Slow Food Blog Post

Arriving at Alma!

Hi my name is Kevin Wong. I'm an Italian post graduate student. I first went to Ryerson University and studied Hospitality & Tourism Management and graduated in 2013. When I was in high school my first choice career wise was to become an Intelligence Officer for CSIS. I love my country, I'm 5th generation in my family here in Toronto and I wanted to protect it. I would first go to the Toronto police college, graduate then work for the Toronto police for a number of years then I would move on to the RCMP and work for them and then eventually move my way to CSIS however my mom's main concern was my safety and being shot... so I came to the conclusion that I like food. My career goals changed because I knew then that I would eventually want to own my own restaurant which led me to want to open 7. 7 Italian restaurants. Everyone always asks me "Why 7?" and the reason is because it seemed like a good number. Growing up in North York a majority of my neighbours were Italian or Greek immigrants. My mom learned from our neighbours on basically living like an Italian. How to make sauce, how to grow an amazing array of tomatoes, basil, different produce in our backyard. We even had grapes growing in our backyard that our neighbours would turn into wine!

Chef Ruffini helping Trinh finish plating the desserts for our final class cooking food for half of the class in the dining room

    So I went to Ryerson because my parents believed having a university degree opens a lot of doors which is true. After my time at Ryerson I would see whether or not I wanted to go to culinary schoool. While my time at Ryerson which I really loved, my main focus and passion was always food and cooking. There's something so pleasureable and magical about going to a market or even a grocery store and picking out certain vegetables or herbs or exotic seasonings and creating something that you had an idea for and executing it and seeing the reaction from your friends and family and witnessing them enjoying it. In my opinion there's no better feeling than that. I worked for a year as a manager for a large corporation that managed food within a business building and I really did not like it at all. My boss wasn't someone who I would want to become.  There came a point when I had to decide my next move and September was coming up soon so I decided to enroll at George Brown for Culinary Management. 

     I knew how to cook, I own a lot of cookbooks and whenever I had an assignment or test or exam while I was at Ryerson I would always be watching cooking videos on youtube. They weren't just any cooking videos these were very traditional old fashioned Marco Pierre White on BBC when he would cook dishes for Albert Roux, Pierre Koffman, and Nico Ladenis. It was incredible to see how the old British Kitchens were run and seeing a much younger Gordon Ramsay in the background. Which in the long run did help me.

Throughout the culinary management program and the hospitality program at Ryerson I knew at some point I would need to go to Italy. To try and look for the authentic flavours of Italy myself if I were to open a true Italian restaurant. After the culinary management program finished I emailed 40 different restaurants and wineries in Italy asking for a stage. I knew this would be an easier route for the Italy route rather than going through the Italian program. I was hesitant because I knew the Italian program would be expensive never the less I wanted to try it on my own. I received 3 emails from 3 different wineries all over Italy but decided to go for the Italian program instead. Maybe I was being naive in thinking I would be "ok" on my own in a country I've never been to with no one I knew. The Italian program trained you and enhanced the learning experience of Italy by teaching us dishes from each region, a hint of what it's like to speak Italian, and to know what it is to be Italian. Also whatever restaurant we would end up in would technically be safe since it is with our partner school Alma in Colorno, Italy. They wouldn't just send us to some unknown dead restaurant.

I was lucky. I was assigned a restaurant called Guido Ristorante which is run by two brothers: Paolo Raschi and Luca Raschi. Paolo is in charge of the kitchen while his brother is in charge of the front of house. Guido is located in Miramare, Rimini which is one hour away from Bologna. Rimini is known for it's beaches. It can reach an average of 8 million tourists each summer. It has an average population of 200,000 people which is incredibly small compared to the population of Toronto.

Outside the restaurant. Going to work was basically heading to the beach!

Pane - Sometimes it would come out beautifully like this and sometimes we'd need to improve

For my stage I thought I'd be probably doing prep work but when I arrived there I was told I would be in charge of the pastry section. This included the 5 different types of breads, all the pastries for the desserts, gelatos and sorbettos, and also helping with the amuse bouche. It was a huge responsibility also considering it is a 1 Michelin star restaurant. It was an incredible experience I really learned a lot and I loved it. I didn't know how close I would become with the team there but it wasn't until my last service that I would learn. It's difficult to say goodbye for me especially but when you work with people for 4 months 16-17 hours a day 6 days a week they become your family here in Toronto and anywhere else. 

Some Chocolate Truffles for the guests last sweet before their meal is finished

This is the Amuse Bouche. It would sometimes change. This is tomato skin with smoked mussels and a spicy aioli topped with tomato powder. The fish were Zancetti. Deep fried and then topped with an aioli with crispy quinoa (dehydrated in the oven forever)

This is Spianata. It is basically focaccia but in my region we call it spianata and always topped with only large crystalized salt and freshly chopped rosemary e basta!

I wasn't a fan of making pastries before I left but I did start to have interest in baking my own sourdough bread at home using my starter so when I learned about all the different breads we made at Guido I was very excited. The mother we used was 8 years old and everyday I would shave the skin off. The starter was a thick dough and every night we'd roll it into a log and wrap it tightly in a table cloth and then tie it tightly with a rope and place it in the fridge overnight and the next day the rope would be so difficult to untie because the mother typically expanded a lot. 

One of the fish we always used. Sometimes we would find a baby one inside of it. The face of the little fish looked really similar to the adult sized one.

One of the things I did not like was their idea of organization....which didn't exist. I would keep my station clean and organized but someone would come and wouldn't put it back where they found it or they wouldn't wipe down my station after they use it which is common courtesy but I saw around the kitchen it happening all the time. My chef didn't really put an emphasis on organization or cleanliness. Someone who I was training to replace me consistently used my plating spoons to taste my food and just place the spoon back in the same container without washing it or anything. Sometimes if a server came to my station to take bread for a customer and one piece fell off onto the floor the server would just pick it up and brush it off a bit and place it back on the plate. In Toronto ideally this would never happen. The sanitation standards for restaurants are quite strict. 

The beautiful Shrimp I got to work with. Look at how gorgeous it's tail is!

Me with a Cannochie which in English means Squill Fish.

About 3-4 times a week our fishmonger Claudio would come in the mornings to the restaurant and talk to Gian Luca (one of the line cooks in charge of ordering fish) and they would go through the order and talk a bit and have an espresso together then Claudio would head off. The fish were incredible. Sometimes when I would ride my bike to work I would pass by a cafe and see Claudio having an espresso with other old Italian men and play cards this would be around 6pm. It was incredible to see that... such a relaxed life... an incredible life.

We would clean about a hundred of these every other night. Sometimes you would get one that looked like this or even larger with a larger fish. I have never seen anything so incredible. This squid was caught while it was having a meal! In Toronto I don't think you could find squid as fresh as this with a fish sticking out of it!

One of the Crudo dishes. Chef loved having natural flavours of the ocean and the fish!

One time I asked Chef Paolo to take me with him to the farmer's market so I can experience it and see it. On the way there he told me that he can go to the grocery store and pick up some fish but Claudio's is so much better in terms of taste and quality because Claudio is incredibly passionate about his fish and that's why my Chef prefers Claudio's to anyone else's.

    Working in Italy for me was incredible. I made friends I know I can ask for help when need be. Though at times it was difficult to understand one another in the end we were able to communicate. I learned a new language, new skills, and lived on my own. I would definitely like to return to Italy one day. 

Me with my sous chef Matteo (Far Left) and Paolo (Centered)

The crew at Guido and I

Luca, one of the owner's of Guido took me with his family to have a traditional emilia romagnian meal up in the mountains in Rimini during my last week of my stage

Until next time,

K.M.W.