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My first team, my best girls!

Just when you thought I’d disappeared into the ether, never to be seen again, I figured I’d stir things up a bit and write a blog post. I know, it’s almost like I’ve been doing this for nearly five years, or something!

So what’s going on with me? Well, I’m still pastry chef-ing, though I have recently moved on from a wonderful year filled with learning and excellent people at Claridge’s. I briefly worked with a small business but it wasn’t a great fit so I moved on (it seems strange to have so much turnover in this industry and yet it happens all the time! TS was just remarking the other day how the hospitality industry appears to be the only one where people regularly lose their minds and just walk out in the middle of their shift; I didn’t do this, by the way), and I now work as a slightly higher position in a restaurant/hotel which I officially cannot talk about. It’s a bit like Fight Club – the first rule of your new job is: do not talk about where you are currently a pastry chef. The second rule of your new job is: DO NOT TALK ABOUT WHERE YOU ARE CURRENTLY A PASTRY CHEF. Suffice to say that I am very happy, learning a lot, loving my team and I get to play with liquid nitrogen. Oh, also, my new executive head chef is somebody I’ve admired for a long time so the fact that I get to work with him now is just a dream come true! The chef fan girl in me quietly freaks out every time he talks to me, which I would never admit in person because I’m pretty sure he’d get very embarrassed and then, uh, never talk to me again.

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(c)Toby Kennedy, 2012.

It’s very easy to hide who you really are online. All that people know about you is what you choose to share, especially in a format like a blog. I’m generally a pretty open book – when I’m happy you know that I’m happy, when I’m sad you know why and when I started feeling that way; I’m a sharer, what can I say. But there is plenty that I don’t talk about because, well, it’s personal, and I like to try and keep my personal life as offline as possible. I’m not saying it’s how everybody should be, it’s just how I choose to be, because I like to protect those who are close to me.

Today I’m going to break that rule because today I’d like to talk about something which has nothing to do with food, is entirely personal and is still a taboo in society. Today I’d like to talk about cancer.

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I’m in Sydney! It’s 10am and I’m looking out over a gloriously sunny view of the city. The Sydney Opera House is just to the right with tiny little ants making their slow way up the Sydney Harbour Bridge (I don’t think I’ll be doing the Sydney Harbour Bridge walk, but if you don’t have a problem with heights you should! Pretty pricey, though) and beyond that are a mass of buildings, their chrome and glass glinting in the morning sun.

Am I making you jealous? Because if I were you I’d totally be jealous.

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As promised, another update from Hong Kong! This time, however, you don’t have to do much reading. Just looking at photos and, oh is that a video? Why yes! Yes it is! Brother gave me this awesome little portable camera for Christmas which is very travel friendly, so I’ve been doing a little filming today. So enough chatter, let’s have some visual material!

For anybody who is uncomfortable with graphic raw and cooked food images, there are a couple in this post, plus a small clip in the video – just so you know. You have been warned! And so on we go…

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Frying an egg on the Teppanyaki hot plate at Matsubishi, Convention Plaza.

I bet it was seeming like you were never going to hear from me again, eh? Well you don’t get off that easily! As I write this I’m sitting in my grandmother’s apartment, looking out over Causeway Bay, I’ve just come back from a delicious Indonesian lunch with the wonderful Rita, SC and their 4-month-old baby Lil’ Marcus (who is totally adorable – I nearly took him home with me!) and though I’m feeling a little sleepy (Hong Kong will do that to you), I’ve been having an awesome week.

So what exactly have I been doing for the six days I’ve been in Hong Kong? Duh: eating, and oh how I’ve been eating. The thing about Hong Kong is that the choice of food is so eclectic: it’s not all about eating in the big name restaurants, or only eating Chinese food. There is so much choice because there are so many people, and everybody has a different background. Don’t limit yourself by eating only the HK Michelin starred food, or only the places that are “amazing” but barely anybody goes there: in other words, don’t be a food snob. Eat up! Eat up good! Sometimes the most amazing meals can be found tucked away in the nastiest, most ghetto neighbourhoods, where even as you eat your snake soup (more on that later) you’re convinced the triad are going to pop out from behind one of the cages of live snakes and kill you. Probably with a snake. Maybe with throwing stars. Or is that too ninja?

Instead of giving you a blow-by-blow account of every single thing, I’m just going to give you a foodie photo round-up. Having said that, I’m saving some stuff because have I mentioned I’m the newest food writer for London-based magazine The Arbuturian? Oh yeah. There are more people being subjected to my writing, photographs & ramblings about food. Follow along with my Food Odyssey at the magazine’s site, where tidbits from my best (and possibly worst) food experiences will be published. You can read the first installment here. The second is now live here.

So. Without further ado. I present to you: FOOD. All photos can be found in a larger format on my Flickr.

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