Describe yourself in 3 words
- 90% Fried Chicken
Describe food consultancy in one sentence.
- The bridge to making sure your venture, its food & its soul reflects who you are.
Toughest part about explaining what you do to clients?
- The time needed for me to do proper R&D & training for the menu. Recipes take weeks to fine-tune, including scholarly research & talking to food scientists. Local butter has more water than French butter; local flour has less protein than ones used in the West. I engineer solutions from a technical perspective (maybe it's my cyber security engineering background)
- It’s important to embrace that, most times, it won't exactly be the same 'pain au chocolat' you had in Europe, and not rely on imported products. Food consultancy is much more than pumping out recipes. Most chefs create from your words alone; they have possibly never had the menu items before being asked to learn how to make them.
Sustainability is at the heart of SW. What are the conscious steps you take?
- Low Food Waste & More Local Ingredients: These are ways to not only be more sustainable, but also economically efficient. When food is thrown out, that is restaurants’ profits consumed by waste. Using modern cooking techniques & age old fermentation, I look at waste as new ingredients to experiment with. Our farmers are affected by the disconnect in market information. With over 80 different local rice varieties, we still want imported arborio rice. I once ordered Jalapenos from DCC 1 and was given the imported jarred version instead, even though local farmers sell jalapenos.
Advice for someone trying to get into the professional kitchen arena?
- Being a food consultant requires you to invest long hours everyday and mentally exhausting (contrary to the glamorous life media portrays). Start small, and see if it's something you want to invest yourself into. People may try discouraging you, but stick to it. If you're looking for a place to start, just shoot me a dm.