hkaVOICES - Spring 2018

A Day in the Life of a
Chef
by Chris Gallaga
16
Chris Gallaga, Chef of hkaEATS.
We all eat, and many of us cook. It’s an experience many of us
share and understand. But just as preparing for a dinner party
for 20 is different than preparing a meal for a family, daily food
preparation for a school community of nearly 1,000 is something
different again! An operation like hkaEATS regularly serves
nearly six-hundred or so meals before 2pm. This sheer volume
dramatically impacts food preparation methods and approaches.
The diversity of tastes and dietary needs at a school such as HKA
is also much greater than at home. We feed an age range from
3 to perhaps 70, taking into account different preferences and
dietary needs. What is the same at home and school, however,
is the planning that goes into healthy fare, and in a school
environment, food’s nutritional value is treated with scientific
scrutiny.
Gary Wan, Chef de Cuisine of hkaEATS, preparing platters for an
HKA event.
For a school kitchen, the day starts early! Food preparation
sometimes begins well in advance with marinating meats,
chopping vegetables, making sauces, and coordinating the
dozen or more team members who work together to make sure
there’s food on the table at HKA. By 7am on any given day,
loaves of breads and other baked goods are sliding in and
out of giant ovens. Meanwhile, our seven or eight cooks begin
preparing cafeteria meals. Each day we prepare about 30kg of
raw produce (meat or vegetable) for any main dish. On Friday we
prepare about 100 large pizza bases just for the cafeteria. The
team also prepares starches (like rice and pasta), soups, salads,
vegetables, sandwiches, and sundry items.
Koon Lin Lee, Food and Beverage Assistant of hkaEATS, preps for
lunch service.