A day cooking in Cuca

Let’s say you’re a cook, not the world’s best cook but someone who deeply cares and loves cooking. This special type of people who never looks at a watch, who stays late to learn something new and who is thrilled when the reservations for dinner have run out of paper and guests begin piling through the doors. We love them, we look everywhere for them, we care for them like our family and they are among the true heroes of Cuca.

We run 2 shifts: an AM and a PM team. Each shift is 7 hours work with 1 hour break. We don’t want zombies walking around doing nothing, we want ninjas with lots going on. This is the story of how an average day goes by if you are one of these wonderful souls.

8am
Kitchen doors open and the game begins. Hood fans, ovens and stoves are turned on, stations are set with cutting boards and knives, pots and pans are gathered for cooking, piles of raw ingredients migrate from the fridges to start the day’s preparations. All cooks now race against the clock to complete the long list of tasks making absolutely everything from scratch within the next 3 action packed hours.

9am
Daily deliveries arrive: beautiful healthy looking vegetables, ripe strawberries still warm from being cut in the early morning sun, bright orange organic pumpkin, fresh soft cheese and shiny fish chilling out under small cubes of ice. Each item must be checked by the expert in its area and either rejected for any imperfection or stored in the fridge waiting processing. Items arriving late create nervous tension as lunch is fast approaching.

10am
Station fridges are bulging with shimmering metal inserts containing perfectly cut, blanched, roasted, marinated or braised ingredients all nicely wrapped and labeled, ready in neat little rows like soldiers waiting to be deployed. The kitchen gets a good clean and staff by now rightfully feel hungry and take a short break to eat.

11am
The entire team as a family enjoys an early lunch. They have one hour to eat and catch up on today’s and yesterday’s gossip. Socializing is a very important part of a Balinese life and seeing their huge beautiful smiles and hearing their witty comments, it is easy to understand why everyone loves Bali. 11:59… back to work!

12-2pm
Lunch service begins and guests trickle in from the hot sun to enjoy a cold drink and a light lunch. The team is separated with half the crew continuing to prepare for dinner and the other half to produce the food now needed for the first customers. We clean more than we cook and regardless of how busy the restaurant is, everything must always be impeccable. We preach these basics non-stop and they are our foundation for everything else to be learned in Cuca.

3pm: 
The PM staff starts to arrive in batches like bees to a hive. They all travel like Motor GP riders through the densely populated and humid streets of Bali. When they get to Cuca they sit outside, have a coffee and get ready to rock. At 3:50 they refresh themselves, quickly change into their uniforms and stand in the kitchen ready for battle at 3:55.

4pm:

Daily Briefing 

A very important time, time for the daily briefing, which is a must for both AM and PM teams. The chef reviews the number of reservations for that evening service and addresses all issues (big or small) from the day before re-instructing the entire team on how to do a better job at almost everything.  Briefings are relaxed and casual with jokes, smiles and lots of banter. But make no mistake, the message is crystal clear: we must all do our best each and every day.

5pm: 
Kitchen preparation counters are quickly transformed into improvised dining tables and all staff sit down for dinner: either mom’s cooking nicely packed or rice, meat and veggies well spiced with chili bought from a road side “warung” on their way to work. Fuel for the fight ahead.

6pm:

Staff return from dinner and the evening service slowly begins as early tables arrive. The team quickly rushes to finish last minute preparations under the watchful eye of senior kitchen management ensuring all details are ready and precise.

7-10pm: 
Over the next 3 hours, dinner service is full on. Each staff is trying desperately to keep up with making damn near perfect food while keeping track of all the different items they have on order. Cooking, plating and running as fast as possible without making the punishable sacrifice on quality. There is nothing that matters about the outside world: girlfriends disappear, aches and pains are gone, SMS don’t matter as the most important animal instinct of survival kicks in and everyone tries to make it through!

Dinner Service

11pm: 
Exhaustion. Beginning to break down and deep clean every square inch of the shining stainless steel open kitchen. By now you are either a hero or a villain, a champion or merely a participant. Service determines who you are, it is without words the clearest example of can or cannot. Good cooks will fail as they learn the new skills but pick themselves up for tomorrow in hopes of new found success. Lesser ones just never show up in fear of repeating the traumatic nightmare. The greatest thrive on the adrenaline rush, the thrill of the action and the incomparable satisfaction of knowing they have provided a truly great meal to our guests.

Eat local III

By Kevin Cherkas

DAY 4: SALMON

Cuca's Smoked Butterfish

Buying salmon at the super market no matter how fresh feels a bit like cheating. You lose the connection with the ocean, the smell of the sea and the respect for the beautiful animals beneath. There is something magical about fishing or the next best thing, waiting at the dock in hopes the small boats of skilled local fishermen had better luck than you and actually caught you dinner. On a fine late afternoon, Captain Tasty was happy to see his first customers and a little shocked as normally he sells wholesale and it is apparently not normal to stalk fishermen at the docks. Luckily for us, he had fish and what absolutely beautiful fish they were… We bought a salmon and ran home happy. Cutting the fish in half and keeping the skin on, I rubbed the meat gently with a thin layer of apricot jam we got at the farmers market, cracked pepper, sea salt and citrus zest. After 2 hours in the chiller to allow the goodness to soak in, we fired up the BBQ, soaked some wood chips and basically built a hot smoker. Put the fish in and 90 minutes later, low and lovely, I removed a just cooked, light caramel colored smoky fish candy. Try to buy that at the supermarket.

Now you may not have access to Captain Tasty, salmon, a BBQ or even Canada for that matter, but we assure you that making a reservation is very easy and Cuca serves one hell of a cold smoked butterfish from the tropical waters of Bali with whipped yogurt, zucchini pickles and garlic parsley crumbs.

Eat local II

By Kevin Cherkas

DAY 2: DUNGENESS CRAB

Cuca's Rice Crusted Soft Shell Crab

This was the product I most looked forward to, even before leaving Bali. I just love it. The last thing I want to eat before I die, the thing I tell everyone they must have when visiting British Columbia, the reason to even considering travelling to Canada in the first place and a damn good motivation to be alive is Dungeness Crab. Filling the bottom of a big pot with medium sized river stones practically covered with pure salty ocean water, the crabs are cleaned, lovingly placed inside and covered with a lid. The fire is cranked up and just when the lid begins to dance with the pressure of steam, you count 6 minutes, turn off the heat and slightly pull back the lid to slowly release the steam. 10 minutes later you are welcomed to heaven by Mr. and Mrs. Dungeness. Just a big container for shells as table setting and the fingers-only eating begins… Sections of leg and body are precisely pulled apart and recklessly cracked with molars. Full flavored, nutty, delicate morsels of meat are quickly dipped in melted butter before being devoured for a much needed but unnecessary confirmation. Yup, it’s still the best.


A close second to this baby? Soft Shell crab. If you unfortunately are too far from Canada to eat Dungeness, hopefully you are close enough to Cuca to try our Rice Crusted Soft Shell Crab. 


DAY 3: LAMB

Driving by a small farm the sign in front read “LAMB”. Treating it like a stop sign we braked and hooked a left ending up awkwardly parked in the front yard of a stranger’s house. In the background you could hear the “Baaaa Baaa” of these beautiful locally raised animals walking around the property. Knocking on the door my greeting was a simple “Hello, I like lamb.”They invited us in and we made the deal: leg of lamb and the additional bonus of a few apples from the tree where we parked. Dinner was in motion. Rubbing down the lamb with garlic, parsley, lemon zest, olive oil, black pepper and love and turning on the BBQ, the lamb was given a slow gentle browning over soft blue flames. From there transferred to a pot, lid on and cooked slowly for about 5 hours. Finally the meat was removed to cool, the juice put aside and the apples roasted. Dinner was served. I like lamb and strangers a lot.

Cooking and eating to be continued...

Eat local

By Kevin Cherkas

After five years not returning like a salmon to my spawning grounds, we had the opportunity last month to plan a trip to Canada for a short little break in the action. The truth is, any trip we take is always planned around food. It is never only about eating but also about hunting down those wonderful things that are truly special and unique to that specific area.  As we prove it in Cuca day in and day out, our philosophy is to go as local as possible and we follow this religiously even on holidays.

Cooking food at home is a very different experience compared to that of a restaurant. It is not only the precision, the stress or the fast pace demanded of chefs, I am talking also about why people fall in love with the craft of cooking in the first place, how at home you can take a whole day to slowly prepare a meal with attention and love. This is why I make a point of cooking at home every time I have the opportunity as it is (apart from greatly appreciated by Virginia) like therapy, meditation and a much needed break from my day to day life,

Now back to my story, we made our way to Salt Spring Island, a small island just outside of where I grew up and a quick float plane ride or ferry trip from Vancouver. Waking up in the morning surrounded by deep dark green wilderness and the isolated coastal beauty of British Colombia you can see why the meat, fish and vegetables live a happy undisturbed life that does not go unnoticed when consumed by those lucky enough to stay for dinner. With 4 days and a proper kitchen we planned to take full advantage of the island's organic markets, local farms and fishing spots. 

DAY 1: MUSSELS

One of my favorite foods has to be mussels. I can however understand why people do not share this opinion as it is easy to end up with overcooked shrunken seafood gummy bears in big empty black shells. But when the mussels are much heavier than they appear (like a ripe melon) and come from cold nutrient filled waters, it can easily become an expensive addiction. Straight from the dock on that beautiful autumn afternoon, the famous local mussels were my only worry with 6 hours until dinner; no stress, no pressure, just some quiet quality time with me and my new shiny purple friends. A small amount of heat is enough to release open a mussel but these bad boys held on for dear life till eventually opening to expose beautiful bright orange, massive sized, tender seafood balloons. Eating our way slowly through the Japanese chawanmushi-like custard bulging from inside its thick powerful shells, everything else faded away and my new friends delivered by far the best experience a mussel had to offer. One thing is for sure: whenever we open in Canada, mussels will be on the menu. 

Day 2, 3 & 4 of finding, cooking and eating to be continued...

Where has the time gone?

So Cuca turned 1… and then 2 and we have been so caught up in this wonder that it has taken me all this while to get back to my beloved blog. I started to write wanting to share with you the magical adventure of moving to a new country and starting a restaurant from absolute zero but once we got it up and running, daily operations, a total dedication to our staff and of course to our guests took over our life.

To narrate Cuca’s 27 months of life would take me another 27 months so my goal is instead to summarize these 2 years in order to bring you up to date and then hopefully be able to resume my regular updates.

I guess one of our biggest accomplishments so far has been to develop a team of wonderful people who care about Cuca as much as we do. Our strategy has never been to hire the most experienced professionals but the nicest ones. We believed from day one that we could train skills but could never change an attitude and this has led us to be surrounded by truly good guys we can trust. Operations in Cuca are now a bliss because each of our staff is totally dedicated and trained to do a great job and this allows us (Kevin and I) to focus on making sure Cuca has a future for the many families that now depend on us. As you may know if you are familiar with the culture in Bali, relationships are here always personal so we feel our family is bigger than ever, with more than 60 “children” buzzing around us. They definitely keep us busy.

Cuca Team celebrating our second birthday

And what about our customers? It may be possible to get people to give a try to a new restaurant but how do we keep it interesting enough so new customers want to come when is no longer new? This is a critical issue that more frequently than not kills businesses in their second year so we had to take it to heart and come up with ways to continue being talked about. All kind of events have definitely kept us on our toes. Events take us out of our comfort zone and make us squeeze our brains to be unique while still offering the highest standards in a more unpredictable environment. We have done events in Cuca, in other restaurants in Bali and in other cities both within Indonesia and overseas. We have delivered talks, created new dishes for a specific occasion and deliver the same experience we offer in Cuca but outside Cuca. Our senior team is thrilled every time we call for a meeting and excitedly share with them the next Cuca stunt. If you haven’t attended any of our events, stay tuned, there are many more to come!

From top to bottom, left to right: Cuca in Ku De Ta, Cuca in Surabaya, Cuca in Perth and Cuca in Ubud.

So… busy with our team, busy with our customers and busy with keeping bright and shiny a restaurant that is well into its second year. And finally now back here and introducing a few sparks in our blog. Be warned that I have convinced Kevin to also share with all of you his unique perspective and will start doing so in the next entry. Don’t miss it!  

Cuca turns one...

In August 2012 I started this blog with a post titled "DREAM" and with the hope of sharing with anyone who found me in the world wide web the ups and downs of our little adventure: opening Cuca, our restaurant. We had no idea back then if we were going to manage to actually open (so many businesses die before they even start!) or if we were going to miraculously attract any customers. Or even if our guests were going to like at all what we could offer…

If you have followed our journey, you are part of Cuca’s family already, but for those of you who just found out about us and are lazy to read all previous posts, I summarize them: after years in Singapore working way too much in separate jobs, Kevin (a Canadian) and I (a Spaniard) decided it was time to work even harder but together towards a common goal. We had the vision of building a restaurant where amazing food were affordable and served in a casual environment. The concept was simple: tapas, cocktails and desserts made with local ingredients and cooked in a western style.

We chose Bali because we believed an international clientele was our best bet and we jumped at the opportunity to star this adventure. We spent the first few weeks in the island settling in: finding a home, transport, learning the roads. We then started writing down all our ideas and trying to come out with a priority list, what to do first. And finally we hit the road and started looking for the people who could help us, one by one. Although we faced many more challenges than we could have thought of, every day we went to bed having ticked off one more task. There were many days when I felt disheartened and just wanted to give up and Kevin then promised me that everything would be ok. There were other days when Kevin felt frustrated and didn’t know how to move forward and it was then my turn to come up with a plan. Thankfully, we had each other. Cuca would not be here otherwise, although it has not been easy. If you want to test your marriage, go ahead and open a restaurant :)

On July 23rd 2013 Cuca opened its doors. Adrenaline and coffee saved most of our days back then. The challenge was no longer the building but its people: 60 employees from all over Indonesia, each with a different background and a unique set of beliefs and expectations. They only had in common the same enchanting smile that convinced us to hire them and although we have been greatly disappointed by some of those smiles, new ones have come to our rescue and every day make us better.

With $0 advertising investment since we opened, we have been relying exclusively on our product and your word for it. The first few weeks were scary and an empty Cuca is still a recurring nightmare in our short slept nights, but word of mouth is all the magic we needed. Even though and despite being quite busy most of the time, we still stand on our entrance welcoming new and returning guests as if each of you were our first. How could we take for granted the blessing of having all of you?

Well, Cuca is now turning 1 and this first year is being a roller coaster of events and emotions. Any regular day is loaded with tons of crisis, laughs, tears, surprises, encounters and goodbyes. We know this is only the beginning and that consistency is a critical test in the long term. We know we cannot lower our guard because a restaurant is as good as its last meal, but we also now know that Cuca´s miracle is possible and this is much more than we knew 2 years ago!

We dedicate Cuca’s anniversary, our little miracle, to each of you:

- to those of you who believed in us more than we believed in ourselves and to those who didn’t and pushed us to prove you wrong;
- to those who gave us ideas and helped us in thousand different ways and to those who refused to give us a hand and thus made us find an even better way;
- to those who broke our heart because we are not what you were looking for and to those who mercifully mended it by totally getting what we are;
- to those who can see we have put our life into this restaurant and encourage and congratulate us and to those who only see the faults and eagerly point at what we should do better;

We try to learn as much as we can from all of you while remaining true to ourselves.

Thank you for this year and let’s toast to many more to come!

Waves of faces

Cuca’s opening marketing strategy was to focus ourselves on every single guest, welcome them with open arms and make them feel taken care of, spoiled by the food and our sincere smiles. We were determined not to advertise anywhere, firstly because after building the entire restaurant we were seriously broke and secondly because our thinking is: who is going to believe an ad someone has paid for? People believe friends or acquaintances who have tried a place and eagerly recommend it.

Things could have turned sour and we may have failed badly as we knew nobody in Bali so not even friends or relatives could help us out to start spreading a good word about Cuca... However our humble strategy and very hard and long hours of work slowly started to pay themselves back.

It all started by Kevin himself in full uniform fishing for customers among the tourists at the nearby beach (“Come, I will cook for you!”). Once convinced, they would walk in, sit down and be in awe with our food. I guess it is not that hard to exceed low expectations :). Most of them would return the following night and then promise us to tell their friends back at home, write something nice about us on Internet or share their unexpected find with their fellow hotel guests.

It was shocking to start getting guests recommended by previous ones… It was working! Our strategy was working! Then the power of Internet multiplied exponentially the chain of recommendations and the word of mouth started to cross borders. Believe me, it is still truly magical to witness day by day and first hand this phenomenon.

While tourists came and left, we started to recognize faces that kept on coming, every time with different company to show new groups of friends their recent discovery. We know each other by name and they are now our regulars.

At the end of October the tourist season significantly slowed down and locals took over. Guests from Jakarta or Bali timidly walked in knowing exactly what to order. It seems they always watch out for reviews about new places and wait for the tourist wave to leave before trying them themselves.

We are now preparing ourselves for a new tourist peak season: our first Christmas. We don’t know exactly what is ahead of us but we are ready to embrace this new chapter with our eyes wide open, a well-laid table and a Cuca smile that will make you feel at home away from home.

PART 2: religion reaches Cuca

The altar in our kitchen

Religion has also invaded Cuca’s life. As soon as the first employee walks in, the “canangs” are prepared and placed around the restaurant: on our cars, on the main entrance, staff area, in the office, on the reception counter, etc. Special attention is put on the main “pecati” in our kitchen, carefully decorated and daily taken care of. The ceremony of blessing all the key locations takes place at least twice a day and the Balinese masterfully organize themselves to take turns to carry out these intriguing tasks. 

Our priest 

For you to understand the degree of importance of the spirituality in Bali, let me tell you about our “Mlaspas”. Our initial plan was to open Cuca’s doors for the first time on July 20. However, a brief consultation with the priest revealed that we could only request permission from the Gods to open Cuca on July 22, a full moon day. Our staff explained to us that it was unquestionable to open Cuca without divine permission, so it was decided by the higher power to postpone our opening until July 23 and celebrate our Mlaspas on 22. 

The “Melaspas” is a traditional Balinese ceremony meant to cleanse and purify a new building after it has been completed and prior to its occupation. This ceremony is held by priests, relatives, neighbors, friends, etc.  for the people who will occupy the building to feel at ease and avoid undesirable tribulations (pain, frustration, conflict). During the day-long intricate ritual, we asked the spirits of our coconut grove to consent us to carry out our business in their land. We fed them with countless offerings so they leave us work in harmony and Kevin and I witnessed the endless series of rituals participating as we were told. 

Feeding the spirits with offerings

Cuca staff ready for the ceremony

Cuca's ladies discussing the ritual

Blessing Cuca

Blessing Cuca

The main ceremony

Taking the blessed water

On the way to the beach

The end of the ceremony: in the sea

A few weeks later, on August 10 we celebrated Saraswati Day. This is a very special celebration in which the Balinese give thanks for the gift of knowledge, for the ability to understand human nature, to write and to read. We got up that day leaving our bedroom to find incense burning on all our bookshelves at home. Cuca’s office was equally scented and we were recommended not to write by hand and seriously forbidden to erase anything written.  Schools are closed on that day and students pray for the success in their studies. 

On the morning of August 24 Cuca was a very busy restaurant. Our Balinese staff was waving dozens of beautiful offerings made of coconut leaves. We soon found out that we were celebrating "Tumpek Landep", or the Day of the Iron. Originally this day was about giving thanks for the swords but it has evolved to all things man-made from metal: computers, kitchen equipment, cars… That afternoon when we briefly left Cuca for a meeting we were amazed by the wonderful decoration on our cars and smiled every time we came across to other cars in the road similarly decorated. How nice look the streets of Bali with so many mobile decorations!

The front of our car

It is not easy to find out why you are supposed to do or not do certain things on certain days. Balinese take these beliefs in such a natural way that when you ask them why this or that they just look at you surprised at your question. Trust me, no matter how much you ask, you don’t get a straight answer, they simply tell you “don’t worry, just make sure you don’t erase anything today”, what leaves you with no option but to follow…  Life in Bali is a constant enigma. 

PART 1: Bali, all about religion

Religion in Bali is present everywhere and every day. It is literally a way of life where ceremonies mark every single step a Balinese takes and every event he or she experiences.

Hinduism came to Indonesia from India in the 5th century, was first replaced by Buddhism and later in the 14th century by Islam. However, Bali was the only part of Indonesia to remain Hindu and despite the foreign influence generated by tourism still until now Balinese people worship an elaborate array of deities: of fertility, fire, water, earth, sun, the mountains and the sea, gods and devils…

Several types of Canang

No matter where you are in Bali, you only need to look around to see signs of religion in every corner: the “canang” or traditional baskets reign over the island filled with the most unusual gifts to the Gods such as a candy, a tangerine, some frangipani flowers, a banana or a salak fruit, some leaves, even a cigarette! Balinese start each day by buying these items in their traditional markets, they then arrange them nicely in coconut-leaf baskets and finally they pray while placing them in strategic locations around houses or workplaces. These offerings are meant to thank the good spirits and appease the evil ones, keeping the balance between good and bad in the island.

Teeth filing ceremony

Apart from these daily rituals, ceremonies are a major aspect of the Balinese lifestyle and culture. From birth to death the Balinese celebrate a variety of milestones or rites of passage that they believe will guide the soul through the numerous stages of life. Some of these celebrations can be really shocking from a Western perspective, as it is the tooth-filing ceremony. This very significant ritual marks the step from puberty to adulthood for both males and females and it consists of filing down the canine teeth (the pointy ones) until they are even with the other teeth around them as they are considered animal-like and getting them shortened symbolizes the smoothing out of the animal aspects in a human's personality. If for whatever reason a person has not undergone this ceremony by the time he/she dies, then it will have to take place prior to his/her cremation, as the Balinese believe that the gods may mistake a human for a savage animal if his/her teeth are not filed.

Until recently, Kevin and I were exposed to religion in Bali just by watching the locals in their immaculate ceremonial clothes buying or preparing the offerings, walking to the temples, praying to holy trees... Or as we waited anxiously in traffic for a cremation procession to enter or leave a temple. Or when we witnessed from time to time the taking over of a beach by a group of worshippers to release their offerings into the ocean. But, as I promise to reveal in my next post, religion is now also part of Cuca and of our daily tasks and accomplishments. 

It’s time to go, Cuca’s dining room is filling up and dinner service begins!

Being a restaurateur

Although I have lots and lots of things to tell you about after my long silence, today I would love to share with you how does it feel to have your own restaurant. If you have been reading my blog from the beginning, you will know well the ups and downs of this year long journey. You will also remember the array of little details and great people involved in the making of Cuca so you will be able to perfectly understand me when I tell you that the opening night was truly magic. To see our guests walk through, touch, feel and taste everything we had so thoughtfully developed gives you the utmost feeling of accomplishment. The room around us that night was silently screaming “You made it!”.

Cuca´s first night

On that first evening we left Cuca exhausted but smiling and above all determined to tackle the second day of Cuca’s life with a long list of points that needed our attention and improvement: a bulb here and there, better signs for our guests to easily find the main entrance, a different selection of flowers, bigger candles for the garden and smaller ones for the oil burners, different lighting in the dining room, lower volume in the cocktail bar…

Kevin and I do pretty good getting things done but it is overwhelming to see that for every tick accomplished we discover another 5 new “to dos”. And whenever something seems under control, it just suddenly slips out of your hands and you need to reassess the situation all over again. One of the biggest challenges in the day is to combine our marketing efforts to get Cuca known with the daily operations of the restaurant. We know we have to do whatever possible to attract guests but at the same time we need to make sure we are ready to impress them so they return. Another tricky part is to be strict with our staff so they perform up to our expectations but at the same time to make sure they are happy and in good spirits to provide a heartfelt service for many years to come. You know that this is always difficult but it becomes a real challenge when you take into account that all our staff is new so we don’t count with the loyalty of any senior employees.

In a nutshell, to be a restaurateur feels like climbing a mountain every morning. You start full of energy and motivation, get going and easily skip the first obstacles, continue farther and start feeling a bit tired, go some more and begin feeling the pain and the weariness and when you are about to desperate…  you see the peak (the first guest of the evening) and forget how exhausted you are. You are at the top and feel great while admiring the view. By the end of dinner service is time to slowly pack up and descend… get home and feel a mixture of accomplishment and tiredness. And fall asleep realizing that tomorrow another mountain awaits you.