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MANEESH BAKSHI

BORN in the lobster capital of the world, New Brunswick in Canada, Chef Gene Cormier had a natural affinity with seafood and the traditional ways of cooking and preserving the fish.
Fishing being the mainstay of his family business, Cormier remembers visiting his great grandfather’s house next to the sea as a little boy.
He also has a discrete memory from his childhood of going to a smokehouse and “picking up that typical whiff that lingered in and is almost imbibed in my nostril”.
The corporate executive chef of The French Olive patisseries and restaurant, an upbeat fine dine place in Doha, Cormier has come a long way. He talked to Qatar Tribune about his current project and his roller coaster ride as he treads over the path of his successful career.
So what is The French Olive all about? Cormier replied: “It is a blend of two wellknown cuisines of the world; French as its name stands for, and the Italian as suggested by ‘Olive’.” “Our menu consists of an array of French patisseries and some of the signature Italian dishes like pizzas, pastas and main course section is the combination of traditional French and Italian dishes,” Cormier explained.
Delving into some of the technical nuances of his pizza, the chef explained how their pizza stands apart from others. “Pizza recipe is developed by Italian master Pizzailolo who was flown here for this very purpose. Our pizza dough takes about 24 to 36 hours to rise for the simple reason that we do not put too much yeast, unlike others, in our pizza.” It slowly rises and gives a flavour as well as the nice crest, which is crispy on the outside and softer towards inside. All the dough is hand-stretched and baked in a typical pizza oven that the restaurant has imported from Italy.
“Our pizza and pasta matches the true Italian quality in terms of its flavour and character,” stressed Cormier.
According to Cormier, the beauty of the Italian cuisine is that it is simplistic as far as the number of ingredients is concerned and its flavour rests on the taste of all its ingredients.
But that makes it all the more important that all ingredients are high on freshness to reproduce its true taste.
“As a corporate chef one of my key job is to standardize our quality by finding the right suppliers for vegetables, meats and all that stuff because Italian cuisine has a basic principle of ‘quality in is quality out’. There is no hiding under the jumble of marination or the cover of added flavour; the dish is really out there,” he said.
“On the other end, the French cuisine is more technical and intricate. It demands skill and some amount of training. Therefore, we pay a lot of attention on the training aspect of our staff,” informed Cormier, who is a doyen of hospitality business and has been leading the French Olive team for the past two years.
He is an educator besides being a professional and has been involved with the culinary community by offering his vast experience through mentoring young cooks and by helping them broaden their horizons. He believes in learning and sharing his knowledge.
He was raised in a traditional setting where it was customary for most fishing families to have a smoke-house in their household where they would smoke herring and all sort of small fish that they would smoke to preserve it for the leaner days.
“All these sort of traditional ways of preservation such as smoking and pickling are in vogue today that once used to be a way of life for the older generation,” said Cormier.
Yet, an option of becoming a chef was the last thing on his mind when he found himself on the crossroads after passing out from the high school. In fact, he wanted to pursue a career in teaching. However, after completing his second year of the Bachelor’s degree, he quit and decided to become a chef.
He spent a year at a culinary school and after receiving his diploma, moved from the east coast to Ottawa, the capital city of Canada where he started working at a restaurant called Empire Grill. Like many other graduates, Cormier also thought he knew everything after coming out of the culinary school, and predictably, that confidence turned out to be nothing more than a misconception.
“What you learn in the school is merely the tip of an iceberg of what one is supposed to learn through practice while working in the real like situations. It is an arduous journey ahead that one follows to carve a career of a chef for oneself,” he said.
It was a challenging job while working at the restaurant. Cormier updated his skills by attending another professional course thinking it would give him an advantage in his chosen career and his ultimate goal of becoming a chef. It indeed opened the doors to new opportunities for Cormier.
Passionate about fine dining, Cormier joined the chain of Fairmont hotels and worked for about three years in the French speaking province of Quebec in their Mount Tremblant Castle, where he got an opportunity to work under the leading French, Belgian and Europeantrained chefs who gave him a chance to learn the nuances of European style of cooking.
While it was a very enriching experience for Cormier and his work was recognised, his goal of becoming a chef was not fulfilled. At this time Cormier received a word of wisdom from his executive chef who advised him to complete his degree.
According to the executive chef, the profession of a chef is not limited to cooking alone but goes far beyond into what is called the management of the kitchen, which includes motivational skills and so on. A university degree certainly helps in furthering career.
It was a turning point in the life of Cormier and he did exactly was he was told to do by his superior. So he spent another two years in the university to complete his bachelor’s degree and went back to his previous company, Fairmont hotels, very quickly making a name for himself.
Besides professional success, he also found his life partner during this time. His future wife was working for the same hotel which made things easier for them since both were familiar to the challenges in the hospitality sector. His life partner also brought in good luck in his life and career.
This new chapter also marked the beginning of his international experience. As luck would have it, he was offered an opportunity to re-open the famous The Plaza hotel in New York, which was one of the most iconic hotels of its time. But it so happened that eight months down the line the hotel chef had to leave and the job was offered to Cormier.
‘I was 31 years old and became the youngest ever chef of The Plaza in New York which was a much of a responsibility on my shoulder for next two years,” said Cormier.
His goal of becoming an executive chef was realised.
This new responsibility provided him with the wonderful experience of holding events and preparing food for some of the very famous that came to the doors. Some of the personalities that Cormier remembers of the hat were John Travolta, Angelina Jolly, Leonardo diCaprio, Bill Gates and several heads of states.
Cornier was chosen to ensure a second reopening of the Peace Hotel in Shanghai, also known as “Hotel of the East”.
“I had to face a new challenge of language barrier while communicating with the team. It was a sheer magic in the kitchen that we learned to use non-verbal methods to communicate with one another.” It has been a very rewarding journey for Chef Cormier in terms of his professional as well as personal development. “Through food not only we learn about new flavours but also the whole lot of culture that is interwoven underneath these flavours which is far more enriching an experience that one can every have,” Cormier said.
“It was really rewarding to have this experience and discover Asian cuisine with incredible dishes and new flavours in the back drop of completely different culture,” concluded Cormier.
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14/07/2016
1546