Comments on: Classic French Sauces http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces Food - Photography & More Fri, 18 May 2012 01:48:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.7 by: miles http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-48106 Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:56:57 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-48106 Kelly, Welcome to the site, glad you like it :) Have a great night out! Kind regards Miles Kelly,
Welcome to the site, glad you like it :)
Have a great night out!

Kind regards
Miles

]]> by: kelly http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-48099 Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:47:13 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-48099 this looks gorgeous! never had lobster before so cant wait for my night out to try this!! this looks gorgeous! never had lobster before so cant wait for my night out to try this!!

]]> by: miles http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-29409 Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:10:21 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-29409 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 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

]]> by: mia http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-29402 Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:41:51 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-29402 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. 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.

]]> by: miles http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-12073 Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:06:18 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-12073 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 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

]]> by: Marc http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-12062 Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:51:30 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-12062 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! 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!

]]> by: miles http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-9155 Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:38:33 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-9155 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 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

]]> by: Jason http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-9154 Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:36:05 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-9154 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 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

]]> by: miles http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-2104 Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:37:25 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-2104 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 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

]]> by: a.b.wheeler http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-2101 Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:12:00 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/classic-french-sauces#comment-2101 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. 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.

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