latest pic

Not such a clear picture but the doctor was (thankfully) more preoccupied with making sure the baby was in good health than he was in taking a cute picture...the baby is doing fine a little on the big side but that just means it healthy...gonna be like the daddy.
In restaurant news...we are doubling our business every week, which is good...traffic to the mall is dismal, but most of the people that come to our place are coming straight to our restaurant. Some word of mouth action is already going on and we are hearing from people that their friends recommended us. Business is not yeat great but we are hopeful. Right now we are going to take a look at a place where we can maybe set up a pastry counter/coffee/tea spot...well see how that goes...its on the other side of town, but the place is a promising higher end development.

Sous-chef

So here is the picture of our newest assistant...she still in training for the next few years but she looks very promising. I think she comes from a good family and has a lot of potential.

10 days and counting

We have been open for 10 days. We have a little excel sheeet where we write down what we sell and when we do it. As of now the pastry counter is doing well...specially considering how empty the mall is. We sold out today and we have worked out a system so that we can keep some of our cakes stay fresher longer which basically means they have a shelf life of two days. In any case like I said cakes are doing well...there are two other cake shops in the building and we are actually about 2 times as expensive as our competition but the quality in our products is very visible so alot of people invest the extra money and we make sure they get their money's worth.
The restaurant is moving slower...but we keep getting really good reviews from the people that take the time to come in. We have pictures of our family and friends on the wall and its always a pleasure when people ask about them. We haven't updated in a while because we have been so busy. We are both very optimistic about the future. On Sunday we go talk in front of 300 members of the church upstairs and invite them for brunch...we all know we can only fit about 25 people in the restaurant , but hopefully we will have a nice big line in front of our place. We are just happy to get people in the door and give our food a shot. We knew our food would have to face an uphill battle in a place where the locals think a TV dinner is fine dining, but we will not...I refuse will not lower our standards. We just switched to a tapas menu to make or pprices a little more approachable and also set a deal on record for food distribution at the wine bar downstairs...they basically get a 10% discount through a special catering account that we settle once a week. In the meantime...Im starting to ramp up the cake decorating part of the bakery...so I'm a little busier than usual for the next week...In any case things are going well...slowly but surely uphill in my opinion...we are already thinking of a place to build another cake outlet...a much busier mall would be great. My friend Justus is having a ball living neck deep in bratwurst and kraut...and envy the opportunitty to learn something new instead of teach something I already know...it ddoesn't matter though...I guess the more you teach the better you get at doing what you are teaching... Im pretty giddy about brunch right now...I gotta go sleep now...lots of triple dots... just realized I do that alot...

soft opening

we have been open the past three days just for the sake of getting some practice down. The kitchen now preps in about an hour...which is pretty good specially considering we run very different menus for lunch and dinner. I have invited a couple of people in the building for dinnner and have had good reviews overall. The pastor of one of the churches upstairs in our building seems excited about brunch. SO hopefully he will point some of his congregation our way. Overall this week has been pretty empty, but we havent opened pastry yet, so some people dont gett the idea that abunch of tables lined up in a row is anything other than a manicure place...get it epicure/manicure...yeah I didnt get it either, I kind of expected things like this when I moved to Indonesia....all in all not bad...the inportant thing is that kitchen performance is good...customers come a little farther down the road for now I have brunch to worry about

Brunch Menu:

French Toast - 60
Custardy French toast made with house challah bread, caramelized pineapple compote

Eggs and Toast - 40
Your choice of eggs with toasted brioche

French Rolled Omellete - 60
Delicate French omellete filled with your choice of cheese (cheddar, feta, or majon rojo) and vegetables (forest mushroom, bell pepper, caramelized onion)

Grilled Cheese - 50
Sharp cheddar cheese on house challah with a side of tomato bisque soup

Eggs Benedicto - 60
Poached eggs on brioche and paprika chicken topped with hollandaise
Crab Cake Benedicto - 80
Poached eggs on brioche and house crab cakes with hollandaise

Steak and Eggs - 110
Ribeye steak served medium, with 2 eggs your choice

Epicure Burger - 70
Moist beef patties, house Belgian style frites, sharp cheddar cheese and fresh greens

Caesar Salad - 50
Large Caesar, with house dressing, romaine lettuce, warm croutons and a poached egg



All brunch entrees come with a side of house hash browns

Dry Run

Yesterday we invited some friends over for dinner at the restaurant so that we could try out the food on people and also see how the kitchen looks in unrehearsed action...All in all I am happy, the kitchen turned out great food and all the people there loved it except for one glitch with salting shrimp in our fra diavolo things went great. Service is good and getting better.Ria and I are doing OK too...got a little stressed out yesterday just because we were worrying about the small details. The menu was more or less seafood which seems to be very popular so it was a good thing, I got to see a serius lack of bowls and spoons in the kitchen which made things slower than they need to be and I also saw a lack of ventilation which we have to fix somehow...maybe a fan... overall the guys did well and they will of course do better. I see alot of potential...this is certainly someplace I would feel comfortable eating. We put a little sign on the door yesterday. Opening October 17 , 2007.

Boxes were just printed

Boxes are in the way you see the logo when they're stacked was something I thought we would try out...a little unconventional design but............

The storefront signs are up

Right about now it feels a little odd to see things happening so quickly...one after another. Tomorrow I go through my first batch of on the line working interviews. I just finishes sous-vide'ing some terderloin filets and will be making the par grilled rosti's early afternoon as well as my hibiscus glaze. Ria is putting down all the orders for food on the computer...a task that is superhuman in nature if you ask me. Things are all going well, very happy...a little stressed and all sorts of confused but stuff is starting to roll.

The tables are in, a week and a half to go!!!

Here are some new pics :)

A post...been a while but nothing really happend for a while and then alot of things happened at the same time

Here you go people. Been a while since I updated but Ive been busy.

An update on my ulcer

So, progress has come very recently. We now have a storefront. We are going for a very classic look for the outside and a slightly more modern and simple look inside. Our food as a whole is fairly low key...just a bit creative. We now have a wine distributor and have yet to truly cement relationships with other supplier but as long as we have the money they will love us. I am pretty satisfied with how the place looks so far. We also got an extension on our grace period since the mall management took a month of our priginal period to sit around and not get our utilities installed. As for what the future holds...still not quite sure, but menu wise Im hoping on a tasting menu I can change weekly and ideally daily when I get some help in the kitchen. We went to singapore to take a look at Ria's new school and I have to say it was a very positive experience...I can very much see myself living there for a while. Haven't been updating for a while because there has really been no action up until now....I can sleep a little more now that I see things going well....how long this will last.............nobody knows.

Permits and menu

Today we are taking care of permits and such including my work permit. We also saw a list of approved positions for immigration sponsoring. Now I know why pastry in thiis country sucks. You can't sponsor a proper pastry chef. Thank goodness I'm the executive.

Savoury Menu is done with... I think its fairly simple and stright forward...I will post a draft so If any of you have any opinions you can let me know.

Lunch Bistro Menu:


Soups:

Cream of wild mushroom soup
Tomato bisque soup
Chicken soup a la maman

Salads:

Crab and avocado salad
crab, avocado, tomatoes, fresh greens topped and citrus vinaigrette

Willamette salad
smoked Salmons, dried cranberries, blue cheese, fresh greens and apple vinaigrette

Caesar salad
romaine lettuce, garlic croutons, shaved parmesan, poached egg and caesar dressing

Appetizers:

Onion tart
caramelized onions, smoked duck bacon, edam cheese and crème fraiche

Frites Parisiennes
potato frites, garlic and fresh herbs

Tuna tartare
sashimi grade tuna tossed with wasabi vinaigrette

Mains:

Lamb tartine
rosemary roasted lamb, fresh greens, garlic aoli and tomato relish

Tartine of chicken and mushrooms
poached Chicken, wild mushrooms, manchego cheese, roasted garlic and herbs

Tartine of Peruvian Shrimp
escabeche salad of shrimp, on fresh greens and cucumber

Epicure burger
burger with Margaret River cheddar, sun-dried tomato aioli and fresh greens

Steak frites
hangar Steak served medium with our house frites and garlic aioli

Roasted chicken
brick oven roasted half chicken, onion roasted potatoes

--------------------------------
Dinner and Tasting Menu:

Soup:

Lobster bisque
Black bean soup with grilled corn
Plantain soup with roast chicken

Salads:
Sweet potato and apple salad
roasted sweet potato, fresh apples and creamy apple vinaigrette

Crab and avocado salad
crab, avocado, tomatoes, fresh greens topped and citrus vinaigrette

Caesar salad
romaine lettuce, garlic croutons, shaved parmesan, poached egg and caesar dressing

Appetizers:
Tuna tartare
sashimi grade tuna tossed with wasabi vinaigrette

Foie gras
seared foie gras, apple compote, brioche and cointreau

Salmon rillettes
spiced and smoked salmon rilletes, fresh greens and warm baguette

Mains:
Crab and mango ravioli
crab, grilled mango, avocado sauce, crème fraiche and jeruk bali

Skillet crisped snapper
skillet crisped snapper, fried yucca and garlic mojito

Jerked chicken
jerked chicken with jicama salad

Magret of duck
laquered duck breast with warm savoury pumpkin tart

Filet mignon
filet mignon, hibiscus glaze, tropical chutney and spicy potato rosti

Rack of lamb
Guava glazed lamb rack, shallot/basil mashed potatoes, roast banana tzaziki

Progress is slow but ...well, just slow

The walls are coming on slowly but surely, barely any work has been done other than tile being put up in the kitchen. Our exhaust hood got in today and we are patiently waiting for the people that brought it in to complete the job. Found a couple of good suppliers here and that makes me a bit relieved. I also met up with the owner of the business which will eventually be our wine and liquor supplier and it turns out he is looking for a place to supply him with cheeseplates, small salads and some desserts for his wine bar. I am working on a selection for him to quote him a price. This will hopefully end up being a long-lasting and beautiful relationship. As you can see in the picture the roof is starting to be shelled in and slowly but surely its starting to look like a restaurant. In other news, my little cupcake is 10 weeks old now and in the mommy's tummy healthy and active. Saw the ultrasound and cupcake started wiggling around. This baby is so beautiful...I'm so happy :D (says Alex with a dorky smiley)

Oh talent, where are you?

On monday and Tuesday I spent my day interviewing about 80 people. For my cooks, I have certain standardsthat I cant move away from and for my waitresses and FOH staff as well. Cooks need to have spent time cooking in a kitchen of a certain caliber, must be used to cooking to order and speak english (understand it at least). SO many people showed up that didnt fill any of the requirements, I feel like I wasted about 3 fourths of my day. The only highlights were a guy with actual pastry experience...during his interview he mentioned fondant cake, creme brulee, choux...Love at first sight (Im calling him up for a benchtest) and a guy who was telling me how he made steak with foie gras...I asked him what would happen if I'm making foie gras and I go out and make a sauce while it cookingand he freaked out, saying no you cant do that foie gras is expensive and the fat will melt it. NEEDLESS TO SAY, I like him too. Other than that I have gotten two requests from people that are somewhat qualified for salaries that are about as much as you would get working at a five star hotel...needless to say we wont be talking to them. I'm not getting paid much at all to do this...this is a labor of love. I hope it gets to the point where we get enough money to not have to worry about our future, but fo rthat I need people that are grounded in reality and hard working...as is we are paying somewhere around 3 times more than other places pay fo rthe same job so we hope if anyone leaves money wont be the main issue (it seems its a big factor in people coming to interview with us) quite a few people have said they get paid half of minimum wage (minimum is about $100). I cant see anyone surviving on so little ($100 maybe) but so little. I really wish I could hire everyone that came in and put them to work. But I can only afford to hire the best. I hope someone hires the rest.


***update: The walls are actually walls now...not just frames.

We have walls!!!!!!!!!! sort of

So we walk in today and we have a skeleton of a wall for the drywall. Looks like we have enough space for what we were thinking. Tomorrow we go out and interview for all positions. The phone has been ringing off the hook...seems people have trouble understanding the concelt of an open interview. Quite frankly I wish we could give everyone a job, but the reality of this is that we can only take the best of the best because of a limited budget. Our staff will be two pastry assistants, two cooks...one of them a sous-chef and 3 to 4 waitresses. Small but efficient....IHOPE.

Permits and such

In order to bring anything into the mall, be it a bag of cement or a pail of water one need to have a permit. Every day is a new permit. Its a little annoying that we have to get one everyday but what are you gonna do? The floor needed waterproofing and then the geniuses at management decided we needed to flood the waterproofing for 2 days to see if it was effective...so there go two days of work... Now were focusing on things other than the half a centimeter thick layer of tar under my kitchen...we focus on permits. To be perfectly honest the permit process here is much simpler than it would be in the US not as tight regulation wise and standards arent particularly restraining. But we need too many permits its just time consuming...all are relatively irrelevant and cheap except for one...liquor. We need to sell wine and cocktails to maintain a healthy profit margin, specially considering that we plan on doing a little lounge thing at night soon. But the price hovers between 1,000 and 10,000 dollars depending on who you know and who you are...wether or not you look chinese, indonesian, foreign etc. I think we wont overpay... But its still a biig reality check.

Good news, good news and some bad

First the bad...our investor, the guy who was going in with us 50/50 has a daughter that is opening a business

and doesn't have a much cash liquidity as he thought so he is probably backing out...thankfully he waited until the last minute. In any case its no biggy since we have enough money to take care of the business and ourselves for the foreseeable future but its still annoying huh? Well...nothing we can do about it. Now the good news...most importantly my dear, sweet and beautiful wife and I are going to have our first baby. I am soooooo happy right now...for those who know me...imagine my face...you know how goofy it is normally...now multiply that by 10. Good news again, our place is starting to take shape..the kitchen area is already marked out in brick and the floor is leveled out...tomorrow we lay down the tile in the kitchen floor as well as waterproofing....things are looking good. The way we figure it we lose a little and gain a baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We officially have our spot claimed

A drywall partition now separates our mall location from the mall itself. Right now the workers there are smoothing out the floor so that we can put in hardwood and tile. I don't know if I mentioned this before but our space is small...65 square metere or roughly 600 square feet and we have to take advantage of it as much as possible. We just found out that right next to us there will soon be a discotheque, there is already a poolhall and a couple of cafe's. Its funny for me because I go to these cafe's and their menus are like 10 pages long and offer everything from fried rice to shrimp cocktail...I really dont think anything comes out good...you'd think people here would learn to focus...but its not in the language.
Our partner yesterday said he doesnt have enough money to take care of our project and about 4 others he is involved with and he asked if we can do it on our own. Truthfully its better this way because we dont have to deal with an outsider. We thought we would have an investor to minimize risk, but truthfully we can finance the restaurant oursleves without much stress, and this way we dont have a third party with power over us. It is actually a good thing, but yesterday I was a little upset because of the last-minuteness of it (I mean we open in about 8 weeks!) But I am riding on a wave of good news on the personal front and very happy right now...the only thing that really changes is I may change the deck oven to 2 convection ones or just get 2 decks instead of 3, Poor me right? Next we start planning for the woodburning oven.

Finally the work can begin

We finally got our mall work permit. We start work on the 21st of the month...a ful 21 days after we were supposed to but still... progress is being made and that is all that's important. We are also getting our work benches made right now...right here in our garage by two very resourceful carpenters. The menu is more or less set and the concept is pretty much tropical french with the same focus on desserts. So many beautiful ingredients here, Im liking the playing around in the kitchen the more i think about it.

Still sick

So now we are all sick in the household. On the brighter side of things we should get our work permit through on monday and we can start tuesday to fit out the location.

Temporary Unwanted Vacation

I have been on a temporay vacation these past couple of days. I have had a flu and haven't really been able to do anything. As nothing has happened on the restaurant front, I have not updated. Tomorrow we go to the mall with our concept drawing for the exterior of the shop. truth be told we are about 2 weeks behind on the build out...I expect us to be a little late on the opening as well. But water under the bridge right...our focus is on when we open and being the best little restaurant we can be. I have to say I'm finding it hard to stress out right now....I saw this coming a mile away.

There is always something

Today we tried and I emphasize tried to get all our paperwork through for taxes. You have to go to one part of the city for from A and another part for form B and then you have to go to the central office to hand them all in. Why wouldnt these forms be available at the office where you hand them in? Bureaucracy. For those that know me well...this is why my masters degree didn't lead me to a job in the civil service. We also went to a couple of places to take a look and see if there were any good used stainless steel tables and such. I also fininshed designing my pastry kitchen, which will be divided into areas by delicacy of the work. One for bread, one forassembly of pastries and one for decoration, ice cream and chocolate...yummm. We are somewhere near two months to D-day and I just realized that beyond a rough draft for the menu there really isn't a set menu...in my defense, no food suppliers want to talk to us unless we are willing to put in an order and we are still a bit far from that. Went to the mall and found out that the UP escalator that is right smack dab in front of my store has been turned into a down escalator because some goofball didn't realize what he was buying. SO now I have to deal with the coming down traffic for a while..hopefully they get it fixed soon... There's always something...

Equipment is done with

So as of now we are the proud semi owners of all the equipment on our list. Now the packaging is becoming an issue because we have to get so much of it. Everything is going through the printer and we are just waiting for details to get ironed out. One thing I have neglected to mention so far is the stress this is putting on us as a family and as a couple. It's tough to work with somebody you love. Somehow disagreements always end up getting taken personally. From the personal stadpoint whether or not this business is a success, it's taking an emotional toll. Things are positive on every other front but I wouldnt mind some setbacks if it meant we could have a full day without something in the business turning into a problem.

Long live china...bone china

So today we got our cihna, tableware and crystal. Now when I say we got it I mean we got some good stuff, bone china directly form the distributor. We went to a local department store and sow some stuff we liked (marked up of course) and then we looked online for distributors. We got the stuff from the same people the department store gets it from (in fact the store called asking if the distributor had stock for us because they apparently didn't after they said they did. So...we got tableware, china and crystal for 40 for about 1000 US dollars. I think 25ish bucks a pop is good right? Now we have to deal with napkins. Indonesia doesnt have a commercial/restaurant oriented laundry service for napkins and towels and such so this is complicated, I also dont want to pay too much for them. Does this mean I'm gonna have to make 400 of them myself? Why so many? becuase things here dry out in the sun, not a drier, and we need to have enough in case a circus troupe decides to walk in.

In praise of the humble driver Yunior

So today I spent a total of about 8 hours in traffic...not going anywhere, but just plain stuck. Why do I say this? How do I deal with traffic here? I deliver wayyy early 6 am, but I open at 10 am...who's going to work at such an early time and for just a couple of hours? My trusty driver Yunior...gotta love him. This is the kind of guy you can give anything to do and he will do a great job and just consider it part of his job. I have alot of respect for him, and I hope I can find more people like him here.
To be succesful in Indonesia (the reataurant biz) you usually need to have more than one location...just one location isn't sustainable specially when you spent a good chunk of change on a pastry kitchen (Did I mention my deck oven?) SO plans are in the works to open a second location...strictly pastry and coffee in the near future. I will be sriously commuting, specially since I'm not only the chef but the main marketing tool...go figure. Thank goodness Yunior is around.

First big buy...ok...deposit

As of yesterday we are the proud semi owners of a sandwich table, a 20L, 10L and 7L mixer and about 20 chairs for the restaurant. We are trying to gamble as much as we can with the exchange rate, so we get the best deal we can. On the way is a 4 deck oven, a commercial vacuum sealer, refrigerators and a hell of a lot of molds...oh I cant forget the pastry sheeter. Goodbye rolling pin! In other news I have notcied that most of the chefs in expat oreinted places here are pretty young. I dont know how that makes me feel...honestly Its good to be in my same age group, but I have to start thinking about how they cook compared to my slightly irreverent take on European food. A very wise man said that fusion food is conFUZION food, Chef Marco of course, and I think it is very true. When you blend flavors for the express purpose of mixing cuisines, you tend to overdue some things, not only that, you sometimes end up putting things that should never have been together on the same plate. I like to think in temrs of what works, I may just be making a sorbet, but damn it! I like lemongrass with my pineapple so Im putting lemongrass in. I dont think of it as being Asian, I dont think that when you mix chocolate and chili it immediately becomes mexican...It just works and that why I do it. Here it seems as people feel they have to bastardize their food, I just dont think you can add japanese mayonnaise to a risotto and still look at yourself in the morning.

The food the glorious food

So I have failed to mention what exactly is happening here in Indonesia in regards to our restaurant. Epicure is a patisserie first and foremost. We will be preapring french petit gateaux as well as some chocolatiering, croissants and minimal bread. We also have a salon de the, where we will be serving all the savories and plated desserts. Now, before I went to culinary school I also went to bartending school and I love a well mixed drink, so of course we will also have a well planned out martini bar and a solid wine list stocked with the hard to find dessert wines we just cant seem to get in Asia.
I have to say that after having spent so much time in Portland, coming to Indonesia has opened up so many new avenues in terms of ingredients and how far I can play with old concepts to make them new again. I don't really think I'll have enough time or room in the pastry case for my playing aaround. In any case I come with a bunch of great recipes in hand and a very limited menu to work with, which should make it relatively easy to train and manage a small team.
Especially considering I have a total of about 700 square feet to work with, 26 seats and alot of nervous energy to work with. so is anyone interested ina lychee tart tatin with balinese strawberry ice cream?

International finance and my darn stove

Today we start buying equipment. We are in limbo right now waiting for the exchange rate. The issue with this is that even though we are in Indonesia, we have to buy in dollars (gotta love that old greenback huh?) Now what does the exchange rate fluctuation do to me. It means I can either pay 2100 dollars for it or with a stronger rupiah end up paying about 300 dollars more in money we brought to indonesia at the weaker exchange rate.Now do I want to pay in dollars? of course I do. But I live in a country where dollars are seen as a commodity rather than currency; if I dont have crisp, clean bills with a D serial number that were made after 2004 I might as well have toilet paper. But what are you gonna do right?

The intricacies of real-estate transactions

So the real estate search for the right spot started in March when we came to Jakarta. We want a spot where we can be close to the upper middle market, where we dont have to worry about people just browsing through. First we thought it would be a good idea to set up shop in Kemang... way too expensive... rent there is the equivalent of trying to set up shop on Rodeo Drive. Prices are through the roof and size is so not. I by the way want to mention we are trying to stick to a budget here, since ... well... it's pretty much our savings and then some. In any case as they say in Indonesia tidak jadi or didn't happen. After that we set our sites ona project right outside Kemang in an area called Warung Buncit... and that took forever. Between negotiations and re-negotiations I came to the crystal clear realization that nothing here is a set price, people will try to get as much from you as they can and will wear you out trying to get there. We "negotiated" for a month with no real result. Finally we went to this tiny boutique mall in the middle of the diplomatic area of Kuningan with 2 towers for condos and a large office and retail area. It's been open for about 6 months... still pretty empty, which scares me, but it has its fair share of entertainment places and from what I hear it will also have a high-end japanese supermarket (which is always a good sign of things to come) at least here...it means expats coming from around the area to shop here. Now I think I should explain our conceptor maybe I should leave that for another posting... suffice it to say that this seems like a good match coupled with the owner knowing one of our investors = a pretty good deal on rent, which though a little steep, for all 700 square feet means we finally have a spot with potential. But for now we have to deal with a mall that is about 75 percent empty... fairly scary, but its in the best interest of the owners to increase traffic flow, and though it may take a while I think we can wait it out. It will give us some time for training and for making sure we have all the kinks ironed out before we get full on busy. By the way this is our mall. The Bellagio Boutique Mall....pretty ain't it?