Street Food Warms Your Heart: Hog's Breath Cafe Singapore at Chjimes - The Chef Stefan Lim The Menu The Signatures

Friday, August 8, 2014

Hog's Breath Cafe Singapore at Chjimes - The Chef Stefan Lim The Menu The Signatures

The Executive Chef

Stefan Lim

His Culinary Background - Executive Chef Stefan Lim comes from a family of Chefs, his Hainanese mother used to be a Resident Chef for a Caucasian family where she specialises in home-style Western Cuisine. His Hainanese father works for the Caucasian family as the Resident Housekeeper. The family of six stay at the Caucasian family's home. So when he was very young about 12 or 13 years old, Chef Stefan Lim helps out his mother at the Caucasian family's kitchen especially during big functions & events that the Caucasian employer hosts. Chef Stefan Lim literally grew up watching his mother cook and soon picked up culinary skills from her.

His Culinary Journey - Executive Chef Stefan Lim started his culinary career in 1990, when he was just 22 years old, & trained as a trainee chef under Celebrity Chef Justin Quek, learning French Cuisine from him for about a year. After Chef Justin went to France, Chef Stefan Lim started work at Meridian Hotel Brasserie serving Western & International Cuisine for close to half a year.

In 1991, Chef Stefan Lim moved on to Delifrance as Chef De Partie, working at Delifrance's Bistro Kitchen at Raffles Place, serving French Cuisine such as escargot, braised beef, salad & for two years. He left to join Tango Restaurant at first serving Mediterranean Cuisine, & later Fusion Cuisine, for a good two years.

Chef Stefan Lim moved on to Bistro de Paris, owned by a Frenchman, serving French Cuisine for one & a half years, then went back to Tango for a year, before leaving to join Ubar, owned by former Mediacorp Actor turned banker James Lye, serving smoothies for a year. He left to join an Italian restuarant at Sculpture Square for one & a half years, serving Italian Cuisine.

He left the Italian restaurant at Sculpture Square to join The Wine Company (owned by Boss Belinda) as Executive Chef for a good four years, serving modern European & Asian Cuisine. He left to join ABC Vegetarian Food as Executive Chef for a good two years, serving vegetarian western cuisine for events such as birthdays, anniversaries, housewarming, funeral meal caterings. Chef Stefan Lim himself became a vegetarian 12 years ago, when he was in his thirties. Nowadays when he does cook meat dishes, in order to taste if the flavor is right, he simply taste the food & spits out the meat. Right after ABC Catering, he joined Hog's Breath Cafe as Executive Chef.

The Hog's Breath Cafe Full Menu 2014

Hog's Breath Cafe Set Lunch Specials Menu

Rosemary Chicken Leg at S$16 - Succulent Chicken Leg infused with Rosemary & Lemon served with salad & curly fries.

Core Ingredients used - Brazilian boneless chicken leg, seasoning ingredients includes Cajun powder, dried Rosemary, garlic powder, olive oil, black pepper sauce, garden vegetables.

How it is prepared - Chef Stefan Lim uses frozen boneless chicken leg from Brazil. He marinates the chicken leg over night with Cajun powder, dried Rosemary, garlic powder, olive oil & place in chiller. To cook Chef Stefan Lim uses medium high heat & cover the chicken leg with a pot cover to cook the meat faster, in about 5-6 minutes. He orders crushed black pepper from supplier. Spiral fries are used here to serve with the chicken leg.

Tasting Notes - The chicken meat is cooked till tender & juicy, I can taste the distinctive flavor of the Rosemary, the meat tastes spicy due to the Cajun powder, on top of that the black pepper sauce gives a fiery peppery flavor to the meat. This is a sizeable portion worth every dollar at only S$16. The spiral fries are crispy & tasty not oily at all. The garden salad is crisp & fresh with the lettuce, dried tomatoes, & fresh olive slices that blends very well with the Balsamic Vinegarette used to garnish it.

Smoked Pork Ribs at S$16 (4 pc) - Grilled Ribs with Hog's Breath Hickory Smoked BBQ Sauce with salad & curly fries.

Core Ingredients used - Frozen Brazilian ribs, seasoning ingredients include Cajun powder, sliced onions, ginger, chili, Cinnamon stick, sugar, salt, pepper,

How it is prepared - Chef Stefan Lim uses frozen Brazil ribs which are first defroze, then rubbed with Cajun powder, to it is added fresh sliced onions, fresh cut chili, ginger, Cinnamon stick. Finally he adds sugar, salt & pepper. **Chef's Tip of the Day** - The ribs are then placed in trays filled with water & baked for 3 hours in the oven at 120 degrees Celsius. For each batch he can make about 40 slabs of the ribs. The ribs are stack up one on top of another into baking tray with water added to cover the ribs, and fresh ginger, garlic & onion are added to add flavor to the ribs as they are baked in the oven. To serve, Chef Stefan Lim simply grill the baked ribs ala minute, then add the BBQ sauce on the ribs and it is ready to go! This method of preparing the ribs according to Chef Stefan Lim - is the traditional Australian way.

Tasting Notes - The meat is soft, tender & tears off the rib bone easily. The chargrill gives the ribs a charred flavor, the BBQ sauce lends a sweet savoury accompaniment to the meat. This is one of the better ribs I have tasted ! The garden salad is generously drizzled with Balsamic Vinegar to give it a sourly appetising flavor.

El Grande Prime Rib at S$18 - Prime Rib Steak topped with Mexican Salsa, Warm Cheese Sauce & sliced Jalapenos, served with salad greens & curly fries.

Core Ingredients used - Chef Stefan Lim uses Australian Grain-fed Prime ribs Grade YP, vacuum packed.

How it is prepared - The chilled ribs are first seasoned using Montreal herbs & spice mix. The oven has to be first blasted to temperature of 180 degrees Celsius, then tune down to 60 degrees before placing the slab in the oven. The entire slab is slow baked in the oven for 18 hours at 60 degrees Celsius cooked to about 50% to retain the color & meat juices. To serve Chef Stefan Lim simply carve out the order size & char-grill the steak on the grill according to the desired doneness specified by the diner.

Tasting Notes - The beef meat is tender, soft, sweet, juicy, well marinated & cooked till medium rare. The serving is pretty sizeable with a thickness of 1 inch, length of 4 inch, thereabout 400gm serving. The layer of fats gives it an added extra fragrant flavor.

Cheese & Spinach Ravioli at S$16 - Ravioli with Ricotta cheese & spinach.

Core Ingredients used - Frozen Spinach, Ricotta cheese, tomato paste, parsley,salt, pepper, nutmeg.

How it is prepared - Ricotta cheese & frozen spinach are blended together with parsley, to the mix is added salt, pepper, nutmeg. The blended mix is used as filling for the Ravioli skin. The Ravioli is made by batch about 20 portions each can make about 25 pieces of Ravioli. To serve he first parboiled, blanch the Ravioli in hot water for 1 minute, then the tomato paste is added to flavor it.

Tasting Notes - Cheesy & savory flavor, strong cheese flavor from Ricotta cheese, with a well blended, smooth texture. Very appetising, tinge of tarty flavor due largely to the tomato sauce.