Gastromancing saga chapter 10: Maison Sun

Been a while!! Let me clock back time a bit…. After I left my last job Soseki modern omakase, Orlando, FL(https://culinarymetalvagabond.wordpress.com/2022/12/22/tribute-to-the-past-vol-xll-soseki-modern-omakase/) on February’22, I traveled through Africa & Europe(+Japan a bit), 56 countries over 18 months-ish(Full time backpacker, part time chef;;;) During time, I worked on my job-hunting as well, but can’t find ‘right answer’ eventually. I came ‘back’ to the U.S. end of last September. I sent out my resumes to 40+ restaurants (all hand picked small team, small dining room, degustaion-like restaurants) & also some unidentified job classifieds here and there. Probably talked with 30-ish restaurants, but nothing went in the trial stage since our demands never meet each others. But finally… I think I find my answer, here it is my new gig….. Maison Sun, Brooklyn, New York!!!

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https://www.maisonsun.nyc/

https://www.instagram.com/maisonsun.nyc

Maison Sun backstory:

https://www.exploretock.com/blog/maison-sun

https://www.exploretock.com/blog/the-mystery-allure-luxury-of-cannabis-fine-dining-nyc

Some basic information about the restaurant(*as of 3/25/24) >>
The restaurant is 14 seats, offering one tasting menu of 8 course( 4 snacks + 7 courses, optional supplement A-5 course) with 3 seating(5:30pm/7pm/8:30pm; max of 28 per day). The restaurant open 5days a week Wednesday to Sunday. The food concept is modern French. The team is 2 chefs, 1 steward & 1 owner/gm/sommelier + 1 assistant FOH occasionally, very small.

Maison Sun originally started as multi location pop up dinner series by the owner/sommelier Mr.Carlos Gasperi. Then last June the restaurant found the permanent address at 200 Schermerthorn street in Brooklyn which was old address of the chef’s table at Brooklyn fare. After the opening chef was left, the kitchen was took over by chef Aaron Whittle(ex.Eleven madison park/One white street/Le Coucou/Noksu & e.t.c..) last September. He was running the kitchen by himself(!!) for 3-4 months while looking for someone to run BOH operation with. Then…. back in this January he receive one resume…. Tada…. Tokuda … How to pronounce this!???

Then I got contact by chef Aaron, we did quick phone chat. After the phone interview I told chef Aaron right off on the email before even meeting(!) -I am cheffing to cook ‘my food’. What I care the most is my creativity freedom. If you are looking for ‘some sous chef’ helping/supporting creating ‘his dishes’, this is not for me. ‘If I taking this job’’, I am asking kind of four hands dinner concept. I do my dishes & you do your dishes back to back, the diners could enjoy two different style of food.-

I honestly thought he gonna say ‘duck’ you or no response/ignored(In fact when I talked with some restaurants similar stories, some chefs told me I am not ‘the team player’ & brah,brah,brah///) His answer was -If I am ‘right person’, he is willing to give me 50% cut of the menu not right off, but eventually-. After I heard that, I decided to fly to NY for my job trial. Kill the trial, find the apt, finish one month probation, and here she(jay) is in big apple once again!! As for my ‘job title’ is chef de cuisine which I asked;;, but the bottom line is whatever, I mean only two people in the kitchen/// Eeh,,,, all I want is I want to do EVERYTHING myself on my dishes, so I guess I am more like chef of my cuisine(COMC)///.

At this stage this 4hands dinner concept is not guaranteed or promised, but I know the door is there. I trust my chef, he gave his word, he means it.(I hope;;) So! all I do is same as usual: giving my everything, keep pushing, better myself every day, do everything to make this restaurant better 24/7, win the trust, get the freedom, put my dishes as many as I can!! My biggest concern would be ‘modern French’ food concept, see how I could fit in my 133 countries travel into this ‘frame’;; ‘Uni’ cuisine guy destroyed the original food concept on the previous job, so will see what happens!!

I am probably still at 50-60% at my ability since I was traveling 18months like mothertrucker, so rehab hard to get back into the shape!! My knives left in JP coming on my way, no more picnic stage package, full gear, no mercy!!! Last week I finally got the restaurant key which means I can gear up to mode 100hrs, could work as much as I want!! I wanna clean up, organize, & systemize the kitchen better, inventory sheet, order sheet, studying & sourcing out local purveyors & produces.… going full throttle, non-stop, no day off!! As for my dishes I made 4 new dishes for April menu last week & 2 on this week, like Soseki, I want to change every single dishes on the menu every months, so gonna push on that. Best way to better myself = keep creating new dishes, that’s my belief!!!

Eehh, if whoever you readers(assuming mostly my old colleagues;;) interested in dining at Maison Sun, I would -kindly- ask to wait until September-ish. I want 6 months to make this restaurant ‘right’ *what I considered. Well, you could come tomorrow, but I got no dish on the menu right now & more you wait, this restaurant get matured and get better, just to you know;;; If -everything- works out, my last day would be 2/8/26, which making exactly 2 years.(THEN going CJWDT’26 “Revenge, Rumble & Reunion”South~Central~North AmericaZ tour: Easter island, Chile to Alberta, Canada(Northern lights), visiting 35 all American countries!!!) Let me hope things work out for myself & the restaurant!!! 2 years no traveling;; …….. with ‘That’ she jay guy… *gasp….. I can, I can…. So nobody call me job hopper ever forever!!!

HNY / Gastromancing saga chapter 9: Soseki modern omakase

Starting with…. Happy 2022!! Little late, but… meh;;; Well, hello x3! Last post was November’ 20, has been ages….. Ahnnn, I am assuming there gonna be 3 kinds of people reading this blog now. 1. my old friends 2. Followers from my instagram 3. strangers -somehow- got here.

For 2&3 people: Welcome! Glad you get here! This is -culinary metal vagabond- = “traveholic metalhead chef” culinary blog. Started back in 2010 inspired by chef Laurent gras’s L2o blog, talking about randamn cheffy topics time to time. Hope you enjoy it OR have a good day;;;;

About me: https://culinarymetalvagabond.wordpress.com/about/

Blog directory: https://culinarymetalvagabond.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/blog-directory/

For 1….. Must be wondering as ’usual’ ; Where the metal are you, she jay??? Yeah yeah, typical submarine action-lah, busy busy!! Now I will tell you about it, son…….

So… picking up the story from last post; Back in September’20 I lost my job -CDC@Nomad, Portland, OR-, after that, I was pretty much net ‘drowning’(Cobra kai x3!!!) while keep searching for new gig across the state. And… January’21 chef Michael Collantes contacted me. We have been facebook friends over yrs…. never met before, but we have bunch of common friends, basically friend of friends, stranger+… kind of;;;

He came up “What’s up, dude!! I gonna open 5 restaurants this year!!(*long story short didn’t happen, -thankfully-;;;) One is 10 seat degustation restaurant, looking for bad ass chef, are you interested???” It was not easy to making decision due to multiple reasons; losing my Oregon unemployment, moving during Covid-19, Florida is car city(*I don’t drive), taking job without seeing people, food and kitchen(never done before),e.t.c…. But eventually I decided to taking the job. So;; I am currently working as chef de cuisine@Soseki modern omakase, Orland, FL. https://www.sosekifl.com/

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Soseki opened mid March’21, currently offering one tasting menu only which usually running around 18 course-ish. opening 5 days a week, Wednesday one seating, Thursday-Sunday two seating, max 10 diners per seating, closing Monday & Tuesday. Running by 4 BOH & 2 FOH, total of 6, very small team.

The cuisine…. I hate ’labeling’, but it’s called ’modern omakase’, so that’s what it is. Or if I pick up my usual closing quote ”I call this hyper seasonable market driven cuisine. We do whatever we want. We flip over every single dishes every single months to make this place exciting place to come back for the diners and we wanna push ourselves as well.”

The menu usually includes 6 plus sushi course & randamn cuisine across the globe, -kind- of east meets west, best of both world. I have staged 220-ish kitchen and this is something I have never seen, very unique concept. For food picture please check out>> https://www.instagram.com/sosekifl/ and https://culinarymetalvagabond.wordpress.com/food-gallery/

*above information is as of 1/25/22, it may change;;;

According to my R&D log, I composed 91 dishes last 11-ish month. I wanna talk about some of the dishes next few months, but… UN MOMENTO!! next post: Dragonfire’21!! I wanna pick up some words came from my mouth in the kitchen. “kitchen is battlefield” that’s she(jay) said, I’ll tell you about it….. Stay safe n’ healthy, hope u comes back, cheers!!!

Gastromancing saga chapter 8: Nomad

http://www.nomadpdx.com/

So… picking up the story from previous post; After I left Iggy’s on August’17, I went back to backpacking the world. Started off Japan, Southeast Asia, India for 3 months, Middle east, skewer through Africa along east coast, Hong kong, Oceania then finishing off New York, total of 35 countries on December’18. From New York job search all over the U.S. for 10 months(never end x 3), eventually got this job ”Nomad” at Portland, OR last October.

Getting job in the hospitality industry is quite easy, I would say. But after years, knowing what we want, things get harder. My case was 1. Small team, small dining room. 2. Degustation menu, no a la carte. 3. Chef de cuisine, no sous chef or less. Plus kitchen, people, location, creative freedom…. multiple factors, salary is yeah, I guess…. hate talking about money though/////. Work hard, save hard, metal hard, travel hard, I’m good at it!!!

Anyway 1&2 already making the things freakin’ difficult, Probably “only” 100ish restaurant all across over the U.S. fit these conditions. It’s just my vision, preference, I simply want to control, detailed and oversee entire kitchen operation, done high volume service like 300 plus before, just not something I would do. As for 3, not something I care, but for job-hunting something I need on my resume. Always do what I want, but live wisely, Mehhh////

And…. Nomad fits all those conditions I was looking for. I never live in Portland,OR which was a big bonus. When I staged/trial, there were 2 cooks plus 1 interns in the kitchen. But long story short))), as of January just became myself. As of March Nomad had total of 4 people, the owner, myself, GM, bartender, that was it as small as it could be! To me, less people is better just like lighter backpack is better to travel….(???)

Nomad is originally started as pop up back in 2014 by the owner chef Ryan Fox, Settled down to the current address 3 years ago. It consist of 2 parts; Ash bar/lounge which serving casual bistro-ish menu and Nomad open kitchen dining room which offering 8 course tasting menu at 85USD as of March. We serve up to 16pax one shot at 7pm, busy season(summer time) 2 round of 6pm/8:30pm.

Actually I “used to” have dream to open my restaurant called “P.S.I.”(passion.spirit.inspiration) in Australia. And I say what nomad is nearly what I dreamed of… Maybe not bar menu, but the restaurant need to run business, we all know!! 4 people, 8 course tasting menu, 16-32pax… and the restaurant name is “Nomad”? Took me long enough; dude, this job is for me!!!

Well, I admit sometimes it’s tough n’ rough. Opening, ordering, m.e.p., sweep n’ mop kitchen/dining room/hallway/toilet, pull off garbage, washing dishes, serving, pouring water, explain dishes, silvers, cleaning, closing, e.t.c….. mucho trabajo! But it’s great for workaholic who like spinning around all day//// I do like talking n’ working with people at work, but just myself alone in the restaurant 10am-3pm, no music, cooking in the tranquility, all I hear is sound of cooking, I freakin’ love these moments, my precious!!!

Well, the owner usually ask if I need hands on m.e.p., but usually I say “NO”////. I mean isn’t that supposed to normal??? I’m this way since my very first job, my job is mine; no “trying”, do it, make it happen. Back in Michelin restaurant, one dish involved by 3 or more people, but I honestly didn’t like the fact. If I do my dish, I want to do everything myself even little garnishes on the plate. But when you work with the team, work as a team, no ego game, very important. Now at Nomad, I DO F*ckin’ everything, F*ck yeaaahhhhh….. just bloody wicked!!! Actually this definitely makes me nervous to go back working with “others”, I mean that ‘supposed’ to be normal, ewww////. Ow, I love when the owner help me with dishes, Merci boku!!!

The food at Nomad, I say market driven New American cuisine. We use several farmers, but right after I started except few of them all went to winter break, so I couldn’t change the menu as much as I wanted. And… skipping spring and summer this year back to time when I started now, hmmm////. And as for the tasting menu, I like 8-12 courses is great. I personally think 20 courses are too much, just me personal.

Due to Covid-19 pandemics, Nomad has been closed since mid-March. We’re planning to reopen at phrase 2, and most definitely start with casual bitro-ish a la carte menu, no tasting menu since the economy is bad. I do hope things back to what it used to be and welcome all the diners with tasting menu some time soon. From next post; I’d like to talk about several dishes I did last fall/winter menu at Nomad. Start off “Duo of Pumpkin” next!!!