept at 1 to 4 degrees Celsius, and not more than 2 hours at room temperature, warm room temperature is the most dangerous temperature to your perishable food.
7. The microwave oven is always the dirtiest cooking tool in the Asian operated kitchen, the habit is carried from their home to the kitchen.
8. The reason why most diners don’t get food poisoning in an Asian restaurant although its Asian chefs didn’t handle food according to HACCP standard, as when Asian food being cooked under high temperature, bacteria not just ciao ciao they die die! So, if an Asian restaurant’s plates are washed by a commercial dish washer, a customer will unlikely get food poisoning.
9. There was never a drip tray and tray holder to hold and defrost meat, and these perishable items were always left right on the floor or at room temperature or more than 6 to 12 hours, some would leave until fully defrost and begin to release smell, only then they started to marinate the meat or cook the meat. Diners who always ate fresh meat and fresh food could tell the meat was not fresh upon their first bite, when being kindly informed, these Chinese chefs would think it this way, “Well, if you don’t like it, please don’t come, any way you were just only 1 amongst 100 customers who complained, what’s wrong with you, look at your face, I could tell you are a mean person!”
10. There was neither any drip tray and tray holder to hold defrost meat if it was defrosted at the bottom tier of a fridge.
11. Often uncooked bloody meat was mixed with cooked food in a prep work bench no other but the western culinary school graduated Chinese head chef! Why? This head chef came to an extent would tell his kitchen crew that any form of education is not important, someone like him didn’t need to be so highly educated but he got a better job and could earn more money than someone who had been educated in different first world nations and was a chef school’s student of the year but ended up had to work under him. In short, Asian chefs are too haughty, they thought their country’s cooking skills, methods and food are the best, but they have forgotten that they were not trained chefs in their own country’s culinary school. Often Asian male chef could be so haughty and chauvinistic to female chefs that he couldn’t tell the differences between a friend who tried to help him due to he is young and more inexperienced than her in food and safety issue.
12. Par-boiled and cooked food for mise en place was left at room temperature for more than 2 hours without covering. Some cooked perishable items were left even overnight without covered under hazard room temperature.
13. If food and safety officers came to check an Asian eatery or grocery place, I advise the officers get ready for a camera man to snap someone at the back door of a store or a café/restaurant, he may find someone who tries to dump something inappropriate promptly to the garbage dump place.
14. Most Asian male chefs would only clean as go when they studied in a chef school under a very strict chef tutor, once they walk into a restaurant to work as a head chef, he expected other chefs and kitchen hand to clean his own mess after cooking and any prep jobs. And he loved to ask so many assistance from both kitchen hands and other chefs (even though they were all very busy with their chores) whenever he was doing a simple chore in the kitchen. Usually, the Asian head chef tries to cook and do the least prep job and cooking in the kitchen, he feels that he is the boss. He will never write down his recipes as he is so worried that someone could steal his recipes. In short, only a mediocre chefs and incompetent chefs are afraid of other chefs who possessed a hidden threat in the kitchen to him. A confident head chef will be a very good teacher, he is very knowledgeable, willing to listen even from a kitchen hand’s ideas, willing to learn anything that would benefit his chef skills from even just a kitchen hand, he knows how to train his kitchen crew members, his instructions are very clear, precise and he is willing to teach, thus his kitchen crew’s prep jobs are fast, clean as go, thus food is fresh and precisely seasoned or marinated. They were being taught how to do proper mise en place and storage, how to count serving portion and trained in cooking to reach menu's expectation, thus their dishes served would be all in consistent.
15. Canned foods were left in the opened cans for days, either without covered or just left and exposed under kitchen’s warm temperature. Or often the canned ham was just left right on the unsterilized working bench, or on the top of its can. Should I nag to a western trained Chinese head chef there is something called a plastic container, glad wrap or a small plate? Is it a habit carried from home or chef school? He only studied in a chef school for 2 years but cooking at home for probably more than 10 years.
16. For an example, I was told this happened in an NZ Chinese cafe. When a pack of char shiu chicken wings was left outside the room temperature for so long, a sous chef thought the Chinese head chef had forgotten his chicken wings were left outside, so she helped him to store the chicken wings in the fridge, an hour later she got scolded that the chicken wings texture had changed due to her “kindness”. In short, did the Chinese head chef really know what is the use of microwave instead he was more interested to go against his sous chef’s western standard food and safety implementation and practice in “his kitchen’ that he led, in short, he prefers a Chinese food and safety standard kitchen, the western standard will be only shown temporary once a year for the NZ food and safety inspection officers!
17. In a mediocre Chinese restaurant, the standard of serving portion, consistency changed according to business flow, if the business was good, portioning would be reduced, when the business was bad, the portioning would be increased. If a western café's food cost is 30%, Chinese café’s head chef and the owner would aim for 10 to 20% food cost, thus MSG, canned flavoring sauces and seasoning, chicken essence and alkali are applied to inferior food to improve its texture, taste and even appearance. If you are not used to these chemicals, after eating food marinated or seasoned with chemicals, you would feel very uncomfortable for the next few hours, your mouth would release a funny smell, and my friends told me these Chinese head chefs only preferred to receive their own Chinese customers, some of their obvious racism remarks, I can’t write down here. In short, racism is going on very badly between own Asian, own Chinese clans. They would serve fresh meat to white customers, I witnessed the conflicting behaviors happened in the racial issue!
18. Do you want to walk into a small café/restaurant where their chefs could see you or the cashier would inform the chefs who were ordering, if you are the race or person that they like, they would serve you fresh food, if they didn’t like you, they would serve you the substandard food? I walked in a Newmarket western eatery second time ordered the Greek meatball but ended up the second time’s meat ball’s lamb released a smell that indicated the lamb had been sitting at room temperature for too long, and there was no consistency, as the first time the meatballs burst with herbs aroma, but there was no herb being added to the second round meatballs, and when I told the cashier, she said they got three chefs, so obviously some chefs didn’t follow recipe, and I would never return to a café like this another time. A few days later I walked in a Japanese eatery nearby with my ex-chef school classmate who visited me, the attitude of the Asian waiter although his English was not good he was so polite and happy to see another two unknown Asians, and the food served was very fresh, honest and the price was great. These were my working experience before - If someone notable coming, the head chefs would ask me to rewash and reheat the serving plates, or when the white customers came, I would be asked to take out the freshest marinated food or when the regular customers came, I would be asked by head chef to add more food. From this food serving discrimination from chefs, as a chef I am actually quite worried to walk in an unknown café wondered if the chefs there who could peek me from the kitchen like me or not if they will serve me fresh food or not! A well trained and a good chef with high ethical standard surely won’t operate his café/restaurant in this manner. Imagine in a situation that you have a posh café in an affluence neighborhood, how do you know the unfresh food that you served to actually was a famous but ruggedly appeared Indian or Chinese visiting plastic surgeon from the UK, and the minute he ate, his buddy came sit next to him and he was your favorite customer, a notable politician, and business tycoon?
19. Western style kitchen rules and regulation will not be applied in an Asian restaurant if the head chef’s girlfriend is working in the front house as a waitress. As in western standard, all dirty dishes collected by waiters or waitresses must be dished to the bin before placing on dish area, but this wouldn’t happen to a Chinese restaurant, young Chinese girls’ hands wouldn’t need to get dirty, and surely the fate of older Asian female kitchen hands and female chefs are not so lucky at all, they are subjected to abuse due to most of them worked illegally in NZ. In Asian restaurants/cafes or restaurants/cafes owned by Asian, except for the head chef, other chefs and kitchen hands who worked hardest and with most chores are all paid only with the minimum wage, even if you have completed NZ Cookery L5 diploma, you would still be paid the minimum salary.
20. How many Asian restaurant/cafe owners’ and employees’ food and safety certificates were authentically tested from one’s hard work instead of just being trained in basic by the “seller” but the exam was attended by other faked Asian candidates to acquire such international food and safety certificates???? Now you know why they don't respect education but only respect money, as they could use the money to buy certificates!!!
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