I’ve been beating around the bush with this post for a while. The last few days have been a rollercoaster. I’ve been posted to the best restaurant on property, a Fusion den called Bamboo. The menu is eclectic, the room is designed by Oscar de la Renta and the mad man behind it all is a young french culinary badass, Chef Romain Valicon. Day numero uno I was handed over into the care of Hipolito, the morning Encargado (sous chef) a grizzled dominican vet who’s literally been cooking longer than I’ve been alive. It’s early, 9:30am or so and its full on break fast time. I’m watching Hipolito make omelet’s with every kind ingredient possible; mushrooms, eggplant, serrano ham, bacon, roasted peppers, spinach etc. He’s doing everything imaginable to eggs; frying them, poaching them, scrambling them, benedicting them. You can tell a lot about a cook by the way he handles eggs and it’s obvious Hipolito has been around the block a few times. Simply put the guy is a pro. First job he gives me is to fry some plantains. Simple enough right? well, damn that murphy and his laws because i somehow manage to burn the crap out of them.

The rest of the day continued somewhere along the same vein. I was nervous and more than a little intimidated by the two french chefs, Roman and his number two, chef Thomas Grisard a lanky handsome frenchman who stinks to high heaven. and i mean he stinks real bad. Comically bad, like he does it on purpose. Holy crap, he smelled real bad I was amazed no one was saying anything. It wasn’t just a one time thing either, every time i saw the guy i definitely knew he was coming before he rounded the corner. Anyhow, im beating a dead horse here, the guy was really nice. Chef Thomas was on his last few days because of a verbal argument he had with the GM of the Tortuga Bay hotel, c’est la vie as both the chefs would say I guess.

The night shift was a little bit better. Chef Roman calls all the orders and does all the plating of which ill give you, dear reader, a visual example of later. The night crew is led by another young badass, Jhensi (dominican names are bizarre) AKA Rottweiler, thats his rap name. No, i did not make that up. ROTTWEILER. haha, Rotty’s actually really nice, he sensed my unease at my new surroundings and kind of took me under his wing.

Day 2, Chef Roman asks me to make brown sauce, just to see how i make it. I mentally freak out because despite having done it before quite a few times i now forget everything i ever learned. Im hesistant, im afraid to throw some vegetables in a pot and just go. So i stop for a moment, do that thing Jack from LOST does when he freaks out and I just do. Mirepoix, butter, a little flour and some beef stock later I got a brown sauce going on. Theres a brief moment of panic when i taste it and to my consternation i’ve thrown in rosemary instead of thyme. ROOKIE MISTAKE! Chefs Thomas and Roman come and try it by dipping their long frenchy fingers in the stewing sauce. They confer in a series of “oui’s” “nons” and je ne sais pas what else before Thomas looks at me, nods and says “good flavor” . An almost embarassing relief flows through me. Congratulations Diego, you just made a basic mother sauce, something you went to school for two years to do. However it helped me get a little confidence back.

Im now on day 3 of my new job and Im glad to report that the awkwardness and unease is nearly gone. The boys are good peeps. Theres Rottweiler ofcourse, Tito the pantry chef, Josuelo the baker and pastry cook,Pascual the line cook, myself, a few others on rotation and Chef Roman on the other side of the line like some kind of Charlemagne. I’m still learning my way around the menu but atleast i know where everything is, Im throwing food down and none of its coming back. Chef Thomas and by proxy his BO, is gone, probably still on a flight to france as we speak.

I hope I get to stay at BAMBOO. The food is amazing, and they do a different Amuse Bouche every day a concept that I love. An Amuse Bouche is literally a gift from the kitchen, a tiny little appetizer that you gulp down in one bite to give you a taste of whats to come. This is Chef Roman’s specialty, I can tell. Yesterday he did a mushroom tartar that literally exploded in your mouth with all kinds of flavor; a citric blast with a hint of spicy, topped with an garlic foam that brought it back down to earth. When he asked me to try it he said in his heavily accented spanish “Do you like food that explodes?” I took him quite literally and was afraid to try but to my pleasant surprise it was holy crap delicious and beautiful to look at.

I have a feeling im going to emerge from BAMBOO a much better cook than when i entered.

Look out for the Recipe of the err…week? in my next post which is going to be the SPECIAL VALENTINES DAY RECIPE because you can’t plan that shit too early fella’s.