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Blogs by Paul Cuenco
Predicament: Hasan Baharin
3/18/2012 8:47:45 PM
He was one of those who invented fusion or east/west cuisine, Hasan Baharin.
Hasan was PDX Mike’s best friends. He was Mike’s mentor and Mike talked to me a lot about him. He was a very interesting guy, born in Singapore but his parents were Malaysian. Of course there were times when either party would upset the other, but generally they remained friends. Hasan treated Mike fairly well up until he died.
He hired Mike at Temasek, a restaurant specializing in French preparation using Asian ingredients. He was an interesting guy. He was a cool guy who taught Mike a great many cuisines especially rice. Hasan taught Mike a lot about rice. Hasan’s rice dishes were dynamic. Rice, for example, that was denuded of its starch turns out to have great flavor because of its ingredient such as saffron. He also showed Mike that there were different types of rice.
He taught Mike how to make red curry and whole lot about cooking – galangal lemon grass, red curry, shrimp paste – he opened up for Mike a whole breathe of Asian ingredients. Mike learned about galantine and balantine. Both were prepared more or less the same. You take the skin of an animal and force the meat using the skin as a sausage casing tied with britches and then served slice with sauce. The difference was that galantine because it was served cold should be seasoned with much more in a robust manner. Balantine was served hot and was not seasoned as robustly than cold food. So, you season the cold food more. Sauce was applied to the both of them.
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One time, Hasan challenged him to tunnel bone a duck without a knife, meaning the only cutting implement was his fingers. You remove the bone of the duck but not break its skin and then force the meat into the “tunnel.” Mike did the wings but he can’t “tunnel” the rest. The leg could also be done. Hasan didn’t think he could but Mike did it.
When it came to reviews, he got a two out of four from San Francisco Chronicle’s Patty Unterman. He was satisfied with this rating. But with Michael Bower of American Bistro, inspite of getting a two star rating, Mike became angry. He understood about the service but Michael Bauer misidentified thyme for rosemary. He instructed his staff to call on him whenever there was a complain. Indeed, seven guest made complains and he pointed out that they had identified thyme for rosemary, too just like Michael Bauer.
Patty Unterman, Mike thinks, invented the word fusion. Although another restaurant was doing the same thing that Temasek was doing, both restaurants had hit the idea on the spot. Hasan Baharin was three years before his time. Temasek was like what Pokpok (a famous Thai restaurant in Portland, Oregon) is now, at the forefront of a revolution in cuisine. And aside from Hasan, Roy was his partner.
When the restaurant was booming, the partners Hasan and Roy decided to open up another restaurant. But the second restaurant‘s store front was too small while the restaurant itself was too large. It did not make money like Temasek did and it sucked out all the money from Temasek. The second restaurant was an absolute money pit. It was a textbook version of a restaurant company that wants to expand too fast. Hasan fired Mike and Roy installed his girlfriend in Mike’s position. She doesn’t even know how to cook which made Mike mad. It did not take long for the rest of the staff to quit and soon Temasek met its demise.
After some blood letting, Hasan and Mike became friends once again. Hasan died at 37 and Mike was just 21 or 22. This was before Mike even met his wife. He told me to be careful in telling this story, for Hasan’s memory was truly special. Hasan was a true friend, a mentor and a grand chef.
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