An Award-Winning Lunch :D

I was really honoured when Chef Farouk invited me for this special luncheon where a six-course meal (seven, to be exact) were served. This is slightly different compared to the normal Advanced Diploma class lunch because this time around, they served up award-winning dishes from the Nestle Professional Culinary Arts Award 2012 which our Advanced Diploma student, Chen Kim Leun won a few weeks back. I was already told that it was going to be a superb lunch by some chefs earlier, so obviously I was excited to try out the dishes!

Mocktail - Sunset Tea.

I was given a table of six, so I invited Madeleine, Wai Quan, Mei, Lea and Jason, who are mostly newbies to join me for lunch.As a start, we were given Sunset Tea as Mocktail of the day. It was a mixture of Earl Grey, passion fruits and orange juice. Quite refreshing!
And then comes the very stomach-filling and taste-satisfying seven-course meal...

Amuse Bouche - Chicken Terrine with Sun-dried Tomatoes Tapenade & Nori, Seafood Tart & Parmesan Cloud

Chicken Roulade w. Tomato Avocado Salsa, Avocado Puree & Almond Foam.

Pumpkin Soup.

Salmon - Tornadoes & Crumbed served with Spiced Lentils, Eggplant, Caviar, Celeriac Remoulade Saute Asparagus.

Marinated Duck Breast w. Pithiviers, Herb Risotto, Braised Red Cabbage, Pickled Carrot, Spinach & Chocolate Oil.

Pumpkin Tart w. Lemon Semi-Fredo & Melon Soup.

I'm telling you without bias because you know I can be very proud of my student's achievement!:p I love all of them except for the duck, which I think isn't the winning dish because it was supposed to be beef which they have taken out from the menu. Perhaps it was because we were also already very full, but the duck meat in the pastry was a little too salty.
But the rest of the dishes were awesome! I have two favourites. One was the crunchy pumpkin bread that comes with the pumpkin soup. I never liked pumpkin but the soup was yummy and that piece of bread thingy was simply delicious! Someone should sell that for CNY man!!! The other one was the salmon dish. The Tornadoes piece of Salmon was very nicely cooked in which it was cooked outside but half cooked inside. But I think what really amazed us was the breaded piece of salmon! I don't know how they controlled the fire, but the salmon wasn't really cooked inside and was really moist and with the cheese in it... That piece of salmon was HEAVEN!!!

Just to give you a clearer idea of what I'm talking about... Salivating, yet?

We then had chocolate (yes, more food!) for extra dessert! Phew~!!! Can you imagine how full we were??? Luckily there wasn't any steak so I didn't feel so guilty! :p And by the way, the lunch cost us only RM15!!! That's not even enough to have a salmon dish outside!

Chocolate of even Fisherman's Friend flavour!!!

Well done Kim Leun and his classmates!!! Chef Farouk too, of course!!! :D

Kim Leun (center) is only 20 years old and look what he can do man!!!

I know it is impossible for you guys to try this (unless if there is special request) and I know it sounds like I'm so syoking sendiri but I really can't help but to share this experience with you guys! I think my job has not only given me opportunity to eat all kinda nice food, but also taught me a lot. You see, I've not tried fine-dining before this in my life and who knows what the hell is 'Amuse Bouche' until these students tell me about it? Perhaps the next step is to learn French! :p

Of course, I also love my job because of my lovely colleagues! Clockwise from top left: Me, Jason, Mad, Wai Quan, Mei and Lea.

Do let me know if you are interested to stop by for lunch with me in our restaurants. I can help book a table for ya! :)