Sauce and More Sauce

Chef V. tasting from a buffet of sauces. Yummy.

Whew. The past three days of school have been a different experience entirely. On Monday morning, after the obligatory first day info session from the chefs, we were split into small groups and basically told to grab some bones from the walk-in cooler and make stock. Not just one stock: we had to produce a pot each of veal stock, chicken stock, fish stock, and vegetable stock. Needless to say, we were running around the kitchen clueless. I had certainly never made stock before in my life, and it soon became clear that most of my classmates hadn't either. It was a lesson in working as a team and figuring things out as we went, and amazingly, we produced all four simmering stockpots in time.

We've been working on sauces for the past two days following Day 1's chaotic stock-making, settling into what will be routine for the next three weeks. First thing, Chef D. and Chef V. give demos of all of the food that we're required to produce by 10:30 am. Yesterday, we started with two of the mother sauces: Bechamel (basic white sauce) and Espagnole (really unappetizing-looking brown sauce).

We then worked on derivatives of Bechamel--I made the Mornay for my group, which amps up the simple milk-and-roux Bechamel with gruyere and parmesan cheeses. While the mother sauces are rarely used anymore in modern cooking, restaurants constantly use their derivatives or "small sauces"--in fact, in my recent interview with James Beard award-winning Washington chef R.J. Cooper, he mentioned that he makes his awesome macaroni and cheese at Vidalia with Mornay. I was very proud when Chef V. praised my Mornay and gave our group a 5 out of 5 on it!

Today, we made demi-glace, which is half veal stock and half Espagnole, reduced by half. It's certainly a term I've seen on countless restaurant menus but never before knew its components. Our demi became the base for three new sauces. This time I made the Chasseur sauce, also sometimes called a Hunter sauce. I sauteed mushrooms and onions, added white wine and reduced it, then added diced tomatoes and some of our flavorful demi-glace.

Even though I'm learning a ton about saucework, I doubt I'd ever make these at home simply because they are pretty unhealthy (not to mention time-intensive). Most classical sauces are thickened with roux (equal parts flour and fat, usually clarified butter--remember?) and finished by "monter au beurre"--stirring in chunks of butter for richness and shine. Even the classical tomato sauce--another mother sauce that we made today--begins with diced salt pork. It does make a really flavorful roux--I loved the tomato sauce variation that I made for my group with tomato concasse, onions, garlic and parsley, called a Portuguese sauce. Sounds light and vegetarian, but that's just not how it works in classical French cookery. Surprise, surprise: delicious restaurant food = usually not so good for you.

I'm definitely honing my palate and learning a lot about flavor profiles--a term that chefs throw around a lot. Before culinary school, I'd only heard it (incessantly) on Top Chef--which premieres tonight! When our chefs demo a sauce, we taste it and talk about the flavors we should look for in our own versions. For example, Soubise, a variation of Bechamel made with sweated onions, should have a sweet taste but no pronounced onion flavor. We got called out for not sweating our onions long enough--we thought it tasted good, but giving the onions more time to sweat would have completely cooked out their raw onion flavor and drawn out more sweetness.

Now I'm off to watch Top Chef and then to bed...up early tomorrow for a third day of sauces. I'm sure I'll have a new appreciation for the "cheftestants" on the show, which I've watched religiously for the past four seasons. But now I've been quizzed on herbs and spices (albeit with my eyes open). I've frantically rushed to finish my sauces before the 10:30 buzzer when chefs armed with tasting spoons would arrive to taste and grade them. Sure, Top Chef's crazy Quickfire Challenges often allow something like five minutes to make an entree solely from food out of vending machines, but two hours for six sauces is Quickfire enough for me!