Chef Aidy

When I was working in a lot of the restaurants in New York, I have never even think of using MSG or other flavor enhancer in our dishes because it’s just something that is against all the principal of cooking. We always proud ourselves of doing things from scratch and only use the best ingredients possible. Are there any difference if we use a real chicken stock or just using a couple of chicken cube? Of coz it’s cheaper by using those cubes but what about the taste? I personally think that the chicken stock using real chicken is way better compared to the “maggie” like taste of the cubes. So why are some chefs, especially the Asians still insist on using MSG in their cooking? Is it part of the Asian cooking culture? Or is it an easy way out for some chefs. But first let us look at what Monosodium Glutamate really is.

MSG is the sodium salt of the amino acid glutamic acid and a form of glutamate. It is sold as a fine white crystal substance, similar in appearance to salt or sugar. It does not have a distinct taste of its own, and how it adds flavor to other foods is not fully understood. Many scientists believe that MSG stimulates glutamate receptors in the tongue to augment meat-like flavors. Asians originally used a seaweed broth to obtain the flavor- enhancing effects of MSG, but today MSG is made by a fermenting process using starch, sugar beets, sugar cane, or molasses.

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Glutamate itself is in many living things: It is found naturally in our bodies and in protein-containing foods, such as cheese, milk, meat, peas, and mushrooms.

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Some glutamate is in foods in a “free” form. It is only in this free form that glutamate can enhance a food’s flavor. Part of the flavor-enhancing effect of tomatoes, certain cheeses, and fermented or hydrolyzed protein products (such as soy sauce) is due to the presence of free glutamate

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FASEB (Federation of American Society for Experimenting Biology) has completed a final report on MSG, over 350 pages long, and delivered it to FDA on July 31, 1995. While not a new study, the report offers a new safety assessment based on the most comprehensive existing evaluation to date of glutamate safety.

Among the report’s key findings:

-An unknown percentage of the population may react to MSG and develop MSG symptom complex, a condition characterized by one or more of the following symptoms:burning sensation in the back of the neck, forearms and chest numbness in the back of the neck, radiating to the arms and back tingling, warmth and weakness in the face, temples, upper back, neck and arms
-facial pressure or tightness
-chest pain
-headache
-nausea
-rapid heartbeat
-bronchospasm (difficulty breathing) in MSG-intolerant people with asthma
-drowsiness
-weakness.
-In otherwise healthy MSG-intolerant people, the MSG symptom complex tends to occur within one hour after eating 3 grams or more of MSG on an empty stomach or without other food. A typical serving of glutamate-treated food contains less than 0.5 grams of MSG. A reaction is most likely if the MSG is eaten in a large quantity or in a liquid, such as a clear soup.
-Severe, poorly controlled asthma may be a predisposing medical condition for MSG symptom complex.
-No evidence exists to suggest that dietary MSG or glutamate contributes to Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s chorea, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, AIDS dementia complex, or any other long-term or chronic diseases.
-No evidence exists to suggest that dietary MSG causes brain lesions or damages nerve cells in humans.
-The level of vitamin B6 in a person’s body plays a role in glutamate metabolism, and the possible impact of marginal B6 intake should be considered in future research.
-There is no scientific evidence that the levels of glutamate in hydrolyzed proteins causes adverse effects or that other manufactured glutamate has effects different from glutamate normally found in foods.

Food and Drug Administration Report

So far so good. I’m quite surprised..I mean there is no real threat except if it’s taken like A LOT! I’ve also did some checking on other websites and found out that most of them didn’t have anything bad to say about MSG. Is it because all the big food industries uses them and they are trying to make it sound harmless? But then again how could millions of Chinese who have been using MSG for decades never really had any complain of headache? Imagine millions of them queuing at the clinics after lunch. It’ll be nuts! Anyway, I found a really cool article written by Alex Renton from The Observer discussing just about that.

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Lamb rack is one of the dish that you can always find in most fine dining or upscale type of restaurants. It is a pretty expensive cut because the loin is so tender and the fat around it is a must for fat lovers like me. Here my Senior CDP Ayob demonstrate on how to prep the lamb. At shook I served the rack o lamb crusted with pinenuts and it goes with a mushroom ragout, polenta cake and raisin balsamic syrup.

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Pan-seared Cod with saffron is one of the more popular item on the grill menu. It is served with sauteed savoy cabbage, fennel and also fried julienned beets. The dish was created by Chef Karim, the former chef but I twisted it a bit by adding the fried beets.

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Being a fan of eggs, I used to gobbled up this hors d’oeuvre when I got a chance. But now I have to be a bit careful since “calories” is part of the concern. It is a pretty common dish in States but surprisingly it actually started in Rome. Check out what Wiki has to say about the history of it.

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What you need to know

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There’s a lot of ways to cook scallops but the best way for me is to just sear them on a hot pan and put them in the oven until its like medium. For this dish I pair the scallops with a fennel pancake and uni and serve them with a saffron mustard sauce. Read the rest of this entry…

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Chef Aziz is the man behind all the japanese food at shook. A Master at his work and he has been doin it for quite some time. Pictured above is the shasimi plate. Check out some of his other stuff…and the taste..superb!!!

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I think it is the most beautiful lobster compared to an Australian or Maine lobsters. Never used it when I was in New York coz duh…its tropical and i guess nobody really use them there. Anyway the best way to cook them is either steam, grill or something like a thermidor. I like it grilled best and serve them with clarified butter. You can flavor the butter too with herbs, chilli etc. Read the rest of this entry…

Did a photoshoot for Female Appetite Magazine. Never heard of the magazine before but they were asking for a salad recipe that is “healthy”, so this is what i decided to do, a lump crab salad with avocado, tomatoes and corn. It’s a very simple dish and i used the avocado skin to hold the salad together. Read the rest of this entry…

Yesterday i did the tasting for the new menu which will start hopefully on jan 19 although i doubt it very much since there is a lot more stuff that has to be done before the new menu can be implemented. To be honest there are not that many big changes on it because i really want to make it as simple and straightforward as i can. Since the restaurant itself is more on the casual type there is no point of making things complicated plus i love food that looks natural and doesnt need somebody with an architectural degree to plate it. Though i have to confess that there are some dishes that i’m not sure whether i should put it on the menu or not. I guess i’m just following my gut feelings on this. Read the rest of this entry…

Forget bout Mc D’s or Burger King; it ain’t nuttin compared to the burger you can make yourself at home, and it’s not that difficult either. Still, I have to confess that when it comes to convenience you can’t beat that invention called “drive-thru”. hehe. But if you have the time, this is how you should do it. Read the rest of this entry…