More Pictures from Olympic Theme Night

Norberto. Doesn't ever speak but works his socks off!

Capita and Fernando making the Beef Fillet Parcels.

Helena getting up to more mischief.

Before.........

.......and after!

Beijing Chicken

Team Angola!

Love the cheeky guy eating one of the sweets. He has now been sacked! (Just kidding). 

Camera-shy Capita. 

Hard to watch....but the cake had to be cut!

The Cake!

We had a lot of fun designing and making the Olympic running track cake for the theme night, so much so that I thought I would share some of the pictures with you showing the different stages of production.

All the off cuts of sponge were gien to the pastry section to be used for Trifles!

We built the cake in three sections to allow us to be able to move it into the dining hall. Each section was made up of 8 large sponges, with a full layer of Jam and Cream in the middle! This was then cut into shape and covered with butter icing. 

Helena Pequena (Little Helena) striking a pose!

Once each section was covered the cake was moved into position in the dining hall and re-assembled. We then covered up the joining lines and began to apply the the finishing touches.We covered the central part of the cake in green coconut and cake-crumbs, used candied fruit for the Olympic rings and then piped the track markings and lettering. 

Citius, Altius, Fortius - Faster, Higher, Stronger.

Like two proud parents, Murthy and I with our 'baby'!

Angola's biggest EVER cake and Olympic Theme Night

Well here it is! After 50Kg flour, 480 Eggs, 25Kg Sugar, 10Kg Butter, 10Lt Cream, 3Kg Coconut, several pints of blood, a bucket of sweat and even a few tears, our 10ft long Olympic running track cake was finally completed and was the finishing touch to our Olympic themed dinner.

We keep setting ourselves new challenges with our theme nights, always endeavoring to give our customers something new and interesting to look at when they come to the dining hall. This time it was particularly challenging as the the only ex-pat chefs here are myself and Murthy so we needed our Angolan colleagues to really step up this time around and they didn't let us down!

The whole team worked their socks off and both the day shift and night shift deserve massive praise for all their hard work. In particular Fernando Angelina who made all the sponges and helped Murthy and I put the monster cake together. Also Antonio Casimiro, Marthinho Domingos, Helena Nuzi Samo and Antonio Capita who all came in on their time off to assist with the preparations.

Olympic web menu from Steve Hooper


We even had some external input for this dinner with Cheg-chai from the Warehouse team making an authentic Thai Noodle Soup which was absolutely delicious.

Its beer o'clock here now in Malongo so I will add more photos tomorrow!

Luanda: The capital of Angola, the most expensive city in the world | Mail Online

Luanda: The capital of Angola, the most expensive city in the world | Mail Online:

'via Blog this'

The Warehouse Team Awards!

A few months ago, after a particularly busy period in the Warehouse, the Warehouse team were rewarded with a small celebration and award ceremony for their hard work.

These shows of appreciation are well received by the staff and they value the recognition from the senior management. Not to mention the excellent Thai food cooked by Cheg Chai!  

Without these guys our operation would fall flat on its face. The Supply Chain here throws us different challenges each and every week, but the Project Managers, Warehouse managers and their teams always manage to overcome the all too frequent obstacles. Which is just as well as if they didn't there wouldn't be any food for us to cook leaving a lot of hungry and angry customers!

Eric (wakey wakey), Cheg Chai and Helena.

The Warehouse Bandidos!

'Thank you'

Helena thanking the team for all their hard work - I just managed to sneak into this pic! 

Abroaa receiving his award for always being completely immaculate and never getting his hands dirty! . 

The part the team really looked forward to.......Chop Chop! (Food!).