Young chef Degan makes mark in kitchen

By Putu Wirata

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): Heard the one about a hapless cook who had to peel 10 kilograms of onion and 20 kilograms of potatoes by hand?

He also had to clean the fridge, rooms, kitchen and put out the garbage by himself.

It was no joke for Degan Suprijadi, an executive sous chef at Hotel Ritz-Carlton Bali.

"I did it when I was an apprentice in a 50-room hotel in Germany," he recalled.

The hard work paid off in the long run. The 30-year-old man received a special commendation in the "1997 Young Hoteliers of the World", the first Indonesian to win the international honor.

Created by the International Hotel and Restaurant Association and Hotels magazine of America in 1992, the annual award is given to one male and one female. Ten special commendations are also presented.

Degan is responsible for culinary concerns in the 323-room Ritz-Carlton, which has four restaurants with seating capacity for 500.

Unlike in Germany, this time he is assisted by dozens of others.

"Because of my earlier working experience, starting from the lowest level in Germany, I know my weakest points and now I know how to handle the work calmly," he told The Jakarta Post.

Degan, who studied for his diploma at the Grund Schule Freckenfeld, apprenticed in Hotel Zur Pfalz, a small hotel in Karlsruhe near Frankfurt.

He was burdened with the task of peeling all the vegetables himself because the hotel lacked electrical appliances.

"In that period, all the staff was multifunctional and worked by hand. Cutting onions and potatoes, even washing the dishes, had to be done manually," Degan said laughing.

But he was happy with the wealth of experience acquired, and he was paid for his efforts. The hotel also gave him an apprenticeship certification.

After his graduation in 1988, Degan returned to Jakarta and worked at the Jakarta Hilton as the first cook and demi chef de partie for three years.

Rare

He then moved to the Grand Hyatt Nusa Dua, Bali, as commissary chef. In 1996, he joined the Ritz-Carlton.

Locals in his position are still a rarity, and expatriate workers fill most jobs in hotels.

"Their involvement is necessary because as foreigners they know their own tastes best," Degan said.

He argued that a trained Indonesian chef could do the job as well, but it took experience and talent.

The success of a hotel in serving guests depends on teamwork, he said, "so this hotelier award is also for the entire staff of the Ritz-Carlton".

The award committee evaluated criteria including personal skills, personal knowledge, management, efficiency, personnel management and the relationship with the surrounding community.

Cooking is much more than satisfying individual guest's tastes. If tourists complain about food in an area, the fallout can be enormous for the tourist industry.

Bali, with its livelihood built on tourism, needs thousands of experienced cooks and managers.

It is also a favored venue for international conventions, which are always climaxed with gala dinners for hundreds or thousands of guests.

"Organizing a gala dinner involves such complex management," said Degan, who has arranged events for 2,000 guests.

"You can imagine when we prepare the gala dinner to serve 200 guests or more, the servers and the food have to be organized in such a way so that the food can be served simultaneously.

"For the guests, waiting for five minutes is already too long."

He recalled his own nerve-wracking experience for one big event which had three ministers in attendance. The organizing committee, aided by hundreds of staff, had to set up four main venues to accommodate the guests.

Walkie-talkies were provided to link staff members.

Stress is all part of the job. Degan quoted from a survey in Cosmopolitan magazine from the U.S, which ranked the profession of chef to be the third most stressful after soldier on top and physician.

For Degan, who has been cooking for most of his life, his is not merely a profession, but an art relying on interpersonal skills.

"It takes not only skill to cook well, but also knowledge in managing people."

Despite his international honor, he knows his profession gets little respect in his homeland. While well-known chefs abroad, such as Wilfred Puck and Paul Prudhomme in the U.S., enjoy celebrity status, their Indonesian counterparts are lucky to get a thank you.

"People remember the name of a good restaurant, but they would never ask about the name of the cook," Degan said with a wry chuckle.