How to Save Downton Abbey Hollandaise Sauce Then AND Now

The culinary accurateness of the Downton Abbey Series should delight all professionals in the hospitality industry.

From soufflés to silver service, it is more than obvious that great research has gone into every aspect of the script where food is concerned.

But Downton's writers go even further. They show what can go amiss in the kitchen as well as what works. For example, sauces. Sauces are the wonder of cuisine. There are five major ones, entitled "the Mother Sauces", each with seemingly endless variations on their major taste themes. 

One such sauce is Hollandaise, an emulsified sauce in which egg yolks not only serve as the emulsifier, but also as a thickening agent. The final viscosity or thickness of the sauce is determined by how much fat is emulsified in and to what degree the egg yolks are cooked. 

The more the egg yolks are cooked, the thicker the hollandaise will be. However, the more the egg yolks are cooked, the more chance that the final result will be scrambled eggs, not a glorious hollandaise sauce. It's a delicate balance.

And that's just what happened to Ivy, the perky new kitchen maid, in the Dowwnton Abbey kitchen right before a grand meal. Even Daisy, the more experienced assistant cook, panicked when she saw the curdled sauce.

It's Alfred, the very new and very tall footman, who comes to the rescue. Prior to serving at Downton, he had worked as a hotel waiter, where he had caught glimpses of how master chefs save a separated or "broken" sauce.

He quickly strained out the curdle portion of the sauce and whisked one egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of water to the remaining sauce, still keeping it warm during the process. His fast reaction would please any chef and mark this young man as someone to promote. (Is Mrs. Patmore, Downton's cook, observing his flare, leading possibly to future plot developments?) 

A hundred years ago, chefs used double copper pots to make hollandaise sauce. Ouch - that's expensive and a royal pain to keep clean and polished. Today's chef has the advantage of improved cookware, such as Rose Bake and Oven Ware. 

Developed by Rose Levy Beranbau, author of the James Beard's acclaimed The Cake Bible and known as someone with a very sharp eye for technique to a diva level, her Rose Caramel Pot with double pouring spouts is a marvel for sauces sweet or savory.

Additionally, for those sauces requiring the use of a lift KitchenAid Mixer, no busy chef who cares about easy and elegance should be without the Rose BeaterBlade.

Its patented "Wind" design scraps the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl with every turn. When detached, it even doubles as a spatula.  

Alfred saved the day in Downton's Edwardian kitchen with his knowledge of the new and useful. If he lived today, he's surely reach for Rose's outstanding cookware and save the day once again. Tools and technique have always matter and they always will.

 Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013

The Very Best Cookbooks of 2012

As the year ends, it’s time to bring the best of 2012 forward into 2013.  And that, of course, includes cookbooks.

So here are the outstanding 2012 cookbooks that chefs worldwide have reviewed and declared a must addition to any culinary library.

FEVIKEN

Chef Magnus Nilsson serves a mere 12 covers in a tiny restaurant located on an expansive northern Swedish estate yet he is esteemed by chefs worldwide.

In large, this is due to his promotion of New Nordic Cuisine, which is stunning simple but never simplistic.

The cuisine presented focuses on seasonal ingredients as well as embraces the use of preserved vegetables and aged beef during the cold winter months.

Chef Magnus generously shares his insightful philosophy of food and life, which may well guide future culinary trends worldwide. Well done! 

JERUSALEM

Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi have also created an outstanding cookbook.

The book’s striking photographs capture the bold colors and contrasts of each Mid-Eastern dish. But do not think the dishes listed can only be created if exotic ingredients are available.

In fact, the famed restaurant of the same name, where each dish is served, is located in London.

Perhaps even more inspiring is the fact that the owners are both Israeli and Palestinian and work peacefully together.

Fantastic! Let us hope their cooperation and mutual creativity is a sign of things to come.

HUBERT KELLER’S SOUVENIRS

Memoirs written by chefs can sometimes be a disappointment, as they often relate generalized culinary experiences, rather than perceptive insights into the heart of the Industry.

Such is NOT the case with Chef Hubert Keller’s new book, Souvenirs: Stories and Recipes from My Life. His book contains an amazing 330 pages that provide an intimate glimpse of his extraordinary culinary life, that began when he was age 16 in Alsace, France at his father’s pastry shop, as well as 120 personal recipes with 300 supportive photographs.

Truly worth having, this book makes you want dine at his world renowned Fleur de Lys in San Francisco and then meet Chef Keller, who has set a new standard for culinary journal cookbooks. Congratulations!

THE FOOD OF SPAIN

Claudia Roden is far more that a mere recipe writer. Historian and critic Simon Schama has proclaimed her "No more a simple cookbook writer than Marcel Proust was a biscuit baker." 

High praise that.

In The Food of Spain, she interweaves hundreds of recipes from across Spain with parallel folk tales, proverbs, stories, poetry, and local history to provide a guide to not only delicious food but also to the diverse population and merging cultures that produced it.

Considered by many as the first new classic on Spanish cuisine to be written in the last 50 years, this is one book to be sure to purchase and then enjoy, and enjoy, and enjoy! A true culinary classic..

ASTRANCE: A COOK’S BOOK

Chef Pascal Barbot’s title says it all but presented in his own unique style via “narrative recipes”. In 50 recipes, he describes how and where he found the inspiration for his recipes, how he finds his products, how he uses, prepares and cooks them at his famed 25 seat restaurant, L’Astrance, in Paris.

Additionally, the "narrative recipes" are completed by texts by Chihiro Masui, who gives her tasting impressions as an introduction for the dishes presented in the book. Chef Barbot also reveals the secrets of his basic recipes in a 64-page separate booklet (including sauces, condiments, pastries!) in the deluxe version of the cookbook. 

His eager guests come from around the world, often reserving their tables many months in advance, to experience dining at L’Astrance, where ten original dishes are served each and every night.

This stunning book provides a glimpse of that world so creative that book dealers can’t keep the book in stock. Order your copy NOW! An astounding text.

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012

Ryan Should Learn to Wash Dishes Honestly

 

Recently Paul Ryan, the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States, chose to stop at a Youngstown, Ohio charity food kitchen run by the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society to show his support for the poor and wash some dishes.

Only there was one problem with his visit, one which was quickly spotted by members of the Hospitality Industry as they viewed the photo-op images his staff quickly released, as seen in these photos...

 

• Ryan is not wearing protective sanitary gloves.
• The sinks are not full of soaking water or any water.
• The dishes look amazing clean for ones that have just come from food service.
• No center kitchen staff seems present.
• Soap is being poured from a large container, not into waiting water, but onto a sponge.
• And who, washing dishes, wears an expensive watch? 

Any doubts members of Industry might still have that something about these photos just don't (pardon the pun) hold water, were confirmed when Brian J. Antal, president of the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society, later told shock reporters (all of whom had been restricted from the 'wash-up), that:

• Ryan did NOT pre-arrange to visit the Center.
• His staff only gained entrance to the empty and very clean kitchen by persuading a confused staff member to let them in. 
• The Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society does NOT support any political party or point of view. They have been and always will be a non-political organization serving all in need no matter their faith or political party.

In short, the photos released of Ryan's 'good deed' were a partisan hoax, staged by his political team to project an image that, at its best, was not honest.  

What is honest is the wonderful work done the many organizations founded by St Vincent de Paul. This great man, who many consider a saint, dedicated his life to helping the poor and to reminding those blessed with wealth and power that they had a great responsibility to others less fortunate and in need.

This great lesson of true and honest commitment, rather than simply exploiting others, is something Ryan should perhaps learn from Father Vincent and then wash some dishes honestly.

 Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012 

Old Is New in Food Ads and US Politics

It seems the world is a swirl with crisis and violent protest when peace would serve us all so much better.

Yet hate and prejudice are sadly nothing new. Great writers from Twain to Tolstoy have documented the lost such actions create.

Now even major food producers are asking consumers, through humor, to remember and consider the cost of hate and blind bias. 

Nathaniel Hawthorne (and Kraft Foods), however, don’t have the final word on this subject. Americans have heard during the current election season a constant (but weakly documented) attack on the many benefits of mature government.

Maybe the best response to such a shortsighted barrage, a la The Scarlet Letter Mayonnaise Ad, is this memorable scene from Monty Python’s The Life of Brian:

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012 

911 Remembered

It was a day of horror that none of us within the Hospitality Industry will ever forget. Hundreds of our colleagues, whose only crime was to go to work to create, to serve, were killed for no reason except to justify hate. 

Yet as time passes it is so easy to remember only the pictures that broke our hearts of falling steel and explosing flames and forget the faces. 

We must not forget our many friends and colleagues who worked within the Towers. Each and every one of them had a name. Catherine Hernandez has not forgotten.

She has said this, "My father, Norberto, was a pastry chef at Windows on the World in Tower One.

"For ten years, he made many fancy and famous desserts, but the sweetest dessert he made was the marble cake he made for us at home...

"Whenever we parted, Poppi would say, 'Te amo. Vaya con Dios.'

"I want to say the same thing to you, Poppi. I love you. Go with God." 

If you can, call for a silent moment this September 11th and ask your staff to pause for a minute or two to remember these remarkably talented members of our Industry - how much they loved what they were doing and how we each have a responsibility to carry their legacy forward into a better world, one that we are creating by what we do each and every day. 

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012