This week we learned about vegetables, sauces, stocks, and soups. The unit on stocks, sauces, and soups is incredibly important. Stock is the base for so many things, including sauces and soup, which is why it's so important. The sauce is what gives a dish a distinct flavor and personality. Also, a good stock provides soups with a more vibrant and developed flavor. Making chicken stock is so simple. The way we learned to do it in class is different than how I do it home. We learned to make the stock with bones, mirepoix, and a sachet d'epices. When I make it at home, I used whole chickens (meat and bones). I believe the way we learned is more cost-effective for restaurants. It would be too expensive to use meat in stocks commercially. However, it works well at home. I recommend making your chicken stock. It doesn't compare to what you buy at the store. We also learned how to make brown stock, fume, or fish stock.
After building a good foundation of stocks, we moved on to sauces. We learned the five Leading Sauces, Velouté, Béchamel, Espagnole, Tomato, and Hollandaise. Once you understand how to make these five fives sauces, you can build upon them to make a sauce or soup in the world. They are the base for all sauces and soups. It's pretty amazing.
After learning the sauces, we learned about soups and the differences between clear soups, cream soups, and all the other varieties of soups. We spent a lot of time learning about consommé. It's is an incredibly flavorful, clear broth. It's not seen a lot these days in the US. It takes a lot of time and patience to make, which is why it's fallen to the wayside.
We also learned about cooking vegetables and the difference between al dente (meaning "to the tooth" and used to describe properly cooked pasta) and crisp-tender (used to describe properly cooked vegetables). We cooked cauliflower and made a simple white sauce to accompaniment it. It is amazing at how good steamed cauliflower is. As an avid roaster of all vegetables, I often forget of all the other ways to prepare them. I am happy to add these methods to my repertoire.
A couple of other exciting things this week. We got to tour Hockenbergs, a restaurant supply store in Des Moines. It was very fun and exciting to see all the restaurant items available for purchase. We learned about how expensive it is to set up a restaurant. The two major expenses are the hood for proper ventilation. A lot of times, the hood costs about $100K and a grease trap, which costs about $20K. So, you have to spend about $120K before you've done anything fun.
I also got to job shadow a food stylist, a firm in Des Moines that produces advertisements for grocery stores. It was so amazing. The energy and vibe in the studio are great. It's the direction I'm feeling pulled towards the more I learn about all the different culinary options. I'm excited to learn more about food styling and what all that job entails!
Next week, MEATS!