Classic French Sauces
A lost art….
When I was at catering college great emphasis was placed on understanding the classic sauces that were the building blocks of French cuisine.
Sadly, this is no longer the case, times change, recipes and methods are adapted (often to suit money or skill shortages) and every year we seem to turn our backs another degree on the very heart of our culinary heritage. I often feel stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place when it comes to gastronomy, my head tells me to move on, out with the old, etc but in my heart there is still a place for those dishes which were the restaurant masterpieces of their day.
In the chef world, well anyone under the age of thirty five or so, the idea of incorporating sauces and garnishes from the French gastronomic bibles into their menus seems abhorent. It would seem that we are far more clever now, sauces have become ‘emulsions’, a tournedos of beef has become ‘John Smith’s 28 day aged Aberdeen organic, clover fed and wrapped in a blanket at night beef fillet’
We’ve come full circle, for years we took the p**s out of old restaurant menus full of flowery descriptions such as ’supremes of chicken a la imperiale (once again apologies for the lack of French accents) when nobody knew what the hell it meant to endless descriptions of where the organic kidney from the organic steak pie comes from.
Last night I cooked Lobster Thermidor, something I rarely do, and only ever on request. For me, the best part of cooking that dish is in the preperation of the sauce, classic ingredients cooked in the classical manner. As old hat as it may seem it sparked the imagination of a young sauce chef and for an old one (me) it brought back happy memories of days and dishes I often miss.
Miles,
That looks like a feast on the eye. I must confess that I have never eaten it.
You allude to times a changing in the world of food as, no doubt, they are in other industries. I never liked to pick up a menu and not have a clue what I was looking at. No, I do not speak french, I am in England and would like to have an idea of the food I might wish to choose. I love a good sauce and believe that to be one of the skills of a good chef.
Elsie
February 8, 2008 @ 2:27 pm
Elsie,
It is a sad fact that the skills required to make certain sauces are now lost on many young chefs in the industry. Years ago this was something every chef strived for but understood that they would have to serve a long apprentiship first, not so anymore. Young people are spoilt and want everything straight away, hence the term ‘fast track’. It means to appease kids in my book.
Miles
February 8, 2008 @ 5:08 pm
The “fast track” has invaded every part of life. We have bred a generation that has no snese of time and patience. Everything is instant this or quick that. Though I love technology with a passion unknown in women of my age, I know it has robbed us of certain pleasures in life–like a good conversation that develops, and meanders through an afternoon or evening, or the reading of a letter that someone took the time to pen (preferably with a fountain pen), or the creation and simmering a fine sauce that is the perfect accompaniment to a well crafted dish.
Miles and Elsie, you are my kind of people!!
February 8, 2008 @ 6:34 pm
Miles,
Keep the good old stuff and introduce the good new stuff, like my taste in furnishings! The skills to make fine cuisine should never be overlooked, it’s like a foundation surely. I had the misfortune to catch the latter half of GR’s American fiasco last night but it did underline the fact that there are thousands of cafes and restaurants the world over that have no idea how to cook or how to manage a business. They just open a joint and hope for the best. It must drive you mad.
Cid
February 8, 2008 @ 6:52 pm
Ladies,
Quite right, there’s no point in rushing these matters. It annoys me that the profession I love is no longer held in the regard it once was. It seems that anyone can have a go now with the only loser being you, the customer.
Miles
February 8, 2008 @ 10:19 pm
Great and insightful comments.The industry has changed so much and has gone in the direction of the rest of the coorporate world to the degree that so-called chefs are lesser qualified and the ultimate goal seems to be stardom as opposed to customer satisfaction.i got a great education starting in stars and grills of sanfrancisco under jerimiah tower and then on to 21club with alain sailhac where a foundation was soooo important.now all you need do is look slightly appealing for the camera and know how to make a culinary foam and youre a chef.ive been contemplating moving to europe because i dont have the fire i once had to cook in new york .we seem to be all style and no substance.
March 16, 2008 @ 8:12 pm
a.b.
‘we seem to be all style and no substance’-you’re right there. The industry is bowing to the needs of the media and chefs are taking it all in. There is an obsession with wanting to be something other or more than we are, what’s wrong with being a very good professional cook, a star in your own kitchen? I might be a big fish in a small pond but my customers know that the name on the menu they are about to order from will be in the kitchen cooking it. I thought that was the idea, or maybe I’m just old fashioned.
Thanks for a great comment and welcome to the site.
Miles
March 16, 2008 @ 9:37 pm
Miles,
Well said. I quit cooking for a few years because of this. I trained for few years in Europe. The only fusion cooking I learned was, as you say,classic french recipes, with classic french techniques.
Nobody does it anymore, we are to busy substituting whole roasted, hand peeled, picked in BaJa by a farmer with a limp, smoked and glazed plablano chilies, for the mustard in this recipie.
Anyway, I was trying to figure out how I am going to pull this dish off using frozen spiny lobsters, and I ran into this page.
Jason
November 28, 2008 @ 6:36 pm
Jason,
Welcome to the site and thanks for commenting. You’re dead right with what you say, we seem obsessed with being clever for the sake of being clever and usually at the expense of the customer.
Thanks again Jason, hope you revisit soon.
Happy Cooking
Miles
November 28, 2008 @ 7:38 pm
Good article!
It appears to me that it’s the young pretenders ( and I do mean “pretenders”) who haven’t learned the basics. If you look at the truly great chefs of today, they have all learned the basics of French cuisine. Gordon Ramsay, finished his training in France. Heston Blumenthal was fascinated by cuisine, thanks to a trip to France. Later he studied French cuisine. If we want to mention other great chefs of today, we can include, Ducasse, Robuchon, Gagnaire but of course they are French.
I am a chef and a father and I view those two heavy responsibilities in the same way. My children were, gently, taught to learn the rules and only after they had learned them were they allowed to break them (who doesn’t put their elbows on the table, after a great meal?). Likewise, I have drastically altered classic French dishes and given them a twist. BUT, only after I have learned how to make the original. I give one dessert as an example. You won’t need the recipe - it’s obvious, and it works.
Rose Crème Brûlée on a Bed of Rose Champagne Jelly with Crystallised Rose Petals. Otherwise called, “A Bunch of Roses” Pretentious? Of course!
Bon Apetit!
March 4, 2009 @ 5:51 pm
Marc,
A great comment thank you and welcome to the site. I hope you return in the future.
You’re absoultely right, without our ‘building blocks’ we have nothing upon which to shape our own cuisine and style. The fact is that French cuisine does work but as you say can be altered to suit our chosen market. The French would make a creme brulee (forgive the lack of accents) and do nothing more than caramelise it. That’s fine but there’s room for exploration.
Thanks again
Miles
March 4, 2009 @ 9:06 pm
I’m a 28 year old chef from Australia, Iv been cooking for 12 years, and I’m going to agree and disagree with you. I grew up with cook books filled with dishes like duck l’orange, lobster thermidor, and all of those mock italian Pasta’s and sauces. I know how to cook all of the classic dishes and I can appreciate the degree of time and expertise involved… I personally just don’t like them, heavy roux based sauces are just not really of any interest to me or my customers. For want of a better expression I guess I would say I like to “let the ingredients speak for themselves” and I can only assume most of the chefs of my generation have the same attitude.
September 7, 2010 @ 1:41 pm
Mia,
Welcome to the blog and thanks for a great comment. I have to say that in the restaurants I oversee we rarely use a roux based sauce. Ninety nine percent of what I cook features a natural reduction of whatever stock I am using as well as vinaigrettes, vierges etc. We chefs should move on but the building blocks must remain, what has become lost on too many young people is that you are first and foremost a cook, not a chef and when foams, gels, stabilisers and the rest fall out of fashion, which they will there will still be a lot of customers praying for a return to some of the classics.
I will always believe that any ‘chef’ should have a knowledge and understanding of the techniques modern cuisine was founded on and once learnt can then move on, one thing I would say is that of all the modern cookbooks I own I can count on one hand the number of dishes which will stand the test of time and be remembered in the way a thermidor is…that must say something.
Thanks again Mia,
Kind regards
Miles
September 7, 2010 @ 10:10 pm
this looks gorgeous! never had lobster before so cant wait for my night out to try this!!
January 24, 2012 @ 2:47 pm
Kelly,
Welcome to the site, glad you like it
Have a great night out!
Kind regards
Miles
January 24, 2012 @ 4:56 pm