I was so lucky to have escaped my evening shift today. I can finally enjoy a set of days-off which I really sorely miss. It doesn’t happen as much. I am usually booked Friday and Saturday nights for work and for all the misses the weather network had been predicting about this weird weather of ours lately, they finally made a hit. The city had been struck with about 15-25mm of rain starting very early this morning and probably until late tonight. I’m not counting on their predictions for the next couple of days though. When they predict rain, it’s usually the opposite outside. Anyway, soggy and unsettled days like these ones make me just want to do completely nothing. I would have read the book I’ve always thought of buying, but I guess that would not happen today. I missed that chance a few weeks ago and I’m too lazy to shop now. TV has also become a bore except maybe for some shows I do follow.

I have been tirelessly working for the last month now and I’d expect more in the coming weeks as summer nears. This pause is such a welcome breather, and ideas do come in when I’m up and about and recharged. Moreover, I noticed that I tend to eat more regularly when I’m basically just sitting down on my cum dining/office table; just beside my kitchen wanting to munch something. I feel I’m living healthier at home than at work with better control or hold on the food I eat. There’s just no real satisfaction in the food I serve and if it does, probably I’ve gone immune to it.

I have scratched several food groups or items off my list through the years. I have grown accustomed to the fact that these items are unhealthy and can result to the ‘Big C’ in the long-run. That list was a precautionary measure so to speak. However, I do take a bite or two of those on the list occasionally or if my cravings look for them or if an idea pops out of nowhere requiring such. On that list is Cheese. I’m sure many would disagree. Anyway, I use cheese as much as I want in making the food I cook at work to totally synergize a dish. I don’t know if that makes sense, but for me, cheese is like salt. It binds and packs everything into one powerful punch of undetermined amount of calories, sugar and salt. Take that to your belly.

Italians may have a different approach to cheese. They know their cheese and they know how to just accentuate a dish with cheese without going out of proportion like many do here in North America. Moreover, they partner everything with wine and with the purest olive oil (not exactly the finest and the most expensive) making the dishes stand out even more. It’s never paired with pop or beer.

Just recently, I saw a segment on TV using Cheese with Chicken Breast. The preparation was very simple, but intriguing and interesting; and after seeing how it was done, it had never left my mind thereafter. The dish just had about five or so ingredients, and with those five ingredients, I had thought of several other ways of approaching the dish. More ingredients can be added, removed or substituted with another depending on what’s available in the pantry or even what’s available during the season. In my case, I have decided to follow the same classical procedure, but adding probably a couple more cooking steps and ingredients just to enhance the flavour of the sauce.

Ingredients:
½ a portion of Chicken Breast (Cut in a bias)
½ cup of White Wine
¼ of a cup of Chicken Stock
2-3 tbsp. of butter
½ of small White Onion, Diced
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Roma Tomato, Diced and deseeded
3-4 Cloves of Garlic
Mozzarella
Dried Oregano
Optional: Basil

Remove the Chicken Tender from the Chicken Breast and trim the excess fat.

Start slicing the breast (slanting inward) into serving portions and season with salt and pepper. Dredge in flour and set them aside in the fridge.

Drizzle the Red Bell Pepper and Garlic with oil and roast until the skin for both begins to crack and shed. Let it stand to cool and dice.

Grate some cheese while roasting (had some leftover Monterey Jack). Other kinds of cheese will work depending on what you want or with what you have. Based on the originally recipe, Provolone was used instead.

Heat a saute pan with olive oil and butter and start browning the chicken breast. Set aside after.

In the same pan, start sautéing the onions, roasted red bell pepper and garlic and tomato. Add a little wine and chicken stock and let it boil to simmer. Return the breast back into the pan until they turn soft and tender.

Top the breast with cheese and broil in the oven for about thirty seconds or until the cheese melts.

Serve with Roasted Potatoes.

Let your imagination work when working on this dish. I stuck with the classic and the traditional way; keeping everything as close to the original as I can and only adding what I wanted. I won’t suggest anything else and would just let your mind think things over on what else could be done.

For this particular Chicken Trombino, I added the onions, roasted garlic, chicken stock and the white wine just to add extra body and taste into the sauce. What I originally saw was just the Roasted Red Bell Peppers and Roma Tomatoes.

Erwin

When I was growing up, my parents and I used to eat out and try different restaurants after celebrating the Sunday Mass. Moreover, during the course of the summer break, I had the opportunity to see some places which, when looking back, I had never realized how lucky I was as a teen to be able to travel. My family and I went to Europe and some parts of the United States, and what I saw along that path of my life inspired me to become a 'Chef.' The 'whites' they wore for me, during those growing-up and finding 'myself' years, portrayed a sort of fascinating and powerful figure in an extremely sophisticated, higly inviting and invigorating work place; and still maintain an unblemished and clean uniform after a very busy service. That picture of a 'Chef' stuck to my head for so many years.

True enough, with meager resources left to spend for the youngest, that dream never happened. Life went on. I went to university and studied an insignificant course, Business Management, and after graduating, I ended up working as a Credit and Financial Analyst in the banking industry in Manila; slugging it out in the corporate arena in Makati. It was the first taste of being called a 'yuppie' and was almost always looking forward to an after-office eating and drinking extravaganza in the expanding and growing Makati Business District; and, of course, the weekend.

Anyway, forging ahead to my life today, that dream as 'Chef' stayed in the back of my mind all the time that when I left the Philippines for Toronto in 2003; and after finally settling down on my own in 2005, I had started studying Professional Culinary Arts Courses in the City College to get that almost long-forgotten 'dream' going again. It was a Continuing Education Course, and more or less, students who have also shifted careers or who were trying to find work (like myself) as a newly landed found ourselves working with pots, knives and fire which I believe and I felt, everyone in class have never, ever touched during their past, professional lives.

Since then, I have been working in and out of different kitchens; flipping eggs and hamburgers, grilling steaks, shoving bread and chicken in a 500'C oven, and almost anything that can be either deep-fried or toasted just to serve hungry, sometimes pesky, customers. I became a 'grease' cook; a short-order cook with no definite place of employment, and definitely not a 'Chef.'

My articles are based on the after-thoughts of my past and present day experiences in this fast-paced, starkling, and sometimes disheveling kitchen environment. I never imagined that a kitchen 'worklife' turned that way as against the 'Ideal' environment I had thought about for years. No regrets. During this journey, I've discovered food which I've never thought I'd be able to taste. I learned to appreciate wine and travel more; now that I have understood the culture of food to society. That was non-existent when I was growing up.

This journey has not ended. I'm still discovering and still learning. It's a tough industry to be in and for what's next or for where I'll finally end up in remain a sordid mystery.