Where do you start?
First of all, let’s talk about Antarctica, a giant and frozen continent, where the cold, the wind and the silence thrive. It is actually a unique place on earth, with great lessons to be learned from the wildness of the continent to living on station with the other expeditioners. Your only neighbours are some wildlife – a bunch of funny little penguins, who knows what they are doing? – and some seals sunbathing on the nice beach of Davis Station thinking they are in the Cote d’Azur, France.
What’s living on station as a chef like?
It is a great challenge to cook for all our expeditioners in Antarctica. Think about it – we can’t go around to the fancy shop in the CBD to gather one of our favourite spices or herbs that you want to serve for your dinner. Let’s be realistic, here at Davis we are pretty lucky, with access to some incredible food stocks. We have various food items stored in the freezer, cold room, and dry store. We don’t have too much access to fresh produce but this year we are pretty lucky to have some of our expeditioners looking after our hydroponic room – we all need to have a bit of greens in our life. That being said, you have to be creative and resourceful for creating the day menu every day, taking into consideration your stock and rotation. This year, we are a team of three chefs until the end of summer. Our winter chef is Franco-Australian chef Claude, and the other chef Rob alias Bobby. We all work together to create our menu of the day, fortunate we don’t argue this year about the butter stock. For the first time in my career I never had so much butter to work with in the kitchen, Sacre Bleu!
A day of work in a kitchen.
Before starting my day of work, I like to prepare and set my day, spending my morning by doing some exercises, having a coffee and looking out of the windows or going to the balcony to see the iceberg scenery. It is for me a great breather and appreciation of being here now. Afterward, it's time to cook. We have planned a menu for a week ahead, taking into consideration a few changes from our leftovers to reuse to minimise waste, or some bright idea of the day that I want to cook or do some experimentation. I also bake some sourdough bread in a loaf, focaccia, rye bread, baguette and even sourdough croissant. Smelling freshly-baked bread, or having a coffee and digging your croissant into it, bring me good memories from my childhood. I really start to be passionate about it, it really puts into perspective the need for patience and slowing down our busy day. Good food takes time. At the end of the service, it is time for myself and my Franco-Australian compatriot to spend some time in a sauna and finish the day with a glass of wine. During my time off of work, I went on a few trips with some other expeditioners, I had some great times with them and spending some time out of the routine, it is very important for me to recharge and reconnect for starting a new week.
We also have some random kitchen hands called slushies. Every day some expeditioners come along to help us, it is actually pretty cool to work with them. They put their special uniform on for the day and their music so that creates the vibe in a kitchen and all the station. Sometime, to be honest, I would prefer to work in a silent kitchen but it allows us to know them and create some relationship and they can also help the station to increase the interesting life experience. About their cooking skills, it’s all level from beginner to very good skills. I am always happy to have them, somehow, they teach me to be a better chef and at the end of the day if they are not doing their jobs I would blame their master!
What about feedback from our expeditioners about the food? We didn’t have any negative ones so far! The most popular one is 'Can you stop feeding us this good food, I am gaining weight’. It really makes me laugh. From that nice comment I would remind you all – I am only here to provide your food. Yes the food we make can be very tempting to you but remember I am not responsible for your actions! On the other hand, we also only live once.
It is very rewarding to be a chef at Davis this year. I would like to thank everyone for their feedback and time. You also remind me why I am a chef – having this connection with food and sharing time with people is a big part of my happiness. C’est la Vie!
Antoine Devin
