Gigi's Trattoria

I took my parents to dinner at a little bistro Italian restaurant called Gigi Trattoria. Unfortunately I didn't get too many pictures of the food because we ended up eating it SO Fast! Famished! Some of the things we had were Bianca Skizza, which was a thin crust pizza with mozzarella cheese, fig preserves, sliced pears, arugula and white truffle oil....let me tell you, it is the most delicious merrying of flavors that can happen in a person's mouth! We also tasted a few pastas on their menu, Fettucine with bolognese and fresh ricotta impastata, I had the cavatelli with spicy sausage. The star of the show though was the Tocai Friulano, a fruity white wine from Friuli, Italy. Delicious!

Graduation!

Ok so I know that I haven't posted on this site in a really really long time, it's about time I catch up eh! So I just graduated last Friday, pretty surreal actually. At first, I thought that being at home again would be a little bit difficult for me to readjust to, but these past few days have been fine. I tried to contact the chef at the Four Seasons yesterday and left word with him about my starting date in December. Let's hope that he will respond soon or my anxiety is going to act up! haha. Anyway, so it's about 8 am and I can't sleep. Enough chit chat, how about some photos!

There are many signs like this pointing to different directions for tourists like me hehe. This was at the City Centre, but the other photos are of Christ Church College. Beautiful place where there is a large quad in the middle and a cathedral, picture gallery and dining hall. The dining hall is the key here you will see later :)

 
 
 
  

Oxford

This weekend I went to Oxford, it's about 2 hours by bus outside of London (West of London) and it was a very picturesque place. Even though I didn't get to see all of it, it was well worth the trip! I took the Oxford Tube which is the bus in the picture, 11 pounds round trip ticket and it picks you up at several stops, very convenient!
So when I got there I got onto the City Sighseeing bus tour that took me around the city and I could "Hop On and Off" as they say on the tour to the places of interest. The two elderly ladies in the photo are no one that I know but I took it because they are both wearing red flowers on their coats, which are Poppies that represent their support for the troops in the war. Many British people seem to be wearing these and I never knew what they were before.
Funny enough we passed a restaurant called "Opium Den" I did not dare go inside haha even though I probably should have! The other photo is of the street that's all.
 
 
 
  

continued

Pete Sampras' uniform and Pro Staff raquet. Museum, everything was sooo expensive there, a mousepad was 3.50 pounds! In American dollars 7 dollars! CRAZY YO!
 
  

Wimbledon!!!!!!!

So I finally ventured out to Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum, it was so surreal to be at Wimbledon, too bad it wasn't the season though. There's a picture here of a touble gripped tennis raquet, which is really really cool, I really want one! Also, there's some pictures of signed uniforms. More to come!
 
 
 
  

a special chef made a trip over to the hotel to especially make this watermelon carving. There were others but they brought them out later and I didn't get a chance to take a picture :(

Carlos again! And my favorite chef, Chef Rajiv, he is sSOOO nice I love him!

 
 
  

There were some assorted breads that we served but the Chef didn't like how they looked so they ended up changing all of it later anyway, oh well. The desserts were unfortunately all frozen and not made in house, this is because there is basically no pastry section in the hotel, really sad actually.
 
 
 
  

cont'd

There is a macaroni salad there made with Rocket Pesto (arugula pesto). Although I did not make the pesto, I think the salad looks alright haha! Also there was a picture of some Curry Rice in the pictures in the previous post, I forgot to mention what that was exactly. It was basmati rice, sultanas (raisins), toasted almonds, and toasted desiccated coconut. Quite delicious! ALso in this block of pictures are more of the VIP function.
 
 
 
  

VIP Buffet

So some guests from the VISA company came to our hotel and the Chef requested that we do a "very VIP" menu for them, so we had to pull out all the stops for this one! There was Nicoise Salad, Hummus, Salmon Tartare, assorted breads, Thai Noodle Salad(I made!), and hot food as well such as four cheese tortellini etc.
Here are some pictures of the buffet and the people that I work with. The guy in this picture set is Amol, he is in the Larder station and I work with him sometimes. He basically does Garde Manger (all the salads and cold things that need to be done). Anyway though hope you like the pics I finally took at work :)

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Canapes

For work on Friday, we had to do Canapes for a VIP function, there were five total:
Asparagus with Prosciutto
Chicken with Mango and Sweet Thai Chili Sauce Filo Cup
Mini Jacket Potatoes
Smoked Salmon Tartlett
Paneer Tika Kebabs

Chef Rajiv, who is the night chef at the Hilton. He's soo nice, Chef Serkan had already left for the day so I couldn't get a picture of him.
As you probably can guess, there is a large Indian influence so lots of Indian dishes are made.