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?