Chef! Part 2

By Chef Thobeka Shangase

Chefs by nature are extremely competitive, I cannot imagine another industry where the desire to be better then the next person is so rampant. I remember back in culinary school, the first two months of school we all loved each other and then fast forward four months later you were lucky if you weren’t killed in your sleep,  peoples assignments were going missing, pages were being ripped out of some, research was being hidden, resources being thrown away, fractions had formed. The kitchen was the worst there was always a rush for ingredients everyone took extra so some wouldn’t get and have to make do, oh the shit talking was like an infectious disease.

Everyone judged everybody else’s plate, copied plating ideas, accidentally knocked over things that were in the fridge, pastry resting in the fridge often went missing. Culinary School was only a teaser, professional kitchens are far worse. Being a young chef in a professional kitchen is like being in the front line of a war zone. Life is brutal and borderline hostile if it’s not the other staff making you do all the grunt work, it’s your head chef or Sous Chef making your life miserable, being set up to take a fall is a common occurrence I remember an experience when C.D.P (Chef de Partie) had a tray of bacon grilling in the oven, she forgot about the bacon went outside to smoke and the Sous Chef found the bacon burning to coal, who did she blame for the cock up? ME!

In my experience I found that it wasn’t the head chef that was hardest to please because I am damn good at what I do, it was my colleagues, walking into a kitchen with an expensive qualification in your back pocket and an impressive knife roll under your arm is not taken lightly by the people in the kitchen who started off as dish washers and have slaved for years. That is where most of the hostility stems from and chefs are not one to suffer silently, I’ve had someone look me in the eye after seeing my knife set and tell me that I am not worthy to have the knife set I had, as a chef you have to earn your knives with experience, and that is why knives grow feet and walk out knife rolls mysteriously.

People don’t realize how catty this industry is, every chef has been involved in some rivalry, every chef has another chef they cannot stand, you piss off the wrong person and it could be the end of your career, people have made phone calls and purposely blocked another person from getting hired.  Screw the Real Housewives, someone should do a reality television show about chefs and life in the kitchen. I do think it would be too real and too bloody for t.v.

 As chefs if we aren’t talking about our experiences and the places we have worked, we are talking about our food and how amazing it is or we are talking shit about another chef and telling anyone who will listen how much better we are then everybody else. There’s nothing worse than a chef who has worked at a five star property or worked abroad, every word out of their mouth stars with, “When I s working in London at a five star restaurant…”This is precisely the reason why shows like Chopped and Top Chef exist, no chef could pass up the opportunity to talk about themselves, their food and to beat other chefs.

I’m no different from other chefs, I too believe my food is excellent and is better than most, I too believe that I’m more talented and skilled then most around me. It’s just how it is. We feel this way because a tremendous amount of time and attention to detail is required from a chef, I demand perfection of myself and quiet honestly I have no respect for a chef who doesn’t feel the same about their food. If you as chef don’t demand perfection of yourself and will let an adequate plate leave the kitchen, you need to strip of your whites and retire, go work at Pick n Pay and deep fry fries for a living because you are a waist of space and a disgrace to the uniform.

This profession is hard, but I wouldn’t have it any other way, I like the competition, I like the back biting and shit talking. I wouldn’t want to be in this industry if it was all about love, support and holding hands, no way. Give me anger, give me competition, give me rivalry, deceit and blood sworn enemies. That’s the shit I live on as a chef.

Whiskey Milk Tart

By Chef Thobeka Shangase

“My…. affair with whiskey and custard may be the reason why I am still single.”

I love milk tart, I can’t possibility think of one bad thing to say about milk tart, its rich custard on a buttery crisp pastry, and it’s delicious.

 Milk Tart is one of those proudly South African dishes, we grew up around, (well I did), and growing up in the suburbs, there was a milk tart sold at every corner store on every street. Biting into a slice of milk tart is heaven enough to make you feel like nothing like this exists anywhere else in the world.

While researching this piece I found out that there are many versions of a milk tart around the world, the version of the milk tart that we know in South African is based on and old Dutch pastry, but it’s changed and morphed into what we call milk tart today. But in places such as Portugal they have the custard pie which is basically milk tartlets on puff pastry.

Traditional South African milk tart is made with short crust pastry and filled with what i believe to be a version of French creme pat. In some parts of the world they know milk tart as a custard tart, it’s made the same way as we do it here but it’s called a slightly different name. Not everyone is smart enough to serve a milk tart with cinnamon, which is unfortunate because the cinnamon plays such a vital part in the whole scene.

That dusting of cinnamon on top isn’t visually appealing, there’s something about the colour brown that makes all think of poo, but none the less that dusting of cinnamon adds a sense of drama and danger, it’s the last ingredient that takes it all over the edge and makes milk tart what it is. Without that dusting of cinnamon milk tart would be boring and bland. It’s creamy, custardy-custard, with a bite of spice from the cinnamon.

Being the trouble maker I am, I can’t leave well enough alone and I started to think of ways of how to make milk tart better so I put whiskey in it.I later realised that whiskey being so strong it needs a high fat content to balance it out and so initially i thought of a crème pat, the whisky could really cut well through the richness but then later changed my mind and decided on milk tart instead.

How did I come up with the idea of putting whiskey into milk tart you ask, well I wish I had an elegant story that goes like …. (While at a whiskey tasting the whiskey merchant was describing the notes of a particular Scottish whiskey which had notes of vanilla and cinnamon, of course being a pastry chef, my first thought was custard) No. 

I first got the idea when I was grocery shopping at Pick n Pay I happened to look down at my shopping trolley and sitting at the top of the trolley, side by side were my two favourite things in the world a bottle of Jameson Select Reserve Whiskey and a ready-made family size milk tart, yes, whiskey is on my grocery list, its right next to the milk and cheese.  Whiskey and custard could be what defines me as a woman and a Chef. (Side bar: my gluttonous and impassioned affair with whiskey and custard may be the reason why I am still single. It’s something to think about.)  

Chef: Part 2

By Chef Thobeka Shangase

Chefs by nature are extremely competitive, I cannot imagine another industry where the desire to be better then the next person is so rampant. I remember back in culinary school, the first two months of school we all loved each other and then fast forward four months later you were lucky if you weren’t killed in your sleep,  peoples assignments were going missing, pages were being ripped out of some, research was being hidden, resources being thrown away, fractions had formed. The kitchen was the worst there was always a rush for ingredients everyone took extra so some wouldn’t get and have to make do, oh the shit talking was like an infectious disease.

Everyone judged everybody else’s plate, copied plating ideas, accidentally knocked over things that were in the fridge, pastry resting in the fridge often went missing. Culinary School was only a teaser, professional kitchens are far worse. Being a young chef in a professional kitchen is like being in the front line of a war zone. Life is brutal and borderline hostile if it’s not the other staff making you do all the grunt work, it’s your head chef or Sous Chef making your life miserable, being set up to take a fall is a common occurrence I remember an experience when C.D.P (Chef de Partie) had a tray of bacon grilling in the oven, she forgot about the bacon went outside to smoke and the Sous Chef found the bacon burning to coal, who did she blame for the cock up? ME!

In my experience I found that it wasn’t the head chef that was hardest to please because I am damn good at what I do, it was my colleagues, walking into a kitchen with an expensive qualification in your back pocket and an impressive knife roll under your arm is not taken lightly by the people in the kitchen who started off as dish washers and have slaved for years. That is where most of the hostility stems from and chefs are not one to suffer silently, I’ve had someone look me in the eye after seeing my knife set and tell me that I am not worthy to have the knife set I had, as a chef you have to earn your knives with experience, and that is why knives grow feet and walk out knife rolls mysteriously.

People don’t realize how catty this industry is, every chef has been involved in some rivalry, every chef has another chef they cannot stand, you piss of the wrong person and it could be the end of your career, people have made phone calls and purposely blocked another person from getting hired.  Screw the Real Housewives, someone should do a reality television show about chefs and life in the kitchen. I do think it would be too real and too bloody for t.v.

 As chefs if we aren’t talking about our experiences and the places we have worked, we are talking about our food and how amazing it is or we are talking shit about another chef and telling anyone who will listen how much better we are then everybody else. There’s nothing worse than a chef who has worked at a five star property or worked abroad, every word out of their mouth stars with, “When I s working in London at a five star restaurant…”This is precisely the reason why shows like Chopped and Top Chef exist, no chef could pass up the opportunity to talk about themselves, their food and to beat other chefs.

I’m no different from other chefs, I too believe my food is excellent and is better than most, I too believe that I’m more talented and skilled then most around me. It’s just how it is. We feel this way because a tremendous amount of time and attention to detail is required from a chef, I demand perfection of myself and quiet honestly I have no respect for a chef who doesn’t feel the same about their food. If you as chef don’t demand perfection of yourself and will let an adequate plate leave the kitchen, you need to strip of your whites and retire, go work at Pick n Pay and deep fry fries for a living because you are a waist of space and a disgrace to the uniform.

This profession is hard, but I wouldn’t have it any other way, I like the competition, I like the back biting and shit talking. I wouldn’t want to be in this industry if it was all about love, support and holding hands, no way. Give me anger, give me competition, give me rivalry, deceit and blood sworn enemies. That’s the shit I live on as a chef.

Chocolate Chip Cognac Cheesecake

By Chef Thobeka Shangase

I think like most people i love a little liquor in my bloodstream on any day. Being a chef we are taught at school how to drink and drink well. So drinking is a big and important part of my job/ from understanding wine pairings with food and also the flavour profiles of wines and spirits and what the add to dishes.

My great passion in life is the relationship between alcohol and desserts, i maybe be exaggerating but nothing works quiet as well as desserts and booze. It's the ultimate in decadence, adding a slosh of booze into desserts has a multitude of impacts and affects mainly flavour.

I have fond memories of getting wasted on jelly shots with custard, whipped cream and tinned fruit cocktail, or those weekends in tertiary where we would pour a whole of vodka into whole watermelon and served it with ice-cream.

Traditionalist believe that a small amount of alcohol must be added into desserts and it must be cooked to cooked away the alcohol and only keep the flavour. Me,I'm a purist, i like to taste the liquor in my desserts, i don't want to cook it away, i want it raw and lots of it, which is why i like adding alcohol into frozen desserts. You get it as it is. Now i say if i'm cooking for myself or my friends i could add up to 80ml of alcohol, which is more then a single shot, but if you're cooking for others go easy on them. Too much alcohol can ruin a dish, there has to be a balance, the play on sugar, spice, chocolate, fruit and booze is what i love the most, you must be able to taste all the other ingredients in order to get the full experience.

There's really quiet something into eating and getting drunk. It's so classy.

Which is why i created this recipe, a year ago i started drinking cognac and not only did i love it but i was happy to find out that cognac has notes of marshmallow, vanilla and orange. It's the perfect flavour profile for dessert especially chocolate, which is why i had the idea to combine it with cheesecake. And my Chocolate Chip and Cognac Cheesecake was born.

If you try this recipe, You're welcome in advance!

Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice

By Chef Thobeka Shangase

If girls are made of sugar and spice I would want to be speckled with pink peppercorns.
I realize that I may be a little bold in saying this, but I truly believe that pink peppercorns are the next big thing in South Africa. These amazing pink jewels are my new secret ingredient in desserts. No you read right, I did say pink peppercorns, but I promise it’s not what it sounds like.

Pink peppercorns are not true peppercorns in the traditional sense; they are the dried berries of the Brazilian pepper tree and the Peruvian Peppertree. These berries got their name because well, they look like peppercorns and they too have a peppery flavour to them. Pink peppercorns are not to be mistaken with the ripened red true peppercorns, the Piper nigurm, which are more reddish-orangey in color, but their name is based on their colour. They are similar in spice and colour but pink peppercorns are very different, which is why I love them.

Peruvian Peppertree

Pink peppercorns are not solid like black pepper; they are light, fluffy and hollow and should be ground up with a knife and not a pepper mill because they will get caught in the mill.
Pink peppercorns have a citrus flavour and are very fragrant, they have the heat of black pepper but the deep fruitiness of chilies, they are the relatives of cashews and mango which makes them suitable for a variety of dishes especially desserts and fruits. It just offers desserts an element of contrast and warmth, it really balances out the sugar in the most wonderful way, and I can’t express it enough. It just makes desserts electric, it brings them to life. They are fabulous with ice-cream and chocolate, in desserts that are really rich it works wonders.

From left: Black, white, pink and green peppercorns

I have tried it with Turkish delight and it is heaven with the rose water, the spiciness just tempers that annoying floral-ness that comes from rose water. I also love it in fruit salads, In Durban we love pineapples dusted in chili powder and to make a new version of this popular street food, I replaced the chili powder with crushed pink peppercorns, a scoop of vanilla ice-cream with a sprinkling of pistachios on the side and it was delicious and so pretty!

Pink peppercorns are the perfect secret ingredient and it goes well with every kind of dessert you can imagine, if a dessert is very sweet use the pink peppercorns to bring down that sugar, if a dessert is lacking that POW factor, throw in some pink peppercorns and it will come alive.
The French have been using pink peppercorns in desserts for decades and it’s about times us South Africans got on the pink peppercorn wagon.

Bread Pudding Cake

By Chef Thobeka Shangase

I love cake, but I hate bread pudding. There’s something about soggy bread that just makes my stomach turn.  But we serve a lot of bread pudding where I work and so I am forced to be around bread pudding a lot. I’ve tried bread pudding from donuts, thinking I love donuts so I might like it with donuts, no, I hated it.

My problem with bread pudding is its texture, the texture is just strange and unpleasant to me after all it is soggy bread. So if I can change the texture of bread pudding, I could like it. I think.

When I hate a food, like as much as I hate bread pudding, I feel the need to find a way to make it better so I can somehow be able to keep it down. Bread pudding has been one of those foods that have been like a monkey on my back. No matter what I have tried with it, it hasn’t been good to me, others have loved it but I haven’t liked it. I have yet to conquer the Bread Pudding Demon.  
So when I had the sudden idea of creating a bread pudding that eats like a cake, you wouldn’t believe my excitement. My toes were tingling I was so excited.

Initially I thought of making a cake batter and then layering the batter with bread soaked in egg custard in a baking tin and bake it all together, so the bread would bake into the cake and meld into one almost like a crumb cake but a bread pudding cake. The result was great but the bread pudding was missing its signature moist, pudding-ness. But this is an idea I will have to explore further later because it promising to me and it has potential.

I decided to try and simplify things, take things back a notch and think home cooking instead of restaurant cooking. I decided to take the bread out of the equation completely and use an alternative; I still wanted a cake so I thought of using a Madeira loaf or pound cake. This makes complete sense because for trifles I like using Madeira cake because it’s dense and it tastes great with custard, it can take a lot of moisture. So that was the base of my bread pudding cake.
I love it when a good idea comes together.

Bread Pudding Cake

1 loaf vanilla Madeira Cake/Pound Cake
100ml caster sugar
440ml milk
220ml cream
5ml vanilla essence
4 eggs
 Butter
100g sultanas
100g white chocolate, chopped
Topping
100ml whipping cream
100ml sour cream
Dark chocolate

Crème Anglaise
150ml milk
150ml double cream
10ml vanilla essence
4 egg yolks
60ml caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180⁰C. Slice the cake into 1cm thick slices, place on a greased baking sheet and bake in the oven for 8 minutes, this is to just dry out the cake not to cook it, so no colour, just dry. Remove it from the oven, turn of oven and leave the cake to cool.
Cut up the cake into bite size cubes.

In a bowl whisk together the eggs, cream, milk, vanilla and sugar. Add in the cake cubes and press in to soak into the custard. Place in the fridge to soak overnight or for 2-3 hours.

Preheat oven to 160⁰C. Grease a baking dish with butter or ramekins and set aside. In the custard soaked bread, fold in the sultanas and white chocolate and then spoon in the soaked bread into the baking dish. If your using ramekins, fill it up to the top so when it cooks the bread pudding will puff up over the top nicely, kind of like a soufflé.

Place in the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes. The custard should be set. Remove from the oven and place aside to cool down.

Crème Anglaise

Place the milk, cream and vanilla essence in a pot and bring it to the boil.
Put the egg yolks and caster sugar in a bowl and whisk together. Pour the hot milk into the eggs a little at a time to temper the eggs while whisking, when the eggs are warm, pour the egg mixture into the pot. Stir the custard and cook it at a low heat until it thickens, stir it continuously. The custard should coat the back of the spoon.

In a clean bowl pour in the whipping cream and whip it until it starts to foam up, add in the sour cream and continue to whip until it’s stiff and holds its shape.

In a bowl, pour in 60-80ml of crème anglaise, pour it in the middle and then move around the bowl to swirl the custard so it’s even on the plate. I used ramekins for my bread pudding cake and so I ran a knife around the inside of the cake and then I turned it upside down on top of the crème anglaise. Place a dollop of the whipped cream on top and grate over some dark chocolate on top.

Chef!

By Chef Thobeka Shangase

The life of a chef is unnerving at times. To be the iconic ideal of a chef you have to work late into the evenings, in sometimes seriously hostile anti-female kitchens while beyond the kitchen doors customers indulge in a variety of substances barked obscenities on the restaurant floor, and all of this with a middle aged head chef screaming in your face for every order.

Being a working  female chef is definitely not for sissies, I, like many others are nevertheless inspired by the jobs dual nature, the gritty and rawness of life in the kitchen makes a good dose of old school glamour and swank delivered on artistically crafted plates seem all the more necessary.
But I think as chefs we need to get our heads out of this pre-prescribed ideal of a chef, we all aspire one day to be a head chef, own our own restaurants, write about food or talk about food on some platform.

I want to be more than just a chef; I want to be an icon, a brazen, in your face figure of excellence and creativity but not just in the food world. I no longer want to be called a chef; I want to surpass all laws of gravity blur all industry lines and smash all boundaries, I want to be regarded as an artist.
Fashion designers create wearable art for the masses and I create edible art. For the masses But being in a world where the word artist is thrown around more than a free prostitute, the word artist doesn’t quiet carry the weight it used too. Now days a pop star who doesn’t write, compose or produce their songs is still called an artist where as I who takes a bunch of fruits, vegetables and pieces of meat and creates an entire dish which is  well thought out, perfectly balanced, composed in color and texture, well rounded and tastes great ,I am not called an artist.

Creating great food requires a certain level of science, craftsmanship and skill. This is the amount of focus and dedication I apply to every dish I produce, so why am I not called an artist?
This job is all about being daring, grime, glamour and very unattractive uniforms… living the dream!