FINDING MY TREASURE.

I remember when I was growing up I used to play treasure hunt with my brother Brian. We used to have so much fun planning on where we would hide the treasure and the delight I would feel inside when we found it. Today as a forty year old I again, found a beautiful treasure. This treasure can, should and is an inspiration to those that genuinely call themselves Irish.

I arrived at the shop at around 11 am all ready to do a bit of a T.C.G. video and on my way out I was planning it in my head. When I arrive and had only spoken a few words to Thomas and Eileen Ashe I realised I was underprepared and overwhelmed by passion, history and belief. Thomas Ashe is a hard working hell bent on doing the right thing by his people type person and you all know the other saying, behind every good man is an even better woman, Eileen Ashe is what we the people should call “it”.

Thomas brought me on a tour of the production area and the operation is spotless, you can see that the respect these people have for what they do is impressive, and we the people need to support a national 102 year old treasure.

Eileen brought me up to the shop, which used to be the old house where Thomas grew up. I got a fantastic run down of their lives and where they met and could see first hand the love and respect they have for each other and their local community. Eileen is so, so helpful, thoughtful and in her own community she has huge helpful impact, that makes the lives of others easier, this is what it means to be Irish. In their own shop in Anascaul they buy lots and lots of locally produced food from gifted artisan producers and they do this with a massive emphasis on support local.

Eileen and I spoke a little bit more on much heavier topics after that about the way the earth is and the rain forrest etc. and it was lovely to listen to someone so like minded and passionate for the need for change that it opened my mind again to hope and belief. To hear someone else so aware of the issues the planet faces was great. Leaves me feeling hopeful that something can happen with awareness. People can be informed as to what’s happening and the don’t have to be blinded by a perpetual smoke screen.

I know there’s been a bit of a ramble in everything that I’ve just said but I hope you find the message to be a clear one. This could be perceived as off topic but I can assure you the message is the same. I asked a really good friend of mine yesterday who is going through Ramadan at the moment can he explain to me what it actually is and what came after that I did not expect. He said “Ramadan is so that wealthy people can experience what it’s like to be poor, what it’s like to go without, what it is like to starve. I do believe the answer to the world’s problems are already here, we just need to pick quality over quantity and Ramadan could teach some of the wealthy people on this floating rock a lesson or 2. All in all the best way to describe the feeling I had leaving the Ashe’s company was that of hope, pride and belief. Feelings that you’d almost struggle to find in the busy day to day life we call today. Thanks for reading folks and for this one I’ll ask you to share, spread the treasure around and let’s get people talking and actioning the way things should be. Massive grá to Thomas and Eileen and thank you for inspiring me to write this piece.

Chef networking

As long as I’m in the kitchen there has always been a cameraderie between members of a crew then you get out to into the world and you bump into people as you do and strike up a conversation, with them and it enviably leads to food in my experience. Then you go to events and meet more like minded people and discover that there’s another way of doing something or an alternative use for something or a better use of something, both food and equipment. For instance a small tub becomes a speaker for music from your phone aswell as a handy protection from water or liquid that’s are usually around the kitchen that have a habit of spilling, tea/coffee or water being the most common. Communication through social media, looking for pointers, tips, tricks, recipes, ideas and concepts all from other chefs from around the world. From America to Australia from Shanghai to Tralee, chefs from all over the world look for ideas from other chefs on the other side of the planet. Through social media the far reaches of the world are on the other side of a keyboard or a phone or tablet just a click away. (I feel like a travel ad).
I find that the longer I’m in the industry the easier the network becomes, I’ve a spread throughout munster, from the places I’ve worked I love going back to these places and new places where former colleagues now work. The best example of this is a restaurant in Bandon where a former colleague and friend is now the proprietor, of a restaurant serving Irish and Syrian food. The last time i was in west Cork I had to stop by. . Yes this is a gangster blog and my name is not Vinnie. So you can’t say Vinnie sent you. Back to my point I stopped by because I spent a summer in a hot box of a kitchen with this guy who commanded respect and through thick and thin remained calm and I’m forever endeared to him for pushing me through some of the busiest services I’ve ever been a part of. Pushing each member of the crew to do better tighter plates, cleaner cuts, better portioning, better trimming and filleting boning etc. This is just one example, I’ve been fortunate to have worked with a few of these type people. When someone is looking to move to another place your friends and colleagues will be the first to know, you could have recommendations from places but it’s a personal connection that will get you a job just as fast.
I worked with Johnny so and so in such and such a place. Often works or a phone call Pat will call into you on…

To me the chef network extends far beyond the kitchen to a life beyond the pass, when chefs leave the kitchen some yearn for the buzz but not the hours and pain it takes to get that buzz once every so often. I was once told you can leave the kitchen bit the kitchen will never leave you.

I suppose this may be true I’m not gonna find out anytime soon, I love what I do, I love where I do it, I look forward to a new shift no matter how tired I may be I still get to do what I do, and I love it

TO BOOK OR NOT THE BOOK, THAT IS THE QUESTION…..
So we opened Croí last year and we’ve been doing fairly well. We managed a building in Tralee that when you add Kevin, Noel and Paul has Croí. Heart, spirit, essence and much much more. We are so passionate about our industry that we are sick to the back teeth of others abusing it. The food system in the world is broken. We employ people from other countries to prepare our food and ignore the standard and quality we have at home. We have snobs in the country that think they are above everyone else but those are the biggest hypocrites of all. They squeeze every last drop out of service, demand service but still they believe everything is fine. All the smart people are too smart for their children’s own good. We eat mass produced mountains of garbage. I have heard of meetings taking place where the organisers of such event only care about greater yield at the expense of taste, quality and longevity. We at Croí want to break the trend. We want to support local so as that we can try to guarantee some sort of future for our kids. We want to get helped and help. We want our neighbouring restaurant to help us and in return we help them etc. etc. We guarantee we will work on sourcing “the best” our county can offer you, our people. We drive this restaurant to its limits to try to make ends meat in a society that taxes us to within a hairs breath of closure. What we ask for in return….

This is very simple, if we open and plan to stay we must make money to pay for aaaaaaalllll the taxes, wages, rates, bills, extras, even the paper the menu is printed on costs money and at the moment I have “hair-cut” written on the roster because there is so much to do it has to become part of a schedule. People come into Croí and book tables, some people walk in off the street hoping to eat and some people book tables and don’t turn up. I then have to wait 20 minutes and “i” have to ring you to see if your coming to sit at a table you booked. Knowing dam well that the 2 tables I have turned away would have enjoyed your table that is now free for the rest of the night because you couldn’t give a dam. People’s lives are at steak, weather you like the person or not is irrelevant because when you effect one of us you effect the team. You may even cost someone else their job, where does this dam get you because it could take them to the dole. One night at Christmas time, 28 people didn’t show, that’s your neighbour, your friend, your family member on the dole now. If a table goes from a 9 to 6, pick up the phone and ring, your taking up the table that I can use for the 2 to 4 people that are standing at the door of a restaurant that is trying it’s best to produce, support, employ and get through this life with as easy passage as possible by doing the right thing. If we decided to go the other way and told you we support local yet you see 1 truck pull up and deliver everything we serve then I think you would be saying to us eh, I’m not sure about that but we don’t we have several deliveries because we stand by our word. We are honest hard working people, why are you not? It takes less then a minute to do the right thing, I suggest you try it and you never know, we may hire a family member in the future…..