Michelin Star Restaurants

    The Michelin Guide is probably the most famous and influential guide in the culinary world, it can be the highest accolade and achievement for a chef, it can in many ways make or break a restaurant.  It can definitely send the restaurant and chef into fame.  It ranges from one to three stars, with three stars meaning that it is a exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey, one will always eat extremely well here with fine wines, faultless service and elegant surroundings, the caviar of restaurants, the creme de la creme!
With about 5570 restaurants in London alone, the whole of United Kingdom has only 4 prestigious restaurants awarded 3 michelin stars.  It is the ultimate icing on the cake for a top chef so it is no surprise once attained it is added pressure and enormous stress to maintain it, for some chefs it becomes total obsession/ total slavery.  In the famous case of french masterchef Bernard Loiseau he made it his life's ambition to have a three star restaurant, he was so consumed by reviews and guides, although in 2003 he managed to maintain his three stars, he lost two points in the highly regarded french guide GaultMillau, for Bernard that was the end of the line, he had enough and he took his own life by shooting himself in the head.  For some chefs having a michelin star is having more trouble than its worth, as in the case of a spanish chef Joan Borass who recently gave his michelin star back to the michelin guide, he said "it is a wish of all chefs... but you have to remember the price to be paid to keep it."  

    Chasing my michelin star dreams lead me to move to London England, what better city in the world would I find culinary excellence!?  I was really in culinary heaven, surrounded by so many michelin star restaurants and great chefs it was absolutely overwhelming.  Le Gavroche was a restaurant I always admired ever since being born into the culinary world in cooking school, it has no doubt some amazing history.  It has consistently  been in the World's Top 50 restaurants, pretty much brought french food to England, and has endless awards including the exclusive 3 michelin stars.  Although it has lost one michelin star in 1993 it is still as successful as ever and has not lost its popularity.  It is a institution that will definitely pave the way for great success for any young chef.  With some great names having been trained there such as Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay, Marcus Wareing to name a few!  I was fortunate enough to have a mentor while working in Vancouver; Thierry Busset who worked there when he was 23 and was so influential in the restaurant back then that he was still friends with chef/owner following Thierry's footsteps, he got me a job at Le Gavroche.  The following is my story of the 1 year I spent at the two michelin starred Le Gavroche.

slicing truffles

            I remember walking into the kitchen on the first day, I thought to myself how Marco Pierre White cooked on these stoves, how I will be keeping my mise en place in the same fridge Gordon Ramsay once kept his mise en place.  I was so excited to be part of the elite brigade of the famous kitchen, to have this on my resume would be amazing.  All this daydreaming was quickly broken by the noise of yelling and swearing by the sous chef at one of the mignons like myself, I quickly realized I might have bitten more than I can chew, I really wasn't quite sure what I have gotten myself into.  I quickly had to adjust to almost no sleep, we started at 8am sharp and finished at about 11:30pm or later.  It was quite rare to live in central or anywhere close to the restaurant, if you want to live comfortably as in not being crammed into a 2 bedroom flat with 5 other people sleeping on a futon as I did for the first three months of my existence in London (not cool!)  then rent prices are ridiculously expensive.  It took me about an hour to commute to work each morning and on monday mornings when we started at 7:30am a 6:00am wake up call was not appreciated, so four or five hours of sleep a night became normal.  The first 5 months I was on meat station, my chef de partie cooked the meat and I cooked the meat garnish, plated it and brought plates up to chef to be finished and sauced on the pass to be finished with sauce and/or baby herbs.  It was such a cutthroat kitchen, all the chefs competing against each other, forget teamwork, each one wanting to be top dog, the best of the best.  I'm not sure if my chef de partie saw me as competition or just didn't like me, but he did no take to me well, every morning I'd walk in already resented, a simple Good morning or Hello was too much of an effort to spare for me.  No matter what I did I was never good enough.  The smallest mistake would set him off to yell at me, I remember he went off on me when I put the herbs in the back instead of the front on my ice tray, so when he had reached for the herbs it went into the raisins into the front, it made him so furious that he threw the herbs everywhere so I had to pick herbs out of everything on that tray, but I couldn't say anything, no one would have my back, the head chef could find a replacement for me tomorrow.  Most of the boys will find any excuse to yell at somebody under them, it was like in grade school, you put other people down to make yourself seem bigger.  I didn't have it that bad compared to others, there were some people who constantly got called names and bullied almost everyday.  I've seen boys and girls cry, that place could break the toughest macho men.  The turnover rate was so high, most chefs that walked into that kitchen left within 3 months which was usually the breaking point for most, exhaustion kicks in, you haven't had proper sleep for a few months now and everyday you goto work it gets harder, you've been put down so much and belittled so much that you think you're a incompetent chef.  I remember telling one of my colleagues that I had a dream the head chef was yelling at me and to my surprise he said it was a common dream among us haha.  It was our daily goal not to be the one that screwed up that day and be the one to get bollocked, because we all knew it was inevitable like a ticking bomb that someone was bound to get a lashing that day.  This is a pretty accurate depiction of a lot of michelin star kitchens: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQxNbjtHZOE , it kind've gives you an idea of what goes on, this is one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants, since he was trained at Le Gavroche I have a feeling it was passed down!  I don't necessarily agree with this method of verbal abuse but from what I've seen it does make people learn faster, it really depends on the person, for some when you push them to their limit it really did bring out a chef's full potential, but for some chefs, they just totally crumble and quit.  I know it sounds quite harsh but it did separate the strong from the weak.   By the time I finished my 1 year there there was only a handful of people who made it to 1 year, which was always the goal, they didn't really expect you to stay longer than that and the reward was that all important reference letter.  

we got the freshest game, pleasant, partridge, grouse, mallard ducks all kinds of game I've never seen before

peter rabbit =)

    

     The hardest thing was staying mentally strong, there were days I'd wake up seriously contemplating handing in my notice, there were times I hated absolutely hated going to work, staying in bed would've been heaven. It was hard to stay positive, to stay motivated, remember why I wanted to work here in the first place.  Somehow I had got through the first 5 months alive, for me it was quite an accomplishment already since I've seen at least ten chefs quit in the time I was there, some chefs hand in their notice, but the cowards go on their break and don't come back.  Life seemed to have gotten a little easier, I started to gain respect from my seniors and seen as a competent chef, and the reward was that I was able to move onto a different station.  I started to actually enjoy myself, being given more responsibility and able to learn how to make terrines, deal with foie gras and use the most amazing italian truffles.  Although it was quite a hard environment and most chefs would not put themselves through this kitchen, I've never worked with such an amazing team of talented chefs, all wanting to be the best and give every customer the most amazing meal.  The standards were just unbelievable, not one plate less of perfect would leave the pass to goto the customer.  I've never used such fresh ingredients, it would quite normal to get a bag full of rabbits shot by Michel's family with fur on and everything, you just don't see that kind of thing working in Vancouver restaurants.  I gained an unbelievable respect for food, it was always drilled into our heads not to waste anything, we utilized absolutely everything, the peelings of celery would go into a consomme or stock, any trimmings would go for staff meals.  After half a year I felt like I reached my happy place, it was still tough, we were still always busy,  I was still being pushed to limit in what I can handle but I had got through the tough part, I remembered why I signed up for this hellhole, nothing could stop me now, I was right in my element, perhaps I had turned into a sadist!? haha

best steak tartare ever!!! with a poached egg, truffles and pommes maxim potatoes

      The last months passed by quite fast in the Pastry section, maybe because I could see the finish line of my one year!  I had a good amount of experience in Pastries and dessert before so I was able to put some of my input in some specials and create some petit fours which I was ecstatic about!  I had a few commis chefs under my supervision, I never thought I was a screamer being a 5'4 Canadian, but when my commis chefs made stupid mistakes it was my responsibility, this place just brought it out in me.  I remember this one commis girl chef in front of my head chef lied and put the blame on me, I was so enraged I can't even remember what I said, probably some swearing involved, I just remember seeing my head chef's face afterwards in total shock, of course she believed me as she knew I would never be dishonest, but I think I made the girl cry, but I really cannot stand dishonesty.  If you're reading this blog you probably wouldn't want to come work for me one day but I'm always fair, I swear!  My last day had finally came at Le Gavroche, I was actually quite sad to leave, I was almost addicted to this place, it was probably one of the hardest years in my life but also one of the most rewarding, Michel gave me a big hug goodbye and told me I had done a wonderful job and I knew everything was worth it, all the early mornings I woke up hating my job, every time I wanted to cry because it was just too hard, it was all worth it.  I would never do it again but I don't regret it, I learned so much as a person and a chef.

Michel and I on my last day