Tricks of the Trade!

This week I learned about all these little cooking, presentation, and preparation methods high end resturants use and thought I'd share a few of them. some a are not suprising, others a little disturbing...

-Notice how the more high end the resturant, the smaller you dish is, regardless if its an appetizer, entree, dessert, whatever. Of course big chains give you those massive more bang for your buck portions, but the high end ones give you fairly small portions not because they use better ingredients and thus costing more (that couls be, but thats not why), its because they dont want you to be full to quickly, they want you to stay there and order more and stay longer and longer. Our chef was demonstrating a soup and pour a single ladel into a big soup bowl and said to us not to fill above the rim. He explained that you want to keep your customers as long as possible cause that way, they'll keep ordering more things.

-That sauce, yea, its basically butter, flour , and somesort of seasoning agent, so if your watching you figure or cholestorol, be aware. Most sauces are based on a roux which is equal parts butter and flour. other sauces may be even more unhealthy and contain clarified butter which is 95% butterfat with the milk solids and water evaporatied out of it. You dish shouldn't need that much sauce anyhow because it may overpower.

- If you dont like something, say your allergic. Our chefs told us that they take allergies in resturants VERY seriously cause they could get sued. and sometimes, the inflated egos of big time chefs dont want to alter their dishes simply because someone doesn't like parsely or whatever you dislike. but allergies are a differnt story and they're not going to demand a medical record so just mention this when you order.

- If your vegetarian, ask if your soup is make contians chicken stock. Many resturants have healthy, veggie soups, but they may be made with chicken stock so just ask.

-If your vegan, ask if the pasta is made with egg yolks. i made pasta every day last week and they all had egg yolks.

-be wary that before serving soups, chefs like to up the butter ante in a process called "Monte au beurre" which translates to "mounting the butter". What they do it add soft, room temperature butter right before service. a sneaky way so make it creamier.