The basics of French cuisine, the breakdown of dishes in the menu, canned tomatoes-these are a few of its advantages. Auguste Escoffier, an icon and an invaluable authority in the field of gastronomy, whose merits should be known to every person who appreciates culinary art.
I want to tell you about a character that everyone should know. Why? I'll explain this based on associations.
Nicolaus Copernicus? Astronomy.
Christopher Columbus? Discovery of America.
Auguste Escoffier? And at this moment, everyone, as one husband, should say-gastronomy.
It is called "king of chefs and chef of kings", which means"chef of kings and king of chefs". It is reported that he first named it Kaiser Wilhelm II after Escoffier gave him and 146 German dignitaries an impressive dinner. Congratulating Escoffier on the meal, he allegedly said::”I am the Emperor of Germany, and you are the emperor of cooks."
Auguste Escoffier, born in France in 1846, began a culinary adventure at the age of 12 at his uncle's restaurant in Nice. Throughout his career, he has prepared for kings, presidents, and many stars of the London and Paris Opera houses. However, what sets him apart from other chefs is the changes he has made to gastronomy and the culinary arts in general. Before Escoffier appeared on the gastronomic scene, the kitchen was reserved only for the rich, and it was dominated by glamour-both in the form of serving dishes and in the amount of ingredients in the dishes served. The sauces were too rich, too greasy, and had too many conflicting flavors. Escoffier believed very much in the simplicity of the kitchen, so his goal was ... a culinary revolution!
źródło: Wikipedia/Public Domain/The gourmet’s guide to London
Among the achievements of Auguste Escoffier, we find:
1) "kitchen team", or hierarchy in the kitchen
Auguste Escoffier gained experience during the Franco-Prussian War, where he served as a chef at the General Staff. It was from the army that he drew inspiration for reorganizing his work in the kitchen. Just as, for example, individual ministers report to the Prime Minister, so lower-level members of the "brigade" report to the chef and his deputy.
Kitchens, "he explained," need to be properly organized, so I created a system that I'm still working on, a hierarchy, an order, a kitchen team. Instead of having the chef prepare all the elements of the dish, I divided the kitchen into specific zones, each of which is headed by Chef de Partie. The plate moves from one master to another, gradually filling up. Someday all kitchens will be organized in this way.
- "White Truffles" - N.
Members”Brigades":
Head Chef - he is responsible for the entire kitchen, prepares the menu and manages everything that happens in his kitchen.
Sous Chef - "Sous" (from French) means "Under", that is, deputy. It accepts tasks directly from the chef and replaces him when he is not in place.
Chef de Partie "there are several of them. Each of them is responsible for a specific position in the kitchen and for the people who work in it.
Cuisiniers "cooks, then. Responsible for preparing certain dishes at certain " stations”"
Commis - assistant cooks who are mainly responsible for maintaining order in certain positions. They are accountable to the " party chef”"
Apprentice "apprentices and apprentices. They are usually part of the kitchen assistants who are responsible for cleaning and preparing jobs.
The above breakdown is still found in the best restaurants around the world.
source: ouest-france.fr
2) "Keep it simple", that is, the power of simplicity
In the days leading up to his career, cooking consisted of elaborate recipes, extravagant dinners, and sauces that completely changed (to the detriment of) the dishes served. Escoffier's philosophy was simple serving. He treated them like works of art.
3) he started to prepare dishes with high nutritional value.
Escoffier understood that the dishes prepared by other chefs during this period were heavy and did not have a positive effect on well-being. Therefore, he completely changed the way dishes are prepared, so that they are not only delicious, but also nutritious!
4) started a trend towards using seasonal products from local producers
The menu in the restaurants he managed changed according to the seasons of the products in question, as he took care of the best quality of the dishes served. It was based mainly on fresh produce and carefully checked their provenance.
5) "Service à la russe", or a departure from French glamour
Escoffier moved away from the traditional French dish (à la francaise), which consists of serving all dishes at the same time. Thanks to him, to this day, the dishes are served in the correct order, and we do not need to eat an appetizer, main course and dessert at the same time.
You probably associate this glamour with movies or images. One of my favorites, depicting the pomp on the tables in the old days, is the painting by Alexander Orlovsky “feast at the Radziwills "(1777-1832).
źródło: https://cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl/pl/katalog/508893
6) canned tomatoes!
Escoffier was the first chef who sought to create a method by which one could "bite" meat, sauces, and vegetables. Can you imagine how sad life must have been without canned tomatoes?
7) wrote many articles and cookbooks
Among the most popular are "Cooking guide" and "modern cooking guide"
source: amazon.pl
8) he created the term for the five main sauces "5 mother sauces" - which form the basic basis for other sauces
In the early nineteenth century, chef Marie-Antoine Carême defined the four main sauces of French cuisine. Auguste Escoffier expanded her theory with one sauce, changed their composition slightly, and called them "Mother's 5 sauces". They are the basis for many other sauces. These include:
Bechamel - it consists of milk, butter and flour, salt, white pepper and nutmeg. Gradually add warm milk to the butter and flour dressing. As soon as we get the right consistency, we season it. We know him m.in from lasagna and meat and vegetable casseroles.
Spanish Sauce "it's often just called brown sauce. It consists of butter, flour, dark broth (cooked on sauteed beef bones), mirepois (a mixture of chopped carrots, celery and onions) and tomato puree. Most often served with red meat.
Hollandaise Sauce - the only sauce without dressing. Whisk egg yolks with clarified butter, lemon, salt and white pepper. Personally, I also add a little white wine to this sauce. Hollandaise goes well with hard-boiled eggs and asparagus.
tomato - it is based on intense beef broth, dark sauce (the flour is fried dry and when it darkens, we add butter and mix intensively until brown) and, of course, tomatoes, or rather tomato puree. This is not the sauce that we associate with the name "tomato". This is the base for sauces.
Sos Velvet (Velouté) - it is made similarly to bechamel, but instead of milk, add light broth (most often chicken, vegetable or fish).
9) he knew umami when it was not yet known what it was
This fifth taste, he called "exquisite". This is best described by an excerpt from the book” white truffles " by N. M. Kelby:
"Delicious," she said over and over, until finally Escoffier couldn't take it anymore.
"No, it's not delicious. It has what I call sophistication. The fifth taste. Bitter, salty, sour, sweet and delicious. I tell people about it, and they think it's just my invention, but the sophistication in your language, it's there on purpose. You need it to appreciate the veal broth. The day will come when everyone will discover it.
And now a question for 100 points:
Why don't all people in the world know the character of Auguste Escoffier?
We owe him so much. He created more than tens of thousands of recipes, completely changed the way chefs perceive and serve dishes. Thanks to him, food has become an art, not a simple craft.
The best conclusion to this thought is another quote from white truffles:
- The custom of wearing chef's toki was started by master Marie Antoine Karema. They protect the hair from fire and determine the rank. The sissier and baker wear simple little toki, the master oversees the operation of a small toki with tabs, while the chef must hold a starched, snow-white toki on his head with as many tabs as he can cook an egg. Everyone knows that everything is subordinate to this person. Its current is the highest of all.
"Then why don't you wear it?"
"There is." But the truth is, wearing the current is humiliating for me. Most people only know one hundred ways to cook an egg, so one hundred was accepted as the maximum number of tabs. I know six hundred and eighty-five ways, so wearing the current puts me at risk, and I can't agree with that.
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