It has been a while since I have felt the excitement (and the pain!) of working in hotels. The thing about cooking in hotels is that everything is on a much larger scale than your average sized restaurant. From the amount of food that is produced, to the amount of chefs to confer with for inspiration, and the amount of learning that happens can be awe-inspiring. On the flip-side, hotels can burn you out or frustrate you, and can even make you consider taking a break from cooking in general.
But when you greet a dining room full of happy guests, or receive praise from your superiors or peers, it all becomes worth it again. Your average hotel chef is a slightly different breed; they are sticklers with the classical kitchen brigade system; they think in terms of buffets, guest services, and international cooking conferences. It is all very rousing and I used to love it, the good the bad and the ugly! But again I ramble!
Francios Seurin is one of those inspiring hotel chefs. He is a Facebook friend and I follow his work as close as I can. He is one of those amazing chefs that inspire every chef working under him I’m sure.
Francios is a classically trained French pastry chef, and among the best in the world. I feel lucky to have gotten the opportunity to chat with him the other day about his life, work and most importantly (at least for this blog), his tattoos.
Francios started in cooking in France and has worked at legendary places like Ducasse Savoy Crillon Hotel de Paris in Monaco. He now does catering for M&M Innovative Concepts, a catering and Hospitality Company in Bali, Indonesia.
He loves catering for the freedom it allows to create new and exciting pastries for every event. Not one event is the same as the last! His latest obsessions are baked durian (baking the smelly fruit depletes the death-like aroma) and pandan coconut. Sounds wonderful!
Tattoos are another obsession of his. He has around 15 tattoos so far; his first was 10 years ago. His favorites are his Jimi Hendricks tattoo by Berny Luther of Austria and the couple of Buddhist-themed tattoos he got from a couple local Balinese tattoo artists.
He is a traveler at heart, having worked all over South East Asia armed with just his backpack, guitar and laptop. Talking with Chef Francios was exciting! I seriously want to go back and study pastries with a master chef.
Chef Francios stayed true to his generous and kind nature. He gave me recipes for two of his thousands of amazing creations…
Read on and may mouth-watering commence …
ICED YELLOW WATERMELON, COCONUT PARSLEY GELEE –RICE WALNUT CRUST
Yellow watermelon sorbet
Watermelon 3500 gr
Sugar 200 gr
Glucose 1000 gr
Gelatin 12 pcs
Coconut parsley gelee
Kara milk 600 gr
Water 600 gr
Parsley [blanched-blend-strain] 100 gr
Sugar 200 gr
Gelatine 6 pcs
Salt 1 pinch
Water melon gelee
Yellow watermelon juice 1000 gr
Lime juice 30 gr
Sugar 80 gr
Gelatin 7pcs
Walnut rice crust
Steam rice 100 gr
Walnut 50 gr
Sticky rice flour 15 gr
Sugar 30 gr
Salt 2 gr
Garnish
Fresh watermelon cube
VANILLA& KIWI ROLL, PINEAPPLE GELEE, SAGE EMULSION, RED BEAN CRUST, PEAR SHOOT
KIWI GELEE
kiwi 250 gr
sugar 50 gr
water 60 gr
nutrijelly 4gr
VANILLA MOUSSE
whipped cream japan 200gr + vanilla stick 1.5 pcs gelatin ½ pcs
PINEAPPLE GELEE Pineapple local 350gr pineapple import 300gr nutrijelly 10gr 10 sugar ( if need lemon juice)
RED BEAN CRUST
Red bean (can) 200gr steam rice 100gr sticky rice flour 30gr salt 2gr
PINEAPPLE SAGE EMULSION
Pineapple juice local 700gr but good and sweet
Lemon juice 40gr
Sage 30gr
Water 150gr
Soy lecithin 7gr
+ one pear juice in shoot glass
Merci Beaucoup, Francios!!
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Cheers!
