Comments on: Classic French Sauces

by: miles

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:38:33 +0000

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

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:36:05 +0000

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

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:37:25 +0000

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

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:12:00 +0000

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.

by: miles

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:19:32 +0000

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

by: Cid

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:52:37 +0000

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

by: Annie Flinn

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:34:36 +0000

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!!

by: miles

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:08:33 +0000

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

by: Elsie Nean

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:27:55 +0000

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