Palate Sensations Cooking School, Singapore

Magical Bali, learning how to make jamu

2016-05-16T09:53:00.001+08:00

I was in Ubud, Bali a few weeks ago and I always try to do something different each time I visit this magical place.

For some time now, I have been exploring making my own beauty and home cleaning solutions (that’s for another blog post too!) and when I chanced upon Nadis Herbal giving classes on how to make your own beauty products, I quickly signed up on line. The tiny rustic looking shop is tucked away off the main road of Ubud so it’s easy to miss but the experience is well worth it. Using organic and home grown ingredients, I made my own body scrub, massage oil, body mask and jamu.

Jamu is a herbal drink that is taken daily by Indonesians to aid in disease prevention and the treatment of serious health conditions. It is made of turmeric and ginger and sweetners such as honey and palm sugar, and sourness such as lemon and tamarind are added to the drink to round out the taste. I love this drink so much I am going to start making it for myself everyday. Here is the recipe so you can enjoy making it too:

Makes about 1 litre:

This recipe is very much agak agak (estimates) and you can put more or less of what you like.

4 small knobs of mother turmeric (the fat one, not the skinny finger ones)

4 small knobs of galangal

1/2 handful of tamarind pulp without seeds

2 tbsp of coconut palm sugar

1 litre of water

Blend everything together and then boil on low fire for 20 minutes. If there is left over pulp, sieve it before drinking. It can be drunk cold or hot. When it cools down, you can adjust the taste with lemon juice and honey. This can be kept in the fridge for a few days but it’ll be gone before the week is out if you love it as much as I do. If you don’t boil the mixture, the turmeric will be too harsh on the stomach to digest so in this state, you can only drink up to a tablespoon a day. Turmeric is seen as an antiseptic and is anti cancerous so drink up!

Introducing our new Executive Chef, Brenda Chew

2016-05-11T14:34:00.001+08:00

After a global search, I am pleased to present our new Executive Chef, Brenda Chew. Please join me in welcoming her to Palate Sensations.

Brenda Chew was born to eat. Influenced by her Peranakan grandmother, she was exposed to the sight, taste and smell of spices from an early age. After working in the Banking and Information Technology industries for 6 years, she decided to pursue her passion in pastry. She graduated with a Diplome de Patisserie from Le Cordon Bleu and an Advanced Diploma in Hospitality Management from TAFE Institute, Sydney, Australia. She interned at Uccello and Café Sicilia while studying in Australia. Upon graduating from Le Cordon Bleu, she worked as a Pastry Chef at Jamie’s Italian, a restaurant in Sydney by Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver. She was part of the Opening Team responsible for the setup of the restaurant. During the 5 years with Jamie’s Italian, she assisted with the training of new chefs and was appointed Cultural Ambassador for Jamie’s Italian International. During this period, Brenda was exposed to and developed a high level of competency in culinary techniques to compliment her pastry background. Returning to Singapore in 2015, she worked as a Pastry Chef at W Singapore before joining Palate Sensations as Executive Chef. Brenda is in charge of running the culinary and pastry programs and advising the Management Team on strategy and business development.

“I have a real passion for food and I enjoy cooking mouth watering dishes. I am constantly upgrading my knowledge about new food trends. As Executive Chef at Palate Sensations, I take great pleasure in sharing my culinary and pastry experience and I look forward to having fun in the kitchen.”

She joins our dynamic team from left: Jay Soh (Operations Manager), Loreta Valdez (Chef Instructor and Assistant to Brenda) and Lynette Foo (The Boss).

Looking for an Executive Chef @ Palate Sensations Cooking School

2016-02-24T16:03:00.001+08:00

It's that time of the year again when we say goodbye to our present Executive Chef, Ruth Mesonero and welcome a new Executive Chef at Palate Sensations Cooking School. Chef Ruth will be returning to Spain in the near future to be with her family.

Every few years, we welcome a new Executive Chef to Palate Sensations. The new chef will continue the great work done by our previous chefs while bringing fresh ideas, new methods of teaching and wonderful new recipes and cuisines to share.

If you know anyone interested in this position, do spread the news near and far. As a reward, if the candidate you recommend ultimately becomes our next Executive Chef, we will reward you with SGD$1000 in cash.

The job specifications are below:

About the Executive Chef Position at Palate Sensations Cooking School

The school is looking for a young, charismatic, ambitious, passionate and enthusiastic Executive Chef who can come on board to take on a large part of the corporate team bonding activities, private events and publicly scheduled cooking classes.

The Executive Chef position is an integral part of The Palate Sensations Management Team which will comprise of The Managing Director (driving strategy and business development) and The Operations Manager (running day to day operations). A chef assistant will support the Executive Chef in running the programs.

The role will cover:

·               Teaching some publicly scheduled classes (depending on the chef’s expertise) and most of the corporate team bonding activities and private events

·               Assisting the guest chefs in mise en place and in their classes as a second chef

·        In charge of the studio kitchen (ingredients and costs, liaising with suppliers, equipment, cleanliness, layout for classes etc)

·               Handling consulting projects as and when necessary

·               Handling photo shoots when necessary

Qualifications:

·               Relevant culinary degree or diploma in Western Techniques (French or Italian)

·              Ability to cook a variety of Asian cuisines such as Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese or Indian is a big plus

·               Minimum of 3 years experience in a fast paced environment across a variety of cuisines

·               Teaching/instructor experience a big plus

·               Need to speak and communicate well in English

Type of personality this is suited for:

A young, ambitious and adventurous chef who wants to work in and explore Asia for a few years before moving onto another culinary experience. It is expected that this position will turn over every 2 years with the current Executive Chef working on a succession plan to fill the role he/she will vacate:

·               Innovative, creative, enthusiastic, dedicated, ambitious, reliable

·               Fun, have a sense of humor

·               Have zero tolerance for second best

·               Passionate about all types of food and want to learn and is curious about new cuisines

·               Confident of own abilities

·               Quick thinking, able to make decisions with changing circumstances and able to take calculated risks

·               Charismatic and able to engage an audience

·               Strong leadership, able to manage large teams and control the participants in the classes

·               Able to work flexible hours

Hours:

The school is only open when there is a class in session. The studio has the capacity to hold 3 classes a day from 11am to 2pm, 3pm to 6pm and 7pm to 10pm for a maximum of 75 participants for corporate hands on cooking classes and 20 participants for private events or publicly scheduled classes.

The hours are flexible and the chef is expected to work 6 days a week for 50 hours in total.

Package:

·               Remuneration will be in Singapore dollars

·               Gross salary will be paid and it is expected that the salary will cover accommodation. Employer CPF if applicable will be paid on top of gross salary.

·               Vacation leave (the studio is closed 4 weeks a year and everyone is expected to go on leave at the same time)

·               Medical expenses through a medical insurance plan

·               Employment pass if needed

The final package will be based on the chef’s qualifications and experience.

Expected Start Date:

Immediate

Contact:

Please send your resume and cover letter with your expected salary to:

Lynette Foo

Managing Director

Palate Sensations Pte Ltd

Email: lynette@palatesensations.com

Healthy On The Go Snack - Carrot Power Balls

2015-12-11T13:21:00.001+08:00

One of the things I like to make is this super healthy carrot power balls. Whenever I need a snack, I go for this instead of reaching for a commerically made muesli bar or a bag of chips. This recipe is so versatile you can virtually put anything you want in it. If you think it's not sweet enough, add abit more dates. If you want a chocolate feel, add some cacao powder or chocolate chips. Anything and everything is possible. Replace the carrots with almond meal and for a Christmas feel, add some chopped cranberries and grated lemon zest. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 and half large carrots
3 medjool dates
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup walnuts
1 tablespoon psyllium husk
1 tablespoon desiccated coconut
zest of 1 orange, liquid of 1 orange (use as much as it takes to combine)
pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg to taste

Method:

Put everything in a food processor and coarsely blend. Only add as much orange juice as it takes to combine. If it is too liquid, adjust with more psyllium husk and desiccated coconut to make it come together.

Roll into bite size balls and coat with desiccated coconut.

Chill and enjoy!

Nasi Campur, the wonder of Indonesian Cuisine

2015-09-24T14:19:00.002+08:00

How to put together your nasi campur:

Tofu - Marinate the hard tofu in some sunflower oil, turmeric and chili. Pan fry until crispy.

Tomatoes - Slice some fresh tomatoes.

Rice - Saute cooked day old rice with some steamed cauliflower, sprinkle with some turmeric, salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with coriander.

Sambal - Blend 8 pieces of large red chili, 2 pieces of chili padi, 15g of belachan, some salt and sugar and 2 pieces of tomatoes. Cook until it is dry. Place in a small bowl with half a slice of calamansi.

Fish satay - crush in a pestle and mortar 2 shallots, 4 cloves garlic, 1 candlenut, 1 largeg red chili, 1 tsp coriander seeds, 3 cm fresh turmeric, 2 cm galangal, 1/2 tsp belachan, 1 tsp palm sugar and some salt and pepper. Blend the spice mix in a food processor with 350g mackerel fish, 150g prawns, 70g freshly grated coconut, 2 tbsp vegetable oil, 2 kaffir lime leaves (stems removed and finely chopped). Using wet hands, form an oblong paste around one stick of lemongrass skewer. Grill on a hot pan or in the oven until cooked.

Place a piece of banana leaf at the bottom of the plate. Assemble all the cooked food a plate. Enjoy!

Aunty Mary's Scones

2015-08-17T14:14:00.004+08:00

Growing up in Australia, one of my childhood comfort food was Aunty Mary's scones. We often visited her after school in the afternoons and she would serve us a plate of scones with cream and jam. Here is a recipe I have put together to remember her wonderful scones.

Ingredients:

2 cups self raising flour (sifted)

A pinch salt
1tbsp sugar
90g unsalted butter (cold and cut into cubes)
3/4 cup in total of milk and cream combined (any combination is fine but the more cream you put in, the more decadent your scones will be!)
Extras: chocolate chips, dried fruits etc..

Method:

In a large bowl, add the self raising flour, sugar, salt and butter.

Use the tip of your fingers, rub the flour and butter together until it resembles breadcrumbs. If you like dried fruits or chocolate chip, now is the time to add a handful of them to the bowl.

Make a well in the center and pour half the milk/cream into the well.

Use a knife and start mixing it together. If it is too dry, add more milk/cream until the dough comes together. If it is too wet, you need to add more flour. Don't play with it too much.

Remove from the bowl and on a floured surface, quickly pat the dough flat to approximately 3cms in height. If you knead it too much, it becomes hard so the less you do with it the better it is. Since I pat mine down and I don't use a rolling pin, my scones look lumpy on top instead of smooth. It's your choice. If you want smooth looking tops, then roll them out with a roller but don't play around with them too long.

Use a round cutter and cut out the dough. Put them on a lined baking tray so it won't stick. Put the scones close together so that they can push each other up as they rise in the oven.

Brush the tops with milk and pop it into a non fan forced oven at 220 degrees C for approximately 8 minutes. Check to make sure it is cooked through.

Remove and wait for about 10 minutes before eating otherwise it will be quite doughy. Break the scone in half with your fingers and spread some butter and jam or whipped cream.

Remember, every oven is different so you may need to adjust the temperature of the oven and timing to suit yours.

Chicken curry pot pies

2015-07-08T18:14:00.002+08:00

One of my favourite recipes of all time, this is quick and easy to whip up!

Timing: about 35 minutes includes 20 minutes cooking time

Ingredients

300 g chicken
2 tbs green curry paste (this can be purchased off the shelf or hand made)
1.5 cup coconut milk
1 cup thai pea eggplant cut into 1cm pieces
1/5 cup long beans into 2cm lengths
2 kaffir lime leaves, torn
1.5 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbs palm sugar
1 tbsp cooking oil
Ready rolled puff pastry

Green curry paste if making by hand

15 green hot chilies
3 shallots,sliced
9 cloves garlic
1 tsp finely sliced galangal
1 tbsp sliced lemon grass
0.5 tsp finely sliced kaffir lime rind
1 tsp chopped coriander root
5 peppercorn
1 tbsp roasted coriander seeds
1 tsp roasted cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp shrimp paste

Method:

Grind all the green curry paste ingredients until well combined and set aside. Skip this step if you are buying the green curry paste.

Heat 1 tbsp oil and stir fry the curry paste until fragrant. Reduce the heat and gradually add 0.5 cup of the coconut milk, stir until a film of green curry oil surfaces.

Add kaffir lime leaves, chicken, long beans, eggplant and continue to cook for 3 minutes. Add the remaining coconut milk, season with sugar and fish sauce.

Pour the mix in ramekins and cover with puff pastry.

Bake at 180C about 20 minutes.

An interview conducted recently by a high school student

2013-07-04T13:56:00.000+08:00

Recently I did an interview with a high school student for a student essay. I thought I would publish my replies to her here since some of you may ask the same questions.

1. Let's bring it back to your high school days, why did you decide to choose the chef profession as part of your high school career experience?

I was 16 and I wanted to do something fun. I didn't want to go to a lawyer's office or to a hospital.

2. Why did you think that the one week working at the Summit Restaurant in Sydney would be disastrous?

Because I had no experience and I wasn't sure what to do.

3. What ran through your mind, after that one week experience?

That it was something really fun but hard work and mundane at times. I recognised that I could do this as a career.

4. What was it like for you, working in the kitchen of such a famous restaurant?

It was very structured and controlled. Everyone had their set tasks and the kitchen was clean and ran like clock work. It gave me a very good experience since that is the ultimate for a good restaurant to function.

5. Was that one week the starting spark for your passion in cooking and food?

Yes but my parents said I had to have a "real" job i.e.: a professional job and it was not considered a professional job since in Australia it is a trade and trades have the stigma that it's for those who are not smart enough to go to university.

6. What would you say is your influence when it comes to your cooking?

Growing up in Australia, it was my mum's home cooking of easy recipes for the family and the multi culturalism of Australia i.e.: the immigrants from Middle East, Greece, Italy, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.

7. Do you believe everyone can cook? What are some principles that you hold on to, when it comes to cooking?

I think everyone can cook and it comes with learning at least the basics taught by professionals and after that it's all practice. That is why I went to Le Cordon Bleu.

8. Why did you decide to pursue a career in Accounting & Finance? Since you already had the passion for cooking and food, why didn't you decide to build a career in that in the first place?

See 5.

9. Did you travel a lot during your career in Accounting & Finance? Was it the different food cuisines in the different countries you went to that made you more passionate in cooking and food?

Yes I traveled every week covering the Asia Pacific Region and to the US as our HQ was based there. I was of course influenced about the different food I was eating everywhere. I knew I would come back to it at some point.

10. Wasn't it a huge step for you, after being successful in your career, to let it all go to follow your passion?

Yes it was very scary too to give up a salaried job for one that may not return anything.

11. Passion or stability, which would you choose?

I think you need both. You can't have stability with no passion and vice versa otherwise you will never work at our optimum.

12. How did you feel, the day you decided to give up the career you've had for 12 years, to follow your passion in cooking and food?

Scared, worried about financial security but excited to be free and to be able to dictate my life.

13. Did you find it a huge risk to let go of the stable career you had for 12 years? To let it go, despite the uncertainty of the future?

Yes of course.

14. Singapore is known to be a career driven country, where the success of a Singaporean is based on how successful he/she is in their profession. Singaporeans are also known to prefer stability over passion, where they would rather work long hours in a job they don't like but pays them well than to follow their passion which might not bring in the big bucks for them. What do you have to say about this? Your thoughts?

If they do that they become the world's most unhappy nation as proven in a recent survey.

As I had said before, you need both otherwise something will give.

15. How important is passion to you? Is that something you think most Singaporeans are lacking?

You need passion but you also need dedication. Passion needs to be fed and needs to be sustainable. Therefore dedication is more important. The ability to get up and do something every day when you may face a set back or if you are worried about not having the money but still doing it anyway, that's dedication.

16. Can passion pay someone's bills?

If you are good at what you are doing. Someone can have passion but no talent. You need passion, dedication and talent. Passion gives you the spark only. The follow through is the dedication and the talent that makes it a reality.

17. Should Singaporeans be more brave in taking risks?

It depends on what they are risking. Maybe they can't afford to risk e.g.: if they have a mortgage, 2 kids, single income family with a mum and dad to look after. People dream but can't do anything about their dream because they can't afford the risk because they have financial commitments.

18. Do you think passion should stay a hobby, or can it be one's job?

You need passion, talent and dedication for anything you do.. whether it's for a hobby or a job. I treat hobbies and jobs the same. Why should you be passionate in your hobby and not for your job.

18. What drove you to establish Palate Sensations?

I didn't want to return to the corporate world and I was able to take the risk because I had no financial commitments and other commitments and I had the money to do it. I also saw the gap in the market that there wasn't a hands on cooking school so I established one so that Singaporeans can learn how to cook through hands on sessions instead of demo sessions which was the norm until then.

19. Why a cooking studio? Why not a restaurant, where you can share your passion for cooking and food with the folks of Singapore, through your food?

The aim was to help Singaporeans break the mould of going to hawker centres and learn to cook for themselves and their families.

20. What were some of the challenges you faced in opening a cooking studio and what were some of the challenges you faced after opening? Did you face any challenges in getting Palate Sensations' name out there to the Singaporeans?

Challenges are always there but in different forms. Opening was all about location, design and funding.

After opening it was all about finding instructors and participants.

I hired a PR agent to help me launch the studio.

21. Did you ever feel like giving up? Did it ever get so difficult for you that you wanted to give up on your passion and go back to Accounting & Finance?

Many times but perseverance is also another factor you need to add to the hat of an entrepreneur. You just need to find the strength to keep going. Every time you get positive feedback or a happy customer, it was an affirmation that you should keep doing what you are doing.

22. What is your aim for Palate Sensations?

To help participants bridge the gap between a home gourmand and a professional chef. We have since had quite a lot of our participants leave us to go to culinary schools all over the world so we know that we are doing the right thing and making a difference.

23. What are some of the popular courses offered by the school and what makes them so popular?

Foundations of Culinary Arts - Chef in Training is an 8 week course that starts with the basics of western cuisine such as knife skills and deboning etc. It builds a participants skill from scratch and gives them the confidence to build recipes and cook confidently in the kitchen.

24. There seems to be a current trend in Singapore right now, which is how Singaporeans are shunning jobs offered in the F&B sector, leaving the industry forced to turn to foreign workers instead. What do you think of this trend? And why do you think such a trend exists?

Because it is low paying and long hours, hot and dirty if you work in a restaurant. And add to that no one wants to be abused by customers. However, with the advent of reality shows such as Masterchef and Top Chef, there is a come back for people to work as chefs again. They think it's trendy and cool but it is still low paying and long hours unless they own their own restaurants.

25. Why do you think Singaporeans are reluctant to take up the jobs offered in the F&B sector?

See 24.

26. Could it be that Singaporeans are reluctant to take up these jobs because they think it won't pay them enough for them to be able to survive in the high cost of living in Singapore?

Could be.

27. Is there a way to pick up the trend again and to make Singaporeans interested in taking up jobs in the F&B sector again?

If they are trained properly and if the work conditions improve.

28. F&B outlets in Singapore are becoming more and more affected by the lack of manpower, and in fact, some are even closed down. Are you worried that your cooking studio might face the same fate?

All the time. It has been very difficult to hire good staff. We just keep on looking and sooner or later, we find a gem.

29. What do you feel about hiring foreign talent?

I would hire anyone if they can do the job so it doesn't matter if they are foreign talent or locals.

30. Personally, do you think there is a falling trend in Singaporeans joining the F&B sector? Why?

The F&B sector is a huge sector and there are many kinds of jobs from front office to back office staff. The government is pushing for retraining and there are many schools now such as Shatec and At-Sunrice churning out students to fill that demand so I think there is not so much a falling trend in cooks but probably in waitresing and front office which again is probably caused by low pay, long hours and abuse by customers. And a lot of it is lack of training so if they are trained the right way, it will decrease customer abuse which will also mean that the staff are happier so it just goes around in circles.

31. Will Singapore's reputation as a country with a vibrant F&B sector be affected by this trend?

Yes I believe so if they cannot get good staff.

32. Do you think the possible falling trend is a result of F&B companies in Singapore taking advantage of the cheap foreign labor to lower wage costs of workers? Or is it truly because of Singaporeans being too complacent and pampered and would only work a high paying/high status job?

Companies will always hire someone who can do the job at the most cost effective whether they are Singaporeans or foreigners. Now that the valve has switched off for hiring foreign talent, they have no choice but to hire Singaporeans but Singaporeans are just plain lazy I think. They are very complacent and if they don't like something, they don't think twice about stability, passion, perseverance, dedication and talent. They just leave. If they ask for a certain salary, they need to justify it but when it is not justifiable, employers don't pay. It's a vicious cycle.

Singaporeans need to change their attitudes towards their work (it's not just the F&B industry but any industry) and employers need to provide a conducive and encouraging environment for them to work in.

Lynette

The Team Behind Palate Sensations

2013-04-17T13:38:00.002+08:00

It's been a while since I last updated something on our blog. This is because you can find everything you need to know at either our website www.palatesensations.com or on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/palatesensations.

Here is the latest behind the scenes photo we took yesterday of our team. There will be more on our website next week.

From left: Jason Ang (Chef Assistant), Chai Kok Wah (Cleaner), Felicia Khoo (Pastry Chef), Lynette Foo (The Boss), Halim Sheng Cai (Studio Manager), Charlotte D'Isidoro (Executive Chef), Loreta Valdez (Kitchen Assistant), Leslie Lau (Marketing Assistant)

Cheers

Lynette

2012, a year in review

2012-12-18T16:27:00.002+08:00

2012 has been a tremendously fun and action packed year for us at Palate Sensations.

Our signature series of classes such as Chef in Training with Chef Francois Mermilliod and Executive Chef Charlotte D'Isidoro and Pastry classes with Chef Sawarto were extremely full and highly successful. We were pleased to see the progress of participants who never held a knife before or cracked an egg increase their confidence in the kitchen.

2012 saw many highlights with fun Cooking with Friends evenings with Chef Charlotte where everyone made sangrias, paellas and fajitas. Chef Clement Ng taught a rustic cooking class at Pulau Ubin and Chef Richard Ravel taught the participants how to make soft cheese. Chef Leigh Koh arrived from London and taught some cake decorating and cake pop classes during August.

We welcomed celebrity chefs Denise Vivaldo who held her highly anticipated 2 day food styling classes, Rachel Allen on behalf of BBC and Will Meyrick from Sarong Bali conducted hands on cooking classes for the lucky few while they were in Singapore.

2012 was a year of special events. We enjoyed facilitating several cook offs from Campus Magazine and Starhub and we were privileged to host Dean & Deluca's cook off session for their store opening. Our studio was rented out to a group of die hard Dutch foodies who come together every few months to recreate the best dishes they can find from the top restaurants in the world. We are always fascinated by what they can create in the space of 4 hours.

Filming an episode for the First Eleven reality show for Channel 5 was highly entertaining and full of suprises as the participants battled it out cooking their best dishes for the judges.

With the launch of Mediacorp's new interactive service Toggle, our chefs were honored to contribute to the snippets of 15 minute meals for their channel.

We continue to support charity causes by donating 50% of proceeds collected from PACE classes held in conjuction with United World College. We also donated several cooking class vouchers for various causes throughout the year. We were not just active in our own studio as we organised some offsite classes to places such as Volvo to conduct a ginger bread and cake pop class, and to several corporate offices for talks on dining etiquette, Indian spices and floral teas.

We successfully overhauled our Party @ Palate Sensations with several new programs resulting in many murder mystery dinners held for Hens and Birthday parties. We finished the year with a Food Flicks The Great Gatsby party. Everyone had a rip roaring time as we ventured back to the 1920's.

Corporate teams were introduced to 8 new events which saw many participants engaging in food and candy tower challenges, restaurant simulations and the great pizza challenge. These events reinforced the importance of team work, co-operation and leadership.

There was fun for the family, with our kids classes and Parent & Child classes. Kids were put through their pacers with Junior Bootcamps held during the school holidays. Parents also enjoyed some quality bonding time with their kids as they cooked together.

We also catered to visiting tourists to Singapore, who in their short time here wanted to learn more about Singaporean cuisine. In conjunction with tour companies and cruise ships, tourists learnt to recognise Asian spices and cook with Asian ingredients to make delectable Singaporean heritage dishes.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors who so kindly kept us supplied throughout the year, bringing you the very best in both ingredients and equipment. In conjunction with World Kitchen, we organised the launch of Snapware to the media and gave away Snapware festive cookie keepers for selected festive baking classes. We conducted a cooking class for Scanpan lovers, introduced Unicurd tofu to tofu lovers in a series of cooking classes. We listed our classes with Kezaar, contributed recipes to Starhub app FOOD.I.Y and partnered with UniQgift for gift purchases.

Last but not least, our kitchen team was helmed by our highly capable and engaging Executive Chef Charlotte D'Isidoro and Chef Assistant Malak Amina. Thank you to all our guest chefs who conducted cooking classes at Palate Sensations. We want to take this opportunity to thank Malak for her contribution to Palate Sensations. She is leaving for further pastry studies in Chicago in January. We are so proud of her and how much she has helped us in the past year. We wish her all the best and we hope she will return to Palate Sensations in 2013 after her pastry course is over to teach some classes.

From our team to you, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Stay safe, enjoy the festivities and the break. We look forward to more fun and excitement in 2013.

Lynette

Making Kueh Lapis

2012-05-06T19:33:00.001+08:00

Today we held a private birthday party for a client. There were 15 of them and they made kueh lapis, the layered Indonesian cake that is baked, not to be confused with the steamed one of the same name too.

Definately not a difficult recipe to make although it was very time consuming. We decided to publish the recipe for those who are interested in trying it out at home.

Ingredients:

25 egg yolks
5 egg whites
500g butter
200g sugar
1 tin condensed milk
170g plain flour
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp mixed spices

Method:

1. Cream butter with condensed milk, vanilla essence, golden syrup, mixed spices till well mixed and set aside.

2. Beat egg yolks with sugar until thick and creamy.

3. Add beaten egg yolk mixture to the creamed butter mixture and mix well. Fold in sifted flour.

4. Beat egg whites with a pinch of cream of tartar until stiff and fold in the beaten egg mixture.

5. Grease and line an 8″ square tin and preheat tin.

6. For first layer, spread 2 tbsp of mixture in tin and bake in oven at 180 degree C for 10-15 min.

7. For subsequent layers, grill each layer for about 3 min or less.

8. When top most layer is completed, cover tin with a tray or a piece of foil and bake for a further 5 min. It will take longer if the sides are still wet.

9. Turn cake out onto a metal grid and let cool completely before cutting.

There were no doubt plenty of laughter in the kitchen as they enjoyed themselves tremendously.

If you are holding a party and want to do a hands on class, do contact us!

Making marble cake

2012-02-19T12:44:00.001+08:00

It's basic baking and so you think everyone will know what they are doing. Almost a foolproof recipe you say. Well let me tell you it's not as easy as you think! Sometimes things don't work out in class and we need to analyse what happened.

The one on the right is a marble cake and the one on the left is a butter cake (often mistaken for a marble cake)

Many commerical baking companies such as Sara Lee pass off the humble butter cake as a marble cake. A butter cake is light and fluffy and spongy and is made with self raising flour and baking powder to let it rise.

The marble cake made with plain flour is a denser more compact cake that does not rise so much even though baking powder is added to it. Alot of people spoilt by what is commercially available often tell us our recipe is wrong and it doesn't taste good. This is because they don't know what a real marble cake is.

This is a marble cake gone wrong. It is dry, very dense, light in colour and has holes in it. Somewhere along the line, we suspect they forgot to add baking powder and eggs.

So after class one day, Chef Sawarto and I remade the marble cake and it turned out perfectly. This is the correct texture and height.

We also made the butter cake with self raising flour to compare the texture. Personally I can understand why people like the butter cake better because nothing beats fluff and softness you can sink your teeth into.

So here it is, all 3 of them, the failed marble cake on top, the marble on the left and the butter cake on the right.

Happy Baking!

A recent interview I did about Corporate Team Bonding..

2012-02-14T15:45:00.000+08:00

I did an interview recently with SIM. Here is what I said.

Here's some background about my article pitch. When one hears of team-building activities, there's sometimes a negative view - that because corporations have budgeted for it and made it mandatory for all to attend, that everyone has to spend a day doing or playing some activities.

1. So how does corporate team-building work? Does it achieve what it sets out to do, or is it simply fun and games?

At Palate Sensations, depending on what types of teams they have, we have designed 2 programs for them:

Program 1

The purpose of this team bonding event is to test members working in their teams on their ability to present a coherent strategy, make decisions and execute their ideas successfully. Led by Palate Sensations’ Executive Chef, teams will be given a certain budget and limited time to shop for ingredients from the Palate Sensations ‘store’. They will then be given a certain amount of time to put together in any form (eg: cook, bake, assemble) and present the final product at the conclusion of the event. Each team will be pitted against each other according to criterias set by the chef. Once judging is completed, the chef will serve a 3 course meal prepared by him to all the teams as a reward.

This type of exercise is suitable for teams who do not often meet or interact with each other, teams with new members; and companies who want to challenge their employees and test their ability to work together in an ever changing and fast paced environment.

Program 2

The purpose of this team bonding event is to ensure that all participants work well together in their teams to produce a finished product. Led by the chef and a set of recipes, the teams will reproduce an agreed menu with a small element of challenge and team building.

This type of exercise is suitable for teams who just want to have fun and socialize while cooking a meal together; and for those who already know each other well.

Other programs:

- dining etiquette classes where they have to work together in teams to put together their dining table settings, role play on how to act appropriately etc..

- corporate trainer Bob Feldman who designs various corporate courses and works with us when requested by the companies.

2. What's the science and art behind your cooking program for team-building? What's your philosophy or some of the principles behind the design of your program?

We wanted to design a program that everyone will be interested in as not everyone is interested in golfing, bowling, paint ball and survival type games. Everyone loves to eat and even if they don't cook, they can relate to food in some ways. Everyone has an opinion and their own favorite foods.

3. What key elements of team-building are integrated into your programs? Can you share and discuss a couple of specific activities?

Leadership (who is going to lead the team to come together to make an edible meal), decision making (what to buy from the store when money is scare and resources (food) is disappearing as they are bought by the other teams), co-operation among teams and among team members, negotiations (how to get what you want when the other team has the ingredients you want), comradeship and making connections especially if there are some team members they don't work with often or don't know them at all, and of course competitiveness especially when there is a prize at the end but it is mainly driven by pride because no one wants to hear they are bad cooks!

4. How do you customise programmes for different group sizes or personnel levels? For e.g., Company-wide, entire divisions, specific departments ... executives, managers ...

We need to know who their team members are and their backgrounds so that we can work out which program is more suitable for them. Smaller teams will have different menus (e.g.: 3 course meal) and larger teams (we can take up to 40) we need to provide more a cocktail/canapes menu as there are too many people to make a 3 course meal so we do many small items to maximize interaction and decision making.

5. What kinds of request do you get from companies? For e.g., any specific requests to focus on communication skills? trust? etc

Usually team work and communication skills. We also get companies who form new teams or they have a new boss so they want to use this to break down barriers. We give them an opportunity to do that in a fun, non threatening environment over food and wine.

6. How does team building foster corporate culture? How to measure its effectiveness?

If you have a fun memorable event, your employees will talk about it for a long time. They can relate to the activities they did in the cooking class in their every day work and they will do it and remember it with fondness.. 'remember how we came first because we all decided to make that incredible omelette dish" sounds better than "our team discussed the different ways to enter this market and this is what we came up with". When people are happy and relaxed, it will foster a more effective team. Having been in the corporate world for 12 years prior to starting Palate Sensations, I did a lot of team building exercises. Very often they are not fun and you are watched and then given a full page report on how you did.

Our team bonding exercises aim to foster competitiveness and team spirit in a kinder and more effective and fun way.

Effectiveness is measured straight away when everyone goes home happy and are talking to each other. When you see unhappy teams who never talk to each other even in the cooking event, you know you cannot fix something that is already broke. It is their corporate culture and decision making internally that is breaking down the team, not our cooking event.

7. How important do you think is the reflection process before and after a team-building activity? Who plays the biggest role in this? Perhaps, how do you convince participants to take reflection exercises seriously?

These are usually led by their facilitator. We provide the means to make that happen.

8. How do you teach participants to apply what they have learnt from the team-building activities to work scenarios?

We often ask them to think about their experiences in the kitchen and apply it to their daily work. It could be as simple as connecting with another team member and knowing who to call or feeling comfortable to call him/her now that they have met each other and broken down the barriers.. it will help facilitate their work and open doors to discussion and getting things done faster and easier I hope.

9. With so many themes of team-building programs or activities available, e.g. outdoor high elements, indoor cooking, building sand castles, what do you think the trend will be like moving forward? Will any theme fall out of flavor?

I think they are all interesting and it will depend on where interest lie but for sure, food will never be out of fashion!

Photoshoot with Appetite Magazine..

2012-02-10T19:22:00.000+08:00

Last week, the great Singaporean food photographer Edmund Ho came to our studio to shoot a Spanish tapas piece with Chef Charlotte for Appetite Magazine.

Setting up the photography equipment

First shot of the deep fried prawns with a spicy mango, tomato, red capsicum gazpacho

Edmund and the editor of Appetite Magazine Amy Van looking at the shots

Eggplant tartare

Potato cake with chorizo

Mini chicken and green capsicum skewers with salmoriglio sauce

I took all these photos on my I Phone so the end result in the magazine will obviously look alot better. I like the props they brought which included wood planks to change the texture and the colour of the shots. I like all the beautiful coloured glasses and wooden plates they used. What I love to work more on is photo shoots and food styling. Of course knowing how to cook the food in the first place is just as important.

The accolades are up!

2012-01-24T12:32:00.000+08:00

I finally got around to framing my Le Cordon Bleu Diplome de Cuisine so here it is! 9 months of French Cuisine yielded this piece of paper and an unforgetable experience.

So here it is up at the studio together with both Charlotte and my details.

See you at the studio!

Happy Chinese New Year

2012-01-24T12:27:00.000+08:00

Hi Everyone

Sorry it's been so long between postings. With Christmas and Chinese New Year, we have been busy at the studio completing our renovations and touch ups. We also did a massive clean up so the studio is now nice and clean ready for the new year.

In January we have been busy launching all our modular classes with our Chef in Training classes being very full. Our next in take will be in April so do enroll soon if you dont want to miss out!

We held a Chinese New Year class where Chef Shih taught everyone how to make her own particular yu sheng which is very refreshing. It is full of herbs and shredded coconut and delicious grated fresh vegetables.

We wish everyone a fantastic and prosperous Chinese New Year in the Year of the Dragon. May all your dreams and wishes come true. We look forward to seeing you at our studio again when we resume classes on Saturday 28th January.

Lynette

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2011-12-15T14:22:00.001+08:00

Photo by Chef Lynn Chen

HI there!

Greetings from Bangkok. How time flies! I have now almost completed my Superior Cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu Bangkok. Soon we will be having our final exams. By December 23rd, I should have my Diplome de Cuisine!

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have been to classes and organised events at Palate Sensations.

2011 is our first full year at our new studio at Biopolis. We changed our team during the year with our Executive Chef Chris Bell returning to the restaurant scene in Sydney and our Chef Assistant Joel Tan returning to culinary school. Our current team at Palate Sensations consists of a female team helmed by our Italian Executive Chef Charlotte D'Isidoro, our Chef Assistant Malak and our Studio Manager Diana Soh.

This year has been an eventful and successful year where we held classes for large corporate groups of up to 50 participants, private celebrations and many public modular skills based classes. We hope you all had as much fun as we had hosting and designing classes for you. Some of the many things we participated in included hosting Denise Vivaldo's legendary food styling classes, Chef James Martin's visit to Singapore and helping Starhub launch their FooDIY App. We set up a small herb garden outside our studio, donated money to SPCA and put together a kids class for IKEA. It has been very satisfying to see so many students graduate from our Foundations classes this year. Your thirst for culinary skills has spurred us on to create more advanced level classes for you.

We now turn towards 2012. We have already scheduled all our classes for the entire year. You can download our programme brochure here. As always, our classes are hands on and we have designed some new classes and changed alot of recipes for the current classes so that you can return and learn new recipes while continuing to hone your culinary and baking skills.

We will be closed from Tuesday 20th December to Tuesday 3rd January (inclusive dates) for our annual studio maintenance. We will open the doors again to classes from 4th January. During this period of closure, we will continue to answer phone calls and e-mails. We will also continue to hold small private events only but it will be held at another studio.

We take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Take care of yourself and your families. Enjoy this wonderful break wherever you are spending it. I will be returning to Sydney to be with my family.

See you next year for another exciting year!

Lynette

Happenings lately at the studio

2011-12-12T23:45:00.001+08:00

It's almost Christmas and we are finishing off our last few cooking classes before we break for the Christmas and New Year. We will be doing quite abit of renovations and touch ups to get ready for 2012. I am looking forward to 2012. Are you? We have so many classes happening next year! Check out our 2012 programmes here.

Chef Sawarto who has taken over our baking classes at Palate Sensations taught a meringue class as part of our Foundations of Baking Iron Chef series.

Here is a mini Bomb Alaska filled with home made ice cream which the students demolished in about 2 seconds

Lovely coloured mini meringues which the students made

In the afternoon, Chef Francois Mermilliod from Absinthe taught a Christmas menu to a packed class of 19 students.

The first course was vol au vents with seafood and lobster sauce

Instead of the usual Beef Wellington, they made Venison Wellington stuffed with foie gras. Sinfully good!

The dessert was also a Bomb Alaska also called a Norwegian Omelette

Stay tuned for my Christmas letter coming out this week.

Have a great week ahead.

New scales

2011-11-28T18:59:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I last posted anything. I have been busy updating my Le Cordon Bleu blog. I only have 3 weeks left before we finish the course and then I will hopefully be awarded my Diplome de Cuisine.

At the studio, we made a decision to get serious about our scales. This is because the domestic small variety is just not cutting it. With so many students handling it, it tends to break down very easily so we decided to invest in 4 commercial scales. Hopefully they will not break down so easily.

We are constantly reviewing our equiptment and changing and replacing them if necessary. That way, you always get to use the best equipment there is.

I have also decided not to work with sponsors where ever possible so that we can choose what we want to use and stand by it.

What is Persian Cuisine?

2011-11-16T22:07:00.000+08:00

Persian food is one of the world’s most ancient cuisines with its culinary dates stretching back to the 5th and 6th centuries BC.

Its strategic location made it an ideal point to exchange the culture of food and ingredients between the Orient and the West.

Persian culinary has many facets, arising from the Empire’s long and complex history. Persian eating habits and food types have been widely influenced by or reciprocally affected on the ancient Greece, Roman, Asian and Mediterranean cuisines.

This is the reason behind its mysterious ingredients and secrets which lead to an accomplishment of the most ancient culinary art.

It includes a wide variety of food types and ingredients, ranging from long grain rice, bread, meat, poultry, seafood, herbs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, flowers, which are synthesized to make savoury, diverse appetizers, dips, rice, stews, grills, pastries and drinks.

Preparation of the fragrant rice is the Persians’ pride and prowess, which culminate a variety of dishes solely. Polow and Chelow are the main classifications behind cooking the rice.

Restaurants provide limited dishes of this cuisine therefore, you must be lucky enough to be invited to an Iranian home in order to fully appreciate the true delight of a Persian dinner.

Different climates of this old Empire provided a diversity of regional cuisines, to which the main classifications are Central, Northern, East & West Northern and the Southern part of Iran.

The Persian home cooking classes are privileged to provide authentic recipes of some regional and the most popular dishes from the Central part of Iran.

Stay tuned for Persian Cuisine classes coming up in 2012!

The 2012 programs are out!

2011-11-13T16:51:00.001+08:00

It's been quite a while since my last posting.

I am pleased to let you know that we have finished scheduling the 2012 programs (the major ones anyway). We will continue to put on more classes and we will schedule them in the coming months.

We are also working on a series of classes to be taught by restaurant chefs in Singapore. Watch out for those.

Here is a sneak peak of our programs. You can download the whole brochure here. We are working on a better design before we print paper copies of these to hand out. Click on the photos to enlarge.

Let us know if you have any questions or if you have any suggestions for new classes and ideas. We would love to hear from you!

Lynette

The art of making puff pastry

2011-10-27T19:40:00.001+08:00

In one of our Foundations of Baking Masterchef classes recently, Chef Sawarto taught the class to make puff pastry from scratch. You need alot of muscles as it needs a cold environment and also alot of "turning". A good puff pastry needs time to rest and also needs at least 4 turns to create layers in between the butter.

Our participants did a fantastic job and in between, they made their filling which included sweet apple, garden vegetables and a meat based filling. Let's just say there was nothing left by the end of the class.

The puff pastries cooling on a rack

The apple puff pastry which tasted delicious by the way.

If you are interested in hands on baking classes, be sure to join our Foundations of Baking classes. Our Iron Chef series should be starting soon. We focus on techniques first and we ensure the recipes you make will support the techniques you will learn.

Update from Lynette's Desk.. a sneak peak of what's happening in 2012..

2011-10-23T16:54:00.002+08:00

It's been such a long time since I last wrote on the Palate Sensations blog. I've now graduated from Basic and Intermediate Cuisine from Le Cordon Bleu Bangkok. I am currently into my second week of Superior Cuisine. In another 8 weeks, it will all be over and I will finally graduate with a Diplome de Cuisine. How time flies!

Anyway I wanted to let you know that despite me being away, the school continues to hold classes. Here is a picture of Chef Francois Mermilliod's Restaurant series where the advanced students learn the art of plating and presentation.

At the same time, our Executive Chef Charlotte D'Isidoro is running her Italian Masterchef classes as well as many movie based classes. Here is the beautiful pine nut custard pie from the movie Under the Tuscan Sun.

Throughout the last 6 months, I have flown home to Singapore almost every single weekend and I will continue to do so for the last 3 months so that I can keep in touch with what's happening at Palate Sensations.

Due to such high demand for hands on macaron classes, Chef Sawarto will start teaching hands on basic and advanced macaron classes once a month on both a weekday and weekend. The classes will be kept small with only 12 participants per lesson.

We are working very hard in the last 3 months of the year to bring you much more sophistication next year. We are almost finished finalising our 2012 schedules which will almost all be in modular formats so that you can all build on your skills and techniques. The schedules will be uploaded on the website when they are completed and we will also publish them in a brochure which will both be a physical copy and a downloadable pdf copy on the website for easy reference.

Almost all modular classes will include a mandatory tool kit and chef jackets so that you have your own equipment to work with and wear the appropriate clothing for safety reasons when you come to Palate Sensations. Our classes next year will include:

Chef in Training for Western Techniques, Thai Cuisine, Asian Cuisine (Singaporean Hawker food), Vegetarian Cuisine, Indian Cuisine, Japanese Cuisine, Bread making, and Chocolate.

Masterchef modules will include Regional French Cuisine, Regional Italian Cuisine, Fine Dining Italian Cuisine, Chinese Cuisine, International Cuisine, South East Asian Cuisine, Japanese and Thai Cuisine.

Chef Sawarto will helm all our Foundations of baking classes in 2012. We will be offering 18 classes divided into Chef in Training, Masterchef and Ironchef. We are still looking for a Pastry chef to join Palate Sensations full time so that they can offer advanced pastry classes.

We will continue to offer one off classes such as dining etiquette, wine appreciation, cocktail & bar tending as well as the popular macaron classes.

We want to listen to your needs so do tell us what you want to learn. We are hoping to streamline our courses and offer classes that build techniques rather than recipes. After all, our aim at Palate Sensations is to bridge the gap between the home gourmand and the professional chef.

We look forward to bringing you professional chefs who will show you the right way to do things so that you can go out there and experiment.

See you real soon!

Lynette

A sneak peak of our outdoor dining area..

2011-09-25T23:14:00.002+08:00

We recently took some photos of our outdoor dining area. I hope you like them. We can seat 20 people outside and 40 inside.

The team behind Palate Sensations today!

2011-08-18T10:39:00.001+08:00

So here we are.. our latest team..

From left, Joel Tan (Chef's assistant), Diana Soh (Studio Manager), Me (The Boss), Charlotte D'Isidoro (Executive Chef)