Inevitable

Picnic with my EMP colleagues at Sheep Meadow in Central Park

I can't believe that it's already been 6 months of me living here in New York! And we're finally going into the last third of the year! Time passes way too fast.

11 July 2014 marked the last day of work for me at Eleven Madison Park, the #1 restaurant in North America and #4 in the world (based on the San Pellegrino's 2014 list). It was a bittersweet affair for me, because even though I detested the 330am wake up calls in the morning to get to work, work itself and the people that surrounded me there made everything better. Every day that I've spent in that kitchen only made me want to push myself and get better each day. "It can only get better from here", one of the many encouragements' I've heard going around the kitchen.

I really struggled for a couple of months to find my footing in the restaurant, and I'm glad I eventually did.

I was labelled the Black & Whites' girl, because I spent 4 months dipping those darn cookies. At one point, someone asked me how many I had went through since I started working at the restaurant. My estimate would be about 40, 000 cookies in those 4 months. Cutting, baking, dipping, sandwiching. Crazy amount. But I guess the most enjoyable part about dipping the sweet cookies would be the area I worked at itself (I don't think I'm allowed to mention of said place for several reasons, not that it's super secretive or something), because I have heard so many sighs and made so many conversations with a lot of the cooks and chefs. A very odd place to make conversation but nonetheless, those conversations actually made my day most of the time :)

Sweet B&W tops 

"And we start them simply; black and white cookies is the first station you enter into, so it's a little bit tedious but gets them thinking more so about detail. So there's pressure to make it perfect, but not a huge amount of pressure to be super-fast." - Chef Angela Pinkerton, from an article I read online.

Of course I managed to carry out other production projects when someone took over the B&W station, and I definitely have learnt so many things during my 5 months at EMP.

1. Tempering chocolate by hand! One of the most important skills as a pastry chef, in my books.

2. Make It Nice. The restaurant's motto/catchphrase, because we owe it to ourselves to serve the guests only the best and not anything less.

3. Pushing myself, no matter how stressful or demanding life gets. Because that's the only way to move forward.

It is inevitable to say goodbye to New York in a few weeks, but I've really enjoyed my time here and it's time to move on. I've met some incredible people and made some wonderful friends. It really was an amazing experience which was more than I could ask for.

With Ellen, Mike and Shante in EMP's kitchen

So what's in store for me next? It really is up in the air at this moment. I have the awful decision of deciding between two passports and that really would determine my course of action in the long term. Hopefully I'd have a clear idea of what to do once I get back to Singapore. But for now, I'm just going to enjoy the rest of my vacation here in New York! :)

I have obviously done a lot more here in New York, and I even made a one week trip down to Toronto to visit Caro! So now with all the spare time I have, hopefully this space will be updated more frequently of the places I have visited, dined at and everything else under the sun!