The humble canteen

Hey you all.

This thread will be a little different then all of them previous threads Ive ever posted. This is a presentation of my new home, my place, my comfort zone, and me. Altogether with a little of archeology so you guys can put it into context of sorts.

To most of the older members, I am the bastard of the knife forums, whom got banned from the other place for no reason whatsoever. I dont want to really get back to that and I won't.

Read on...

So this goes back to the times when communism was finished back in Poland. It was done, and though there were still thousands upon thousands of russian troops stationing all around the country, the first free "democratic" elections were past the newborn democracy.
You read all that to understand, that under "fuc*ing communistas" [borrowed from movie "The Blow"] the country was in huge debt, lending money from all around. Its debentures worth no more than dust, its inflation rocketing.

How is that significant? Well before the communism ended, I was one of the, nicely called here, "glazed children".
My father, passionate tradesman, built a huge modern house, and then they both with my mum went to work on the other side of the iron curtain, earning decent money not whole loads, but after getting back and converting currencies it was fortune! I mean fortune. Think like 500 dollars could buy you a house and a car back then.
I had all the latest toys from the german market, nicest radio controlled cars, driving simulators, the lot. Garden where I could play football and 800m2 with vegetation.

But due to the hyperinflation they could not earn fast enough to pay mortgage for the house.
And simply anough we lost the house my dad built. In an dramatic effort they managed to get us a place to live. And the things calmed down, up until I went to the chefs college.
It was far away from where I was born and lived, so had to share the room at the dormitory.

The first three years there went well, we never had a lot of money at that time but always did squeeze it through the month.
At the fourth and last year, my fridays martial arts trainings were ending too late for the dormitory I lived in to allow. You know this silly age where you just cant accept compromise, even if its your landlord who is complaining. I got sacked.
This way I had a great two winter months of life on the street. It was cold, let me tell you.
Some nights I managed to just drive around in a night bus, but others I didnt.
Some drivers would allow me in even though I havent had a buspass. My choice was to either buy a ticket or food.
I was literally soooo down.

To be perfectly honest, I wasnt crystally clear person back then. My faith got somewhat disturbed, but the goal of finishing the school was as clear and crisp as ever. It was a promise to my dad.
I never directly distributed or sold drugs, but I would sometimes be a middleman delivering a package for a small fee or just sending right customers to the apropriate places. Thats just life. You might think its wrong but having choice of eating or not, I chose to eat.

And then, finally, after all that, I found a bed in a room at the student house of the sport college.
Life was great again, it was like march, temperatures rising, sun shining, in june graduated from that humongous waste of time called chefs college - still using books from the seventies...
Worked six months with italians in a decent trattoria.
And then went abroad with one objective: to properly sweat my buttocks.
This is still ongoing. My hard work in the past ten years was finally got noticed and awarded for my effort.
And some of it really was hard work, you know, the longest day I did was 36 hours.
I started at work at 5am on monday, got a brake at 5am on tuesday, drove home to drop my daughter off at the kindergarten, and went back to work again...
But yet, Im still as hungry as I was before. Sometimes it means overtime and little time for my fam.
Cant really understand folks who are getting stressed if theres a little more to do...

Anyways

You have read this far, fair you deserve to finally see the pictures of my oasis. Even though I did not participate in the designing the whole lot, [and it shows with the 20L double frier] this kitchen is just about perfection to my eyes.


Today in the morning, in the kenwood is dough for onion bread, in the bag on the bench is bread from my local french bakery, in the roll, my new toy from Mr Catcheside





I adore my shock freezer


Paderno


And here is the deal, even though you might feel like Im an opinionated f*ck, [I maybe am ]
However I still am just a boy cook. I might be responsible and managing all that, work alongside some very influential and rich people, but what gives me pleasure is the simple exercise of washing vents. It won't wash itself.



My little office, just before weekend so taken my notebook with me.






And my walkin. Ready to go on monday morning.



So if you guys ever see a comment from me that seem harsh or unpleasant, just think about the opinion it brings rather than words used. Think carefully cause the only thing I despise in my kitchen is dull, unsharpened people.


Stay sharp


PS: To give you an idea of my concept and the food I serve, heres pics from a regular usual day at the place.

Juice and fruit and cereals


Pigs leg and fillet roll



Same but cheaper





Some tomato sauce for meatballs in the making


finished product - with creme fraiche


carrot swede mash in the pot


baking mushroom


Later in the gorgeous Revol procelain


Quick foccacia




I had to respect this, the traditional here, brown cheese



And some slices of yellow one


Buckwheat salad


And the homemade balls of lamb and pork


Baked banana cake that day



Later finished with buttercream seasoned with walnuts caramelised in brown sugar and lemon juice




Forgot to make a picture of the buffet but here is what it usually looks like

The modules food stands on are one for heating and one for cooling, pretty neat stuff

 

I am glad I opened this thread!

Stunning.

PS I enjoy your cantankerousness.

 

Nice, neat and spacious.
Don't you need a second chef?

 

This is super crisp sir! :cool1

 

Very nice...I love your sense of order...since moving out of my house and back into it, I reorganized things with the knowledge of how my cooking has changed and how to better use the space. Still...very far behind you!

 

What a wonderful place to cook.

 

Thanks folks.

Some tiny few weeks ago I got the most wonderful compliment I ever received.
One of the persons [to indicate how important a person this is] working in the house got a late lunch with me. He said:

"I came late because I had a meeting at some **** [other] place. There was no indication there at their lunch is going to be any good, so I just cut the meeting short and came back to eat"
...
Eyes got wet.



BUT!!!!

Be careful. I am preparing something of a thing for the fourth of november!!
Wait for pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Nice Mike, super nice - and interesting to read about your life

 

Thank you for a great read and photos. What an amazing workplace.

'Stand for nothing, fall for anything'

 

Sounds very good that you are back doing all the cooking again, and this time, for yourself.

Congrats to you, Mike.