Woman in WACS Profile of the Month Stacey LeeChan

The Women in WACS initiative strives to increase visibility of women chefs worldwide as well as supporting them in their efforts to advance their careers while balancing work and family. Women in WACS also seeks to establish a national/ international network whose purpose is to mentor, recruit, and retain female membership in Chefs organizations.

Profile of the Month

Stacey Lee Chan

March 2013

Name:  Stacey lee Chan

Age:  26

Home Town/Country:  Lonehill, Johannesburg

Position(s) currently held: Brand chef for SMEG

Career Highlights:

• Winner of the regional and national round of Chaine des Rotisseurs in South Africa 2010
• Winner of the 2010  International Chaine des Rotisseurs competition in Finland
• 2010 Mc Cain chef of the year
• Winner of the 2011 Hudson and Knights pastry competition

What kind of formal education do you have?

• 3 year grand diploma at Silwood School of Cookery
• 1 month patisserie course at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris

What made you decide to enter the culinary profession?

• Passion and love of food and creating flavors

Do you have culinary childhood memories?

• Baking Christmas mince pies with my gran every December
• Baking cupcakes or cakes on Sunday with my mom

At what age did you first enter the food service industry? What was your first job?

• At 18 years
• My first official job after studying was at the Boutique hotel the Cellars Hohenort.

What were important stepping stones to reach your current position?

• Starting from the bottom
• Respect of the superior chefs
• Experimenting with flavours and textures
• Hard work and training to do competitions

Did you or do you have a mentor?

• Every chef is a mentor; it’s a hard industry to be in.

What, if any, problems did you encounter in your career?
Being a girl in a male dominated kitchen is always a slight obstacle but nothing to bad.

What, if any, was the greatest obstacle? 
Wanting to win an international competition and achieving my goal.

How did you overcome that hurdle?
Lots of training and hard work and experimenting with lots of international foods.

What is the male/female ratio in your current job?
It’s just me so manly female driven

Describe your current work conditions.

• Fine dining dinners and wine pairings
• Casual dinners and wine pairings
• Demonstrations
• Hands on cooking classes

What is your advice to young women entering your specific field?
Give as hard as you can give and try stick it out until the end, you can do a lot more than you think if you really want it

What are your interests outside the culinary field?
Walking and reading

What are personal and professional interests that you would like to pursue within the next 5 years? 
I would love to have my own 40 seater restaurant along with a deli that sells freshly made artisanal breads, pastries and a few other delicious treats.

Would you be willing to be a mentor to other women in WACS? 
Always

e-mail: Stacey@smegsa.co.za

facebook: Stacey lee Chan

MINTY FRESH

How stunning is this mint, its such a strong green color, looks so healthy and has reached the size it is without  being pumped with chemicals and hormones....WHY.... because it comes from my garden.

I used it for my demonstrations at Good Food and Wine Show.

GOOD FOOD AND WINE SHOW WITH ALVIN

Last weekend was the Good Food and Wine Show in Joburg and SMEG had a stand with Foodiction and Spekko, we had the spekko competition running on the stand the whole weekend and then on sunday the winner was announced BUT the most exciting part was that Alvin Quah from Masterchef Australia was on our stand judging the competition and doing daily demos.

The show was packed on Saturday and Sunday so much so you could barely walk from stand to stand but there were a few gem stands with a difference, the one that stood out the most was the beer stand where they put a plastic cup on a disc and it filled with beer from the bottom up, fantastic concept and great interest from lots of people, right opposite it was a "new style" pork stand that served the most amazing ribs i have had in a long time.

The other new interesting stand I really loved was the flavoured, alcoholic cream in a can...so basically its like Orley whip cream in a can you get but it had 4 flavours, chocolate and cherry being my favourite but it was alcoholic so great for desserts, to top on hot chocolates and coffees, actually to top on just about anything :) ha ha.

JUDGING IN ISTANBUL,TURKEY

I was extremely privileged to be invited to judge at the 2011 Jeune Chefs Chaine des Rotisseurs competition this month in Istanbul, it was the competition I won last year and it was so interesting to be on the judging side this year.

Istanbul is amazing, it never sleeps, there is bumper to bumper traffic at midnight, you only really go the restaurants and 10pm for dinner, and the people are really accommodating.

I walked to Taksim square the one evening and it was hilarious to see Mc Donalds and Burger King slap bang in between all the beautiful Turkish restaurants. Sampling the street food was divine, but there beef is ummmm, interesting, I tried shish kebabs, simit, some sort of cheese and egg baked thing, Turkish delight, fresh and dried dates, spices, fruits, felafel filled with chicken and so much more I cant remember.

But there are 3 things I had that stood out the most, the apple tea - it seems drinking tea is their past time and its served in these stunning little glasses, Turkish coffee which you should definitely not have before you want to sleep and then from this little patisserie i tried what i thought was a savoury bagel type thing with hazelnuts on top but was actually filled with a chocolate, raisin and cinnamon filling, it was divineeeeeee.

I also went on a dinner cruise down the Bosphourous river which was spectacular, we had dinner on board and belly dancing, the bubbles where flowing and it was still boiling hot at midnight.

OK enough about my memorable experience back to the competition, there were 21 competitors from all over the world, their black box was a giant lobster, rack of lamb with 21 bones, figs, aubergines and a leek.

The kitchen I just have to boast held 6 SMEG ovens, in turkey, cool hey. The competitors settled in quickly and then the judging started. There were 4 kitchen judges from Australia, Canada, France and me from SA.

We worked as a great team and they were so willing to spread their knowledge of judging onto me and for that I'm very greatful.

The winner of the young chefs competition was from USA, 2nd from Germany and 3rd from Columbia.

All in all it was an unforgettable experience that I would love to do again...OH YES I forgot to add I was invited back to judge next year, BERLIN, here we come :)

OFF TO TURKEY

Its T minus 3 days till Im off to turkey to judge the chaine des rotisseurs young chefs competition, I cant wait to sample turkish cuisine, shop around in the the spice markets, be a tourist before my work there starts.

so no blogging for 2 weeks and when im back i will fill my blog with pics of all the stunning food I ate and places I saw.

LOUIS ROEDERER CHAMPAGNE BRUNCH

I was very privileged to be able to go to the Louis Roederer champagne brunch on Sunday morning at the Hyatt hotel.

It was absolutely mind blowing, besides the fact that your champagne glasses were never allowed to be empty and were constantly being topped up either with the Louis Roederer Brut 2004 and Louis Roederer Rose 2006, but we were also all treated to a glass of Louis Roederer Cristal 2004, wow, amazing, words cannot describe.

On top of the endless supply of champagne was an endless supply of food that once again was out of this world, where even as a chef I did not know where to start.

There were tables of breads, cheeses, cold meats, salads, seafood from spider crab clause to giant prawns to lobsters, then a roast leg of beef that was so huge I don't even want to know what the actual size of the animal was, whole baby pork, curries and stews, one of my favourites was white wine risotto served in a giant Parmesan wheel so as you scrapped some of the risotto onto your plate the heat of the risotto had melted some of the Parmesan and you scrapped a cheesy, creamy risotto.

I'm sure I have forgotten a lot of the other savoury food but I have to move onto the dessert which could have been awarded a gold medal, besides from the presentation of all the decadent desserts the taste of each was amazing.

I think I sampled everything from mini tiramisu cakes to macaroons, mini chocolate mousse domes, puff pastry crisps, homemade ice creams, apple strudels with vanilla sauce, baumkuchen dipped in chocolate and YES I did eat all of it....

This Sunday was one of the high lights of my year.

LOOKING FOR A CHEF

Hello all

Im looking for an enthusiatic, easy going chef/person who would like to run their own coffee shop, I would need light lunches to be made with the menu changing every second day or so, have fresh cakes, muffins baked daily, no nights unless there is a function - not often, tues-sat, 8-5pm and sat 8-3pm.

Im happy to give this oppertuninty to a student fresh from chefs school if you willing to handle the stress and pressure of running it yourself.

You need to have good ideas, be neat, clean and presentable, have a good knowledge of food hygiene and menu costings.

If you are interested please email me on stacey@smegsa.co.za  The position is in johannesburg in fourways along william nicol.

Thanks