Although it is not my first hiatus as quite a few times I have strayed away from posting here for many different reasons.
I have not too recently taken on a new challenge and have moved to JW Marriott Hong Kong Hotel since last September. It has been a fast and furious 5 months. There were many challenges and changes to be made and stepping in at the start of a very busy banqueting season did not make it any easier!
Things are quite different from my previous place of employment. Not to say positive or negative, only different. Change is good is crucial to developing skills, knowledge and experience.
My favorite change has been having a "pastry shop" to take care of. Dolce 88 had been opened for 10 months when I joined. It is a beautiful little corner shop selling Graffeo coffee which I think is easily one of the bests cups of coffee in Hong Kong.
From the pastry we offer freshly baked breakfast pastries, cookies, chocolates, whole and petit cakes. It is a great way to display the teams talent on a daily basis and has been a rewarding challenge to see the business grow in a short amount of time.
In the past I had primarily focused on the desserts for Cucina as that is what I loved. Creating and plating is still my favorite but although we do have great restaurants here they are not pushing the boundaries and desserts must be more on the traditional side of things.
As a hotel pastry chef you have so many different things to focus on and in a operation such as this you spend less time cooking and more time organizing and directing.
Much was accomplished between menu changes, mass banqueting, new buffet set upsand Christmas. I am extremely fortunate to have inherited a very talented and great team who without them the success would have been a much longer and painful process.
Things have changed, so will future posts content of the blog. I do not expect too much funky plating and techniques as before. What I do expect is to see more of what the team as a whole is doing here around the hotel and creations from Dolce 88.