AsiaLIFE

Continuing AsiaLIFE's’ sneak peak into the kitchens of your favourite Phnom Penh eateries, this month she visits Scoop, the stylish contemporary restaurant established by Reiner Thieding. Words by Lis Meyer.

Behind an opaque glass sliding door lays the impressive kitchen at Scoop Bar and Bistro. The long, rectangular kitchen is large and spacious, lined with sinks, refrigerators, and various high-tech kitchen equipment that still glisten. Everyone in the kitchen is clad in white chef’s uniforms and chequered aprons. The atmosphere is calm and the space is completely devoid of any mess.

Everything is pre-chopped and compartmentalised, with small Tupperware containers bearing various ingredients and products from fresh spring rolls to the Caesar Salad dressing. These containers can be found on shelves or in various refrigerated drawers. One such drawer is filled entirely with fresh pasta.

“I am very proud of my kitchen,” says Scoop’s chef Reiner Thieding. “It is always clean.” He says that customers can pop in and view it at any time. “Maybe it will be hectic, with a lot going on and things everywhere,” he adds. “Kitchens should be a little hectic and crazy, but they should still always maintain a sense of order.”

The Chefs

Although it’s hours before dinner everyone in the kitchen is hard at work on various tasks. Try Bophana carefully cuts fresh pineapple. Sony is hard at work making Scoop’s garlic butter. Another chef rinses potatoes. Rubber mats line the kitchen floors to help ensure the comfort of all staff during long hours on their feet. Some of the artwork from Scoop’s dining room even adorns the kitchen walls, creating a touch of warmth amid all the heavy-duty cooking equipment.

“I am very happy here,” says Executive Sous Chef Et Sopheak. “We are learning many things, everything is new for us and the whole kitchen staff is improving.” He enjoys learning how to make new western dishes and is said to make a fabulous Japanese-style tempura. His only complaint is that it is quite hot sometimes, but who has heard of a cold kitchen?

Kitchen Secrets

One of Reiner’s secrets is his large computerised oven, called the chef’s assistant. This very expensive instrument allows you to select various cooking techniques from braising, to custard flan, to quiches. Looking to roast something? The chef’s assistant allows you to choose between roasting, soft roasting, and roast with crackling.

“This oven will cook anything to perfection, explains Reiner. “It will calculate that it will take exactly 17 minutes to make meat brown and crisp on the outside and still pink in the middle. We do a very nice pork shoulder in this oven. Slow roasted with a little bit of redness inside, it is wonderful!”

Small pictures of every item on the menu have been pasted in the station where the finishing touches go into each dish. This ensures that each dish will come out looking just right.

Keeping It Clean

Sinks can be found throughout the kitchen. All have soap and paper towel dispensers above. The kitchen is thoroughly sanitised after each meal service. Refrigerator temperatures are monitored three times a day so as to ensure there is no room for error. Chefs don latex gloves while handling certain ingredients.

Small tips about good sanitation practices have been posted in several key locations around the kitchen. They advise kitchen staff on how to properly wash both dishes and hands and remind them to always use separate cutting boards for raw meat and vegetables and on how to correctly store ingredients.

“It is not just about making good food, it is about making safe food,” says Reiner. “After twenty years working in good hotels, I’ve been really drilled in high kitchen standards.”

Making the Dish

Before concluding the tour, Reiner decides to prepare a quick pasta dish for AsiaLIFE. He starts by chopping fresh artichokes and black and green olives on a bright blue cutting board. He spoons extra virgin olive oil onto an already heated pan. Once the oil has had time to heat, Reiner throws in small spoonfuls of minced shallots and garlic, soon adding the olives and artichokes. He stirs the pan over the fire. After sprinkling in some salt and pepper, he adds a dash of martini and fresh lemon juice. As everything quickly sautés, Reiner adds salt and pepper to taste – always using a clean spoon when he tastes – and ladles some chicken stock into the mixture. He then puts fresh fettuccini into an enormous pot of boiling water and cooks it for a few minutes. Draining the pasta, he throws it into the pan with the rest of the ingredients and adds fresh herbs.

He then spoons the pasta onto a large ceramic bowl, adding cubes of feta cheese and a sprig of fresh basil. He tops the dish off with a drizzle of olive oil. A fabulous pasta dish is prepared in five minutes. Cooking has never looked so easy.

Scoop, 2-6A Regency Square, Mao Tse Tung Blvd., Tel: 023 216 130