Midnight snack

Or i should say Midnight dinner? yes I should. What some packages of Norwegian salmon, few items on the fridge and a hungry insomniac chef can do!

It was about midnight when I realized I was hungry, there was no food, the rest of the crew was sleeping and honestly I couldnt just eat some sort of sweets.
Ive got some salmon as a Christmas gift from one of our suppliers at the Hotel, and it took me about 3 minutes to know what to do.
First, the pasta, penne rigate. Why? Because its boring eating spaghetti with salmon, just like eating tortillas with peanut butter.
Wait that would be odd, not boring, if not a bit disgusting, but you've got the point.
So before cooking the pasta with the standard procedure...the sauce. There was no creme fraîche, fløte(like the one for the coffee) or any other milk product besides butter. There were 2 eggs, a small jar of french red mustard, and of course flour. Wheres the flour?-
Well, a whole grain flour was all i could find. But The Chefs ability to create a delicious meal with whatever its found on the fridge is called improvisation.
Butter with fluor, yeah cook it a litte bit -or much- remember the sauce must not taste like liquid dough!
the water, the mustard, egg yolks...let it boil and when the taste is approved, take it out of the fire (in my case it was induction! I hate it!)
Afterwards just add a generous portion of butter to give that extra taste and shine to the sauce, with a little touch of white wine. Voila.
-What else?- the salmon of course, not smashed please, and also not big slices. I think some Chefs are not congruent with the meals they prepare. Like a song, a meal must have compass, rythm, synchronization.
What i mean is that it must be congruent. the penne rigate: 2-3 cm long, you can take probably up to 5 pieces in each bite, and the salmon should be "around" that size. Why?
Simply because its easier to take both salmon and pasta with your fork and have the taste of both in your mouth.
Otherwise you would have more salmon, or more pasta. Nevermind, I will explain it later.

So back to the salmon, I just sliced it into small cubes and mixed it with the pasta. Adding an extra touch of butter, of course.
I carefully placed it on the dish and ended with 5 generous tbsp of my sauce. Some decoration, and thats all.
A 15 min. out of the ordinary midnight snack!
Good night!

Chef Guillermo

The egocentric post.

Yes, in this post I will mainly talk about me, myself and I.
And yes, Im Mexican, Im a Chef and Im in Norway for now. What a cold place to be in the winter.
Yet I dont feel any autobiographical at the moment, I might share with you some things about myself and my career, which again, is the reason Im writing this blog.

My name is Guillermo, not William, however it might be a bit difficult for some non spanish-speakers to pronounce, and I also find my new "alias" a little more "catchy" to my public (mainly english-speakers) so as for now everyone will remember my alias in this virtual book, William Cook.
And yes this is my book, a book because I find this term more accurate than a blog, because here I will tell you stories, poems, i will write my memories, happenings. I will post my photos, my recipes.

William Cook i norge

So i found myself in Norway.
Its a new chance to get to know a different way of cooking! Far away -or not too far - from the french!
But apart of my cultural despise for Parisian people, I must say I like some french food. I mean, I made my last year of School in a French University where of course all was french food!

However, here in Norway "la classe francaise" its not present anymore, here there is a mix of everything in a meal, a mix of ingredients, colours and tastes -not always accurate- but that somehow make you feel like you are in the hands , or in the meals of an artist.

But as a general overview, i think i will miss the good food found in France!

As a way to evaluate our skills and knowledge acquired during our french culinary specialisation program in Paris at the Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres (IUFM), the University, the Mexican Residence for Students Maison du Mexique and the 18 mexicans accorded to prepare a fancy dinner with mexican ingredients and french techniques.
We were in charge of everything and we worked in multiple task such as decorators, cooks, pastry cook, waiters, bartenders, audio and video techincals, host, dishwashers, stewards, security agents, etc.



We were very nervous as well and excited about this challenge, considering we would have -once again- the Mexican Ambassador to France as our VIP guest.
I acted as the Pastry Chef, and had the luck to work with my closest friends in the partie. I also created this slideshow projected right before starting the service to all the 120 assistants.
Its purpose was to show the french how really Mexico is, outside the stereotypes and cliches, and of course, to show the world some of my shots :)



More coming soon.
For a second opinion, please check what my friend, food-lover and writer M wrote about this event here

Notting Hill

A trip to London wouldnt be complete without visiting Notting Hill District and naturally the Portobello Road Market. Today saturday we took the Central Line of London's tube and after a short walk we arrived to Portobello Rd.
Its an interesting place where you can find mainly antique random stuff; clocks, cameras, posters, jewerly and lots of unusual (or even pointless things).
If you are hungry you can eat some pizza slices or those goddamn "sandwich grec" that its found in France too... damn arabs are invading all the world!.
Of course I decided to try some pies and tarts. I tried a fig and prune tart for 2.50£ which was fair good.
Anyways i didnt get to try the traditional english cuisine due to a lack of time (and interest from some of my mates).

viva mexico

In a crowded hall, full of mexicans, some french and germans, with mexican music, tequila, food and beer, we celebrated our Independence Day.
We ve been here in Europe for 2 months now, and we already had or first big event cooking and organising the event.
The menu consisted in typical mexican food- No, not chile con carne or burritos thats not even mexican for gods sake.
We prepared Mole with minced chicken breast. Ceviche cockatils (sort of shellfish soup), Pozole, Arroz a la mexicana, etc.
As for me, the pastry chef, I prepared with my partie Arroz con leche (riz au lait), torrejas (sort of pain perdu or french toast).
The afternoon had a great ambience, full of joy and happiness , typical of mexicans, that contagied even the straight-faced boring french people.
A group of musicians played some classical mexican music and all together with the Ambassador claimed "Viva Mexico"

First week in Paris

After some delays and incidents at both Benito Juarez Int'l Airport in Mexico City and Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, we finally made it to Paris.
After a 16 hour trip, we were exhausted, fortunately a van was waiting for us and took us to our new residence. For me and my friends it was number 41 on Didot street...
This would become my home for a year and a half.
We spent the rest of the day trying to survive to the jetlag, and setting up our rooms.
Next day we went for a walk.
Here the pics