Cookery keys: observing, learning, improvising
Print Edition
Editor鈥檚 note:
Foodprints is a series profiling the smaller restaurants and unsung chefs working every day to provide Shanghai with food that is tasty, imaginative, wholesome and memorable.
Simple and unadorned. That鈥檚 how chef Chen Na describes her cooking. She is perhaps too modest to add that the food is simply delicious.
Chen, 28, is a member of the small circle of women chefs in Shanghai. In a profession traditionally dominated by men, she is giving old concepts of 鈥渨omen in the kitchen鈥 a modern makeover.
She heads the kitchen at Maison Papillon, a cozy French restaurant on Jiaozhou Road near the Jing鈥檃n Temple.
But cooking wasn鈥檛 her plan at the start. Chen, who hails from the city of Changchun in Jilin Province, originally planned to study photography in Beijing after graduation from high school. But at the last minute, she changed her mind and instead bought a ticket to Shanghai to study Italian cuisine.
A doer, not a thinker
鈥淚t was something destined to happen,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 was set to go to Beijing when I came across some information about this culinary program in Shanghai, so I just made a quick decision. Then I discovered that I鈥檓 actually very interested in the culinary arts.鈥
Her kitchen skills began as a young girl helping her mother cook family meals.
鈥淚 just helped make traditional, homestyle Chinese meals,鈥 she said. 鈥淢y mother used to say that I made better tomato and egg stir-fry than she did, but no one in my family is a professional cook.鈥
She enrolled in a culinary program jointly operated by the Shanghai Lingang Science and Technology School and the Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners.
鈥淢y family was a little reluctant about the idea of me going somewhere so far away for such a long time,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ut I learned a lot about traditional Italian cooking and some Italian and English languages. I thought it was fun and maybe I should seek a career as a chef.鈥
After a year of study, Chen became an apprentice in a small Italian restaurant in Shanghai that specialized in handmade pasta. In some sense, it was a challenging yet motivating start.
The restaurant was small and short-staffed. The dishwasher took a day and a half off every week, and Chen had to do all the dishes and still help cook meals.
鈥淎s I was washing the dishes, I thought a lot,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 realized that I had to excel at everything I did, and if I could learn cooking skills more quickly, I might not be asked to do dishes anymore.鈥
She stuck to it with determination, and her family supported her.
鈥淭hey knew it鈥檚 not easy to work in a kitchen,鈥 she said. 鈥淢y family thought I must really love cooking to find such hard work so much fun.鈥
She stayed at the Italian restaurant for over a year and then joined 8 陆 Otto e Mezzo Bombana in 2012, where she started to learn about fine dining and was exposed to a broader range of ingredients and techniques. Although her salary wasn鈥檛 high, she spent a lot of money on cookbooks as an investment in her future.
鈥淲orking in that kitchen was very intense physically, but I was happy even when I was working 12 hours a day,鈥 she said. 鈥淓veryone there was motivated to do better and learn more.鈥
Chen then moved on to sous-chef in a restaurant that specialized in slow-cooked food. That was where she picked up experience in kitchen management.
Every step up the ladder was filled with serendipity and adventure.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have rich experience,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 just wanted to learn and do things to get on a firm footing. I鈥檓 also the kind of person who acts on ideas without too much thinking or hesitation.鈥
When Chen came to Maison Papillon last year, she had to master the restaurant鈥檚 signature beef Wellington dish, which became very popular in China after the 2016 TV drama 鈥淭o Be A Better Man.鈥
Chen went around Shanghai, dining at restaurants that served beef Wellington. She found that it is difficult to cook the beef evenly when it鈥檚 wrapped in pastry. The edges easily get overcooked.
She started to experiment with different methods to cook the beef evenly. Eventually, she devised a process that rested the beef Wellington outside the oven and then put the dish back in several times. It was more complicated, but the result was satisfying.
鈥淚 consider myself someone who鈥檚 willing to observe, learn and improvise,鈥 said Chen.
Chen said she uses seasonal ingredients and loves to combine Chinese favorites like broad beans and bamboo shoots with classic Western dishes 鈥 such as cooking pigeon meat with yellow chives.
鈥淲hen I have time in the afternoons, I like to walk to the nearby market and buy fresh ingredients for the dinner menu,鈥 she said 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot to learn about ingredients. Spinach leaves, for example, can be thick or thin, and the flavor can be sweet or astringent. I often send pictures to my suppliers and ask them to provide me the ingredients I prefer.鈥
In the kitchen, Chen said she鈥檚 an easygoing chef who believes in listening and reason. No temper tantrums or yelling at staff. She leads a very young team of nine who were born after 1995.
鈥淚 try to fit in with the young staff,鈥 she said. 鈥淢aybe as a woman, I鈥檓 more empathetic. I don鈥檛 jump to conclusions about their work. Rather, I spend time observing what they do. If they need correcting, I talk to them in reasonable terms. Sometimes I鈥檓 tough, but I never go too far.鈥
Communication breeds harmony in the kitchen.
鈥淭hey don鈥檛 call me 鈥榗hef鈥 in the kitchen, but 鈥榙ear sister,鈥欌 she said. 鈥淲orking with them keeps me abreast of all the new buzzwords. I find that fun, too.鈥
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
