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

ANOTHER BEAUTY FROM THE GARDEN

Fresh parsley from the garden, our garden, home grown, the way to go, go green guys...

SUNDAY LUNCH

OCTOPUS PASTA

This was my Sunday lunch, Octopus pasta - Mauritian style, absolutely mouth wateringly delicious.

I bought baby octopus from La Marina, Miguel made his Mauritian tomato sauce, we quickly flash fried the octopus then added the tomato sauce and allowed it to simmer for 2 minutes.

We served it with al dente spaghetti that had been tossed in sauteed garlic, red onion and melted butter and finished off with some fresh chives stirred through.

The combination of the rich tomato and octopus sauce with the al dente herbed spaghetti was the perfect way to spend a Sunday lunch and OF COURSE we had bubbles with it.

BLACKEND SPRINGBOK LOIN

SPRINGBOK AND TOASTED SESAME SALAD

Instead of the usual hot beef salad, which is a great spring salad because its a warm salad while its still a little cool outside, BUT trying to use more local/traditional produce I want to change it to a springbok salad.

Remembering that springbok should not be over cooked and rare in the middle its delicious if you melt butter in a pan and as it starts to turn a golden nut colour place the springbok loin in and season well all over, brown on all sides then deglaze the pan with brandy and allow to flame. Remove the springbok and allow to rest. Slice thinly.

Make some black pepper and garlic croutons by cutting cubes of ciabatta, drizzle them with olive oil and black pepper and bake at 180'C until golden and crispy. Rub fresh garlic over them.

Toss some mixed lettuce leaves together, cut some cherry tomatoes in half, some blanched asparagus tips and fold together with the springbok and croutons and the liquid from the pan you browned your springbok in.

Crumble some goats feta on top and sprinkle a few toasted sesame seed over and serve while still warm.

DUCK AND RASPBERRY SALAD

SPRING RECIPE 2

These 2 flavours work together in harmony and produce a mouth watering dish, the tartness of the fresh raspberries and raspberry vinaigrette cut through the fatty richness of the duck.

Recipe:

1 small pkt watercress
1 small pkt mixed lettuce leaves
5 baby corns, cut into 3
10 mange touts, cut in half
2 cakes black pepper feta
2 cooked duck breasts, crispy skin but pink inside
1 punnet fresh raspberries
50ml raspberry vinaigrette
100ml grape seed oil
seasoning

Method:

Toss all together and serve with some warm homemade wholewheat bread, slightly toasted and rubbed with garlic.

WOMENS DAY ARTICLE

This was an article that came out on womens day from the HOTEL AND RESTAURANT MAGAZINE

GOOOOOOO WOMEN................

Plea for more recognition of women in tourism

August 8th, 2011 by Andrew Moth | Categories: food, hotels, industry, people, restaurants, tourism, training

In the picture above is Stacey Lee Chan, one of the growing number of women chefs helping to expand the appeal of the South African hospitality industry as a career choice.

A plea for greater recognition of the role played by women in the tourism and hospitality industries has been made by Calvyn Gilfellan, CEO of Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU), on the eve of National Women’s Day tomorrow.
Although women performed key roles and responsibilities at all levels of the Western Cape’s tourism industry, their valuable contribution was not always acknowledged, he said.
“Tourism and hospitality are labour-intensive industries providing ample opportunities for women with their unique strengths and abilities to thrive. Significant progress has been made, but we are concerned that in some of the sub-sectors women are still struggling to break through the proverbial glass ceiling,” Gilfellan said today.
“Although women are well-represented in the tourism industry, too many occupy the lower echelons of the employment structures. It is time that more of them are employed as general managers, directors of companies and senior executives in government and other agencies.”
In recognition of the importance of women in the industry, CTRU fully supports the following United Nations World Tourism Organisation proposals to elevate the role of women in tourism:

• The general improvement of the role and status of women in the tourism industry
• Create awareness of the opportunities available to women at all levels of the travel and tourism industry
• Ensure that women’s matters and gender equality are high on the agendas of tourism policy and legislative processes
• Support good training, development and career opportunities for women in or wanting to enter the industry
• Support policy and legislation that provides for equal opportunity and equal pay for female employees
• Strongly speak out against sexual and other exploitation of women and children in the industry
• Acknowledge and celebrate women’s immense contribution to the industry

SPRING BLOSSOMS

I had decorex for the past few days and in the estate where it was being held I came across this tree that was blossoming, they are the first sign of spring and so gorgeous I just had to take a picture.

These blossoms make me think of a stunning warmish Saturday afternoon brunch with warm bagels filled with smoked trout, cream cheese, freshly sliced avocado and a good squeeze of lemon juice and cracked black pepper with a glass of rose bubbles, all seated under a blossom tree.

Spring brings along a stunning assortment of fruit and vegetables, use whats in season as its at its best.

Enjoy spring and keep watching and reading for some stunning simple, yet classy and sassy spring recipes.

TOFU AND CHICKEN SOUP

For everyone who doesn't like tofu or doesn't know how to cook it and serve it here is a simple way to make tofu taste mouth watering.

Firstly it has to be fresh fresh tofu, which you can normally get at any Chinese shop.

Then you make a strong chicken broth and put the tofu in when it boiling hot so it basically poaches the tofu.

The tofu will then cook in this broth and absorb all the flavours of the broth.

Serve the broth with some freshly chopped spring onions, if you don't go back for a second bowl something is wrong with you :)

Enjoy TOFU...

SECOND ATTEMPT

So the first time attempt at making rotis was ummmm, not so successful but Miguel made these the other night and that are divine, correct texture and taste and yet no disrespect his dads rotis are the ultimate best.

I love being married to a Mauritian, it opens up so many more doors on the culinary side, their food is so flavourful and different and I love having the opportunity to learn and eat a different style of food on a daily basis.

YUMMY rotis

HOME GROWN MUSHROOMS

Miguel and I bought a "grow-your-own" mushroom kit from the garden shop a few weeks ago and are now able to reap the benefits. After daily spraying of water in a sunny room that doesn't reach over 25'C, covered with a plastic bag to form the condensation, we have grown our first round of white oyster mushrooms and its fantastic.

Its so much more rewarding having a dinner with the produce that you have grown either from your garden or from a box( ha ha).

So dinner tonight will be a simple home- grown garlic and butter sauteed mushroom pasta and I think I will use the tomato and chili flavoured linguine I got from Italy.

REMEMBER 2 rules when cooking mushrooms...

1. Always cook your mushrooms in butter, the nutty butter flavour compliments the mushrooms well
2. always finish your cooking of mushrooms with a good squeeze of lemon, this adds a nice bite to the lemons and cuts through the butter as well.

If you remember these 2 rules your mushrooms will always be delectable.

HERE ARE SOME PICS OF OUR MUSHROOMS



BISCUIT MILL

I was in Cape Town over the weekend and went to the biscuit mill on saturday morning. I havnt been there in 2 years since I moved to joburg and was so pleased to see that it still attracts so many people that are all interested in amazing food, organic food, wine and coffee. There is no better way than to spend a morning there looking at all the passionate food stalls from fresh organic mushrooms, to honey to vegan food to organic chocolate and pastries to die for.

I couldnt resist buying a few things there as I was having family round for a dinner that evening. These are the fabulous mushrooms that I bought, organic south african proscuitto that was mouth watering. Just look at the freshness of it all.

I just scored then because I wanted to grill them

Pink oyseter mushrooms

PICTURES FROM HOTEL AND RESTAURANT

If you go onto www.hotelandrestaurant.co.za you will see the artical on the competition I won, but here are some of the pictures...

My winning dish

Concentrating on plating up

All the people that won in different categories, trying to smile with a mouth full of stiches after having a mouth op a few days earlier

IL LEONE

On wednesday night I went to Il leone and had the most amazing night, the food and wine was flowing til we literally rolled out of there.

We started with a bottle of processco that is absolutly the yummiest sparkling wine from Italy and a cold meat platter.

The rest of our friends joined and we went through to our table, we then all shared starters of amatriciana spaghetti and capreze salad with proper buffalo mozzarella.

My 3 other guests all had the special of beef fillet on the bone and vegetables while I tried the homemade gnocchi with bolognaise sauce, all was fantastic and was washed down by a delicious red.

We then finished the night with traditional tiramisu and homemade ice-cream and chocolate sauce and coffees.

Besides from the food being out of this world the atmosphere set the tone for a fantastic evening and staff were very professional and friendly, even the chef came to check we were alright and opened the kitchen early to make us a cured meat platter while we were waiting.

Everyone in cape town who hasnt been to IL Leone is missing out on a fabulous night.

INTERESTING WEEKEND

This was a very eventful weekend for me, on saturday morning I competed in the Hudson and Knights pastrex and mastercraft competition and I came 1st in the professional chefs section.

Then in the evening I was upgraded in the Chaine des Rotisseurs to Vice Conseuillier Culinaire, part of the joburg baillage commitee.

I will also be the inaugural chair for the young chefs club that is starting soon and will work along side Francis Krone as he heads up the young sommeliers club.

So a good weekend all round, being a chef really opens up a lot of oppertunities