10 Things I Want To Achieve As A Chef In 2015

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Being a chef is a never-ending learning process. Even if you've made it to the top. So along the way, one must be ready to adapt and take on new challenges. After all, whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.

Even the best ingredients mean jack-shit if you don't want to keep on learning.

Here's what I want to achieve next year, Insya-Allah.

1. Do more baking and pastry. It's a sore point for me that I should really start working on. I need to master all trades of the culinary arts.
2. At the same time, do more Malaysian cooking: Chinese, Malay, Indian, Nyonya etc. It's great to be able to cook French-style. However I would love to re-learn and gain expertise in the roots of my Asian taste palate because it will influence how and what I cook.
3. Indulge in a bit of haute and nouvelle cuisine. I adore it, still want to do it, and I have too many ideas on recipes and plating but never the time or inclination to put it to plate.
4. Improve all my theoretical, technical and practical skills and knowledge. Do more butchery; knife skills, piping etc.
5. Dine out more in chef-driven restaurants. I need to know what's out there so I can equal or surpass their standards.
6. Use more local produce in my recipes. There's a shit-load of good stuff out there that doesn't require air-flown fuckall and won't cost me a bomb to use.
7. Re-built my tool-box. I've lost too many knives and tools.
8. Read more books about life in the professional kitchen.
9. Write more on professional cooking and how it would help the domestic cook. Write everything and anything about cooking: recipes, tips, anecdotes, experiences.
10. And my ultimate goal: I WANT TO FUCKING WIN A GOLD MEDAL.

Fortune favors the bold.