As the new restaurant in Jakarta is starting to take shape, so is the scope of work. It’s time to get my hands dirty and pull this thing together, from the ground up.
One of the hardest things about setting up a new restaurant is to instill our goals and mindset into all the new staff. Even if they’re experienced in hospitality, this is a whole new ball game for most of them. It’s kind of like giving a teenage boy a crash course in puberty and then turning him into a man, all in 5 short weeks. We could call it ‘Man Up. The Will Meyrick Way.” It’s exactly the kind of education I got when I started out. Except I’d say I’m a lot more patient now than I was back then.
To get the kitchen in order you need to start at the top. You think I mean management? Aaah, no, I’m talking the purchasing department. They’re the ones who can control the supply chain, so they’re key players. If you’re in the industry you generally know that purchasing is on the take. They’re the middle men, playing both sides. Ever watched Goodfellas? Robert De Niro takes them all out. A little while running a kitchen and you start to see why.
So the first thing I do is cut out the middle men and go straight to the source. I end up in the most interesting places, into the heart of the markets, meeting real people. I get to touch, smell and feel the produce. Let the ingredients inspire me and start to understand what I’ve got to work with in terms of local ingredients. From farm to table, Indonesian style. It’s not typically how it’s done here, so being the one Western face in a sea of Indonesians – all wondering what the hell I’m doing there – certainly gets me a bit of attention.
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First stop for the new kitchen is the main fish market in Jakarta. It’s an alley cat’s heaven. Rough, dirty and full of rotten fish.
We arrived at 2am, on the premise that earlier is better when it comes to fish. Well, there’s early and then there’s the middle of the night. God knows where people get the notion that the fish market is best at the crack of dawn. I’m here to debunk that myth. It is most definitely not.
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Smoking a few cigarettes with some bored-looking sellers helped me make friends, and they gave me the lowdown on when the boats arrive. I quickly found out that because the fish market is open 24 hours a day in Jakarta, it’s actually much better to come in the late afternoon.
I went back the next day at 5pm and bingo.
Everything was fresh, flipping in tubs and on tables, clear-eyed and slick with saltwater. Bright pink gills and firm flesh. Translucent squid in perfect shape. It’s exactly what I was hoping for.
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Added bonus was that all the sellers were a whole lot friendlier this time around, as it was clear I was going to become a player. I buy around 200kg of fresh fish and seafood each week for Sarong alone, and when you multiply that across the three restaurants, it gives you a little buying power when the boats come in, that’s for sure. When supplies can be erratic, especially in terms of the kind of quality I’m looking for, a bit of pull is exactly what’s needed.
Seafood purchasing sorted. Or at least started. Can check that off the list. If only the rest of it wasn’t as long as my arm …
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