(Salads & salad Dressings) IHM Hotel Management Food Production 1st year 1st sem notes on Salads & salad Dressings

SALAD

WHAT IS A SALAD?

The answer to this question is quite simple. Some of the definitions which best describe a SALAD are:

1. A dish of raw leafy green vegetables often tossed with pieces of other raw or cooked vegetables, fruit, cheese, or other ingredients and served with a dressing.
2. A cold dish of chopped vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, eggs, or other food, usually prepared with a dressing, such as mayonnaise.
3. Food mixtures either arranged on a plate or tossed and served with a moist dressing; usually consisting of or including greens.
4. A salad is a food served with dressing. The food can be cold dish, or green vegetables or mixture of fruits, or hot mixture of hot piquant food, or frozen mixture of bland fruits, or chopped food in hot aspic, coleslaw potato or meat.     (Theory of cookery)

In general, salads are cold preparations made from raw, cooked or blanched vegetables, singly or in combination, and can include other items such as fresh herbs, fruits, nuts and cooked eggs, pasta, rice, fish, meat and poultry.

Salads in different countries are known by different name. Some of the common name’s it is pronounced are:

Nederland:  Salade, Sla, Mengsel

French: Salade

German:  Salat

Italian:  Insalata

Portuguese: Salada

Spanish:  Ensalada

Swedish:  Sallad, Grönsallad

A SALAD CAN BE SERVED IN VARIOUS DIFFERENT COURSES, SUCH AS:

1.      SALAD COURSE: In a very formal meal experience, salads are sometime served after a main course. Such salads are light and refreshing in nature and provide a change from the heavy main course. Well-dressed salad greens and savoury vegetables are a popular choice.

2.      MAIN COURSE: It is also substantial enough as a main dish. One of the body building foods such as meat, fish, egg or cheese forms the base. The volume and richness of these salads are adequate to satisfy a normal appetite.

3.      ACCOMPANIMENTS:  The salad is also served as accompaniment with the main course.

A SALAD CAN BE OF TWO TYPES:

SIMPLE OR PLAIN SALAD

These salads can be further subdivided in green salad or salad in season, which is served raw or cooked. Such salads normally use only a single kind of vegetable as a base and only one or two ingredients in small quantity as decoration or garnish.

Some examples of such salads with appropriate dressing are:

NAME	INGREDIENTS	DRESSINGS
CABBAGE	CABBAGE JULIENNE	VINAIGRETTE / MUSTARD CREAM
CUCUMBER	ROUNDELS OF CUCUMBER	VINAIGRETTE
LETTUCE	SALAD LEAVES	VINAIGRETTE
TOMATO	SLICES OF TOMATO WITH CHOPPED PARSLEY	VINAIGRETTE
BEETROOT	ROUDLES OR DICED COOKED BEETROOT	MUSTARD CREAM

COMPOUND SALAD

Compound salads are more elaborate salads which consist of more than one ingredient. Such salads can be further subdivided in four major groups:

1.      FISH BASED

2.      VEGETABLE BASED

3.      POULTRY,GAME OR MEAT BASED

4.      FRUIT BASED.

A SALAD CAN BE SUBDIVIDED IN FOUR MAJOR PARTS:

BASE:

The base may be made up of lettuce, cabbage or any other leafy vegetables. It must cover the bottom part of the salad. The leaves must be clean and thoroughly washed because they can contain a lot of soil and insects. Preferably all the salads leaves must be washed with a chlorine solution.

SOME OF THE SALAD LEAVES USED IN MAKING OF A SALAD ARE:

ARUGULA: With its peppery and slightly bitter flavour, arugula is a terrific green to be used in a salad.  It can be gently braised, too. 

BELGIAN ENDIVE: These crunchy, slightly bitter leaves are often used to make hors d'oeuvres, but they can also be chopped and added to salads, or braised to make an exquisite salad.

CRESS: This is a peppery green that's great in salads, sandwiches, and soups.  It's attractive enough to make a good garnish as well.  There are several varieties, including watercress, upland cress, curly cress, and land cress. Cress is highly perishable, so try to use it as soon as possible after you buy it.

CURLY ENDIVE:  This crisp, bitter green leave can be used in salads or cook it as a side dish.  The outer leaves are green and somewhat bitter; the pale inner leaves are more tender and mild. 

ICEBERG: This is prized for its crispness and longevity in the refrigerator, but it's a bit short on flavour and nutrients. It’s one of the most readily available lettuces in India and is mostly used by a number of hotels to prepare salads. 

LOLLO ROSSO: This mild, tender lettuce has ruffled red edges.

RADICCHIO: With its beautiful colouring and slightly bitter flavour, radicchio is        wonderful when combined with other salad greens. 

ROMAINE LETTUCE: Romaine combines good flavour and crunch, plus it has a decent shelf life in the refrigerator.  It's the preferred green for Caesar salad.  Green romaine is the most common variety, but you can sometimes find red romaine, which is tender.

RED SANGRIA LETTUCE

Thick rose blushed leaves over a blanched pale-yellow the heart makes for attractive lettuce.

Very good eating quality

BELGIAN ENDIVE: These crunchy, slightly bitter leaves are often used to make hors d'oeuvres, but they can also be chopped and added to salads, or braised to make an exquisite (and expensive) side dish.  Select heads with yellow tips; those with green tips are more bitter.   Their peak season in the late fall and winter.

BIBB LETTUCE   This butterhead lettuce has delicate, loose leaves and lots of flavours.  The only downside is that it's usually expensive  

MIZUNA OR SPIDER MUSTARD   Mizuna has tender leaves and a pleasant, peppery flavour.

RED MUSTARD:   This has a pungent, peppery flavour that adds zip to salads.

DANDELIONS:   Dandelions have a somewhat bitter flavour, which Europeans appreciate more than Americans.   Older dandelion greens should be cooked; younger ones can be cooked or served raw as a salad green.  They're available year-round, but they're best in the spring. 

BODY

The body comprises of the main ingredient of the salad. It must be proportional to the base. The body must comprise of small bite-size pieces of the ingredients. The ingredients used should have a balance of flavours and taste.

GARNISH

The main purpose of a garnish is to add an eye appeal to the finished product. But a certain number of times it can also be added to improve the taste of the salad. Can be either a part of the body also. It should be kept simple. 

Some of the most widely used salad garnishes are:

 DRESSINGS

A Dressing is served with all salads, it is used to flavour the salad provides food value and improves palatability and appearance. A dressing may be in liquid or semi-liquid form. It can be made with a variety of ingredients ranging from oil-vinegar, cream, yoghurt, egg, and cheese.

Various oil used for making a dressing is:

·         OLIVE OIL

·         WALNUT OIL

·         SALAD OIL

·         GROUNDNUT OIL

·         SESAME OIL

·         GRAPESEED OIL

·         HAZELNUT OIL

Various kinds of vinegar used for making a dressing is:

·         TERRAGON VINEGAR

·         BALSAMIC VINEGAR

·         RED WINE VINEGAR

·         WHITE WINE VINEGAR

·         MALT VINEGAR

·         SHERRY VINEGAR

·         RASPBERRY VINEGAR

·         CIDER VINEGAR

SOME COMMONLY USED DRESSINGS ARE:

Sauce Louis - Mayonnaise and heavy cream combined with chopped green pepper and green onion seasoned with chilli sauce and Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice.

Blue cheese dressing - Creamy a dressing containing crumbled blue cheese.

Roquefort dressing - Vinaigrette containing crumbled Roquefort or blue cheese.

French dressing- Three parts Oil and one part vinegar with mustard and garlic.

English dressing- one part of oil and two-part vinegar, English mustard and seasoning.

American vinaigrette- equal quantities of vinegar and oil, mustard and seasoning.

Lorenzo dressing - Vinaigrette with chilli sauce and chopped watercress.

Anchovy dressing - Vinaigrette and mashed anchovies.

Italian dressing - Vinaigrette with garlic and herbs: oregano and basil and dill.

Half-and-half dressing - Half mayonnaise and half vinaigrette seasoned with minced garlic and mashed anchovies and grated Parmesan cheese; especially good for combination salads.

Mayonnaise - Egg yolks and oil and vinegar.

Russian dressing - Mayonnaise with horseradish grated onion and chilli sauce or catsup; sometimes with caviar added.

Salad cream – A Creamy salad dressing resembling mayonnaise.

Thousand Island dressing - Mayonnaise with chilli sauce or tomato ketchup and minced olives and peppers and hard-cooked egg.

Acidulated cream:  Three-part of thin cream to one part of lemon juice, salt and pepper.

(Parts of Knives) IHM Hotel Management Food Production 1st year 1st sem notes on Parts of Knives

KNIVES

KNIFE MATERIALS

The metal that a knife blade is made of is an important consideration, as the metal must be able to take and hold a very fine edge.

1. Carbon steel was for many years the traditional favourite because it can be honed to an extremely sharp edge. Its disadvantages are that it corrodes and discolours easily, especially when used with acid foods and onions. Also, it discolours some foods(such as hard-cooked eggs) and may leave a metallic taste. Because of these disadvantages, it has given way to high-carbon stainless steel (described in item 3 below),which is now the preferred material for the best knives.

2. Traditional stainless-steel alloys will not rust or corrode, but they are much harder to sharpen than carbon steel. Stainless steel is used mostly for low-cost, light weight knives.

3. High-carbon stainless steel is a relatively new alloy that combines the best aspects of carbon steel and stainless steel. It takes an edge almost as well as carbon steel, and it will not rust, corrode, or discolour. Knives made of this material are highly prized and relatively expensive.

KNIFE HANDLES

The tang is the portion of the metal blade that is inside the handle. The highest-quality, most durable knives have a full tang, which means that the tang runs the full length of the handle.

KNIFE AND ITS PARTS

The importance of knives to a chef cannot be overstated. It is the most important piece of equipment in the kitchen. Knives come in various shapes and sizes and each is meant for a specific use though some knives can be used as multi-purpose knives. Let us now familiarize ourselves with different parts of a knife.

Blade: The blade is usually made up of a metal compound called high carbon stainless steel. It combines the property of carbon of being sharpened easily and non-corrosive properties of steel. 

The different parts of a blade are:

·         Tip: The tip of the knife is the pointed edge where the knife blade ends. The tip generally is used for scoring patterns and working with meats or carving.

• Spine: The spine of the knife is the topmost, thick edge of the knife, which gives strength to the knife.

• Bolsters: In some knives there is a collar known as a bolster, at the point where the blade meets the handle. It reinforces the structure of a knife.

• Cutting edge: The cutting edge is the most important part of the knife. It should always be kept honed and sharpened.

Handle: The handle of a knife should be easy to grip, non-reactive to most cleaning agents. The different materials used to make handles are wood, plastic, plastic fibre or even metal.

·         Tang: The tang is the continuation of the blade and extends into a knife’s handle.

·         Rivets: These are metal fasteners that hold the handle and the tang together.

POINTS TO BE REMEMBERED BEFORE COOKING VEGETABLES

• Do not refrigerate the potatoes as low temperature break down the colour of potatoes.
• Sometimes potatoes turn green due to exposure to the sun light which is toxic by nature, so they must be stored in a cool dark place. This effect is known as SOLANINE.
• After peeling potatoes, should be dropped in water prior to cooking to prevent the discolouration. This occurs because of an enzyme called POLYPHENOLOXIDASE which oxidises phenolic compounds to brown coloured polymer.
• Green leafy vegetables should be washed thoroughly in running water at least thrice to remove the dirts and cooking process should be conducted in an open pan as green vegetables have a volatile acid in them which affect chlorophyle in presence of heat to make them discoloured.
• The red vegetables like red cabbage, beet root should be boiled in a close chamber before fabricating to ensure that they are retaining their original colour
• The sweet corn or baby corn should be boiled with one table spoon of sugar to enhance their white colour.
• Cultivated mushroom (fresh mushroom) should be washed in cold water without rubbing it, otherwise it will be losing its natural delicacy. If they are very sandy just rinse them in chilled water and dry them up with a cleaned cloth.
• Use stainless steel knife for chopping the mushrooms to prevent discolouration.
• Always sprinkle some lime juice before chopping the mushroom to prevent discolouration.
• Most of the pulses must be boiled rapidly for 10 minutes to remove their toxic effect in the skin. Drain well followed by a slow cooking process will always give the best results.
• Take three parts of water with one part of pulses for boiling.
• Salt and other seasonings should be added once the pulses are absolutely tender.

(Aims and objectives of cooking) IHM Hotel Management Food Production 1st year 1st sem notes on Aims and objectives of cooking.

Aims and objectives of cooking:

What is Cooking?

Cooking is a chemical process where in raw materials are exposed to heat to get a finished

product of a certain desired quality with a change in physical state also.

.

Aims of cooking

Objectives of Cooking:

1) Improves the taste and food quality

Cooking improves natural flavour and texture of food. For example, roasting groundnuts,

frying onions and papads, cooking rice and roasting coffee seeds improve the flavour.

Cooking meat with spices, rice with spices in making pulav, frying cashew nuts in ghee,

addition of turmeric, curry leaves, pepper in pongal, blend flavour with one another during

cooking.

Too much of cooking lowers the flavour as flavouring compounds are

volatile. Over cooked pulav, does not taste as good as well cooked pulav.

2) Destruction of microorganisms

Microorganisms are present everywhere and some are useful in making curd, cheese and

bread. Some are harmful and cause infections or produce toxins, e.g. clostridium botulism

and salmonella. Some moulds produce toxins. Aspergillus flavus produces aflatoxin in

groundnuts, cereals and spices. This aflatoxin is a health hazard.

One of the most important method of protection of food against harmful

micro organism is by the application of heat. Cooking food to the required

temperature for a required length of time can destroy all harmful

microorganisms in food e.g. pasteurised milk.

Tapeworm or its larvase which infests pork can be killed by proper

application of heat. By cooking, food is made safe for consumption.

3) Improves digestibility

Cooking softens the connective tissue of the meat and the coarse fibres or cereals, pulses

and vegetables so that the digestive period is shortened, and gastro intestinal tract is less

subjected to irritation. Cooking improves the texture hence it becomes more chewable.

Cooking also bursts the starch granules of pulses and cereals so that the starch digestion is

more easy, rapid and complete. When dry heat is applied to starches they are converted to

easily digestible dextrin’s. Cooking increases the access to enzymes and improves

digestibility.

4) Increases variety

By cooking, same food can be made into different dishes. For example, rice can be made

into plain, pulav, lemon rice, biriyani, or combination with pulses into idly. Wheat can be

made into chapatis, puri, paratha or halwa.

5) Increases consumption of food

Cooking improves the texture and makes the food chewable. Improvement in texture and

flavour by cooking increases the consumption of food to meet our nutritional requirement.

6) Increases availability of food

Raw egg contains avid in which binds biotin making biotin unavailable to the body. By

cooking, avid in gets denatured and biotin is available to the body.

Trypsin inhibitors present in soyabean and duck egg get denatured on

cooking and availability of protein is improved. Toxic substances from

kesari dhal can also be removed by boiling it and throwing away the water.

Objective of cooking

1. Retaining the nutritive value of the food.
2. Retaining the original colour of the food.
3. Prevent the clash of colour.
4. Avoid undercooking
5. Avoid overcooking

(Origin of modern cuisine) IHM Hotel Management Food Production 1st year 1st sem notes on Origin of modern cuisine

A HISTORY OF MODERN FOOD SERVICE

The value of history is that it helps us understand the present and the future. In food service, knowledge of our professional heritage helps us see why we do things as we do, how our cooking techniques have been developed and refined, and how we can continue to develop and innovate in the years ahead. An important lesson of history is that the way we cook now is the result of the work done by countless chefs over hundreds of years. Cooking is as much science as it is art. Cooking techniques are not based on arbitrary rules that some chefs made up long ago. Rather, they are based on an understanding of how different foods react when heated in various ways, when combined in various proportions, and so on. The chefs who have come before us have already done much of this work, so we don’t have to. This doesn’t mean there is no room for innovation and experimentation or that we should never challenge old ideas. But it does mean a lot of knowledge has been collected over the years, and we would be smart to take advantage of what has already been learned. Furthermore, how can we challenge old ideas unless we know what those old ideas are? Knowledge is the best starting point for innovation.

THE ORIGINS OF CLASSICAL AND MODERN CUISINE

Quantity cookery has existed for thousands of years, if there have been large groups of people to feed, such as armies. But modern food service is said to have begun shortly after the middle of the eighteenth century. At this time, food production in France was controlled by guilds. Caterers, pastry makers, roasters, and pork butchers held licenses to prepare specific items. An innkeeper, to serve a meal to guests, had to buy the various menu items from those operations that were licensed to provide them. Guests had little or no choice and simply ate what was available for that meal.

In 1765, a Parisian named Boulanger began advertising on his shop sign that he served soups, which he called restaurants or restoratives. (Literally, the word means “fortifying.”) According to the story, one of the dishes he served was sheep’s feet in a cream sauce. The guild of stew makers challenged him in court, but Boulanger won by

claiming he didn’t stew the feet in the sauce but served them with the sauce. In challenging the rules of the guilds, Boulanger unwittingly changed the course of food service history.

The new developments in food service received a great stimulus as a result of the French Revolution, beginning in 1789.Before this time, the great chefs were employed in the houses of the French nobility. With the revolution and the end of the monarchy, many chefs, suddenly out of work, opened restaurants in and around Paris to support themselves. Furthermore, the revolutionary government abolished the guilds. Restaurants and inns could serve dinners reflecting the talent and creativity of their own chefs, rather than being forced to rely on licensed caterers to supply their food. At the start of the French Revolution, there were about 50 restaurants in Paris. Ten years later there were about 500.

Another important invention that changed the organization of kitchens in the eighteenth century was the stove, or potager, which gave cooks a more practical and controllable heat source than an open fire. Soon commercial kitchens became divided into three departments: the rotisserie, under the control of the meat chef or rôtisseur, the oven, under the control of the pastry chef or pâtissier, and the stove, run by the cook or cuisinier. The meat chef and pastry chef reported to the cuisinier, who was also known as chef de cuisine, which means “head of the kitchen.”

CARÊME

All the changes that took place in the world of cooking during the 1700s led to, for the first time, a difference between home cooking and professional cooking. One way we can try to understand this difference is to look at the work of the greatest chef of the pe-riod following the French Revolution, Marie-Antoine Carême (1784–1833). As a young man, Carême learned all the branches of cooking quickly, and he dedicated his career to refining and organizing culinary techniques. His many books contain the first systematic account of cooking principles, recipes, and menu making.

At a time when the interesting advances in cooking were happening in restaurants, Carême worked as a chef to wealthy patrons, kings, and heads of state. He was perhaps the first real celebrity chef, and he became famous as the creator of elaborate, elegant display pieces and pastries, the ancestors of our modern wedding cakes, sugar sculptures,

and ice and tallow carvings. But it was Carême’s practical and theoretical work as an author and an inventor of recipes that was responsible, to a large extent, for bringing cooking out of the Middle Ages and into the modern period.

Carême emphasized procedure and order. His goal was to create more lightness and simplicity. The complex cuisine of the aristocracy—called Grande Cuisine—was still not much different from that of the Middle Ages and was anything but simple and light. Carême’s efforts were a great step toward modern simplicity. The methods explained in his books were complex, but his aim was pure results. He added seasonings and other ingredients not so much to add new flavors but to highlight the flavors of the main ingredients. His sauces were designed to enhance, not cover up, the food being

sauced. Carême was a thoughtful chef, and, whenever he changed a classic recipe, he was careful to explain his reasons for doing so.

Beginning with Carême, a style of cooking developed that can truly be called international, because the same principles are still used by professional cooks around the world. Older styles of cooking, as well as much of today’s home cooking, are based on tradition. In other words, a cook makes a dish a certain way because that is how it always has been done. On the other hand, in Carême’s Grande Cuisine, and in professional cooking ever since, a cook makes a dish a certain way because the principles and methods of cooking show it is the best way to get the desired results. For example, for hundreds of years, cooks boiled meats before roasting them on a rotisserie in front of the fire. But when chefs began thinking and experimenting rather than just accepting the tradition of boiling meat before roasting, they realized that either braising the meat or roasting it from the raw state were better options.

ESCOFFIER

Georges-Auguste Escoffier (1847–1935), the greatest chef of his time, is still today revered by chefs and gourmets as the father of twentieth-century cookery. His two main contributions were (1) the simplification of classical cuisine and the classical menu, and the reorganization of the kitchen. Escoffier rejected what he called the “general confusion” of the old menus, in which sheer quantity seemed to be the most important factor. Instead,he called for order and diversity and emphasized the careful selection of one or two dishes per course, dishes that followed one another harmoniously and delighted the taste with their delicacy and simplicity. Escoffier’s books and recipes are still important reference works for professional chefs. The basic cooking methods and preparations we study today are based on Escoffier’s work. His book Le Guide Culinaire, which is still widely used, arranges recipes in a simple system based on main ingredient and cooking method, greatly simplifying  the more complex system handed down from Carême. Learning classical cooking, according to Escoffier, begins with learning a relatively few basic procedures and understanding basic ingredients.

Escoffier’s second major achievement, the reorganization of the kitchen, resulted in a streamlined workplace that was better suited to turning out the simplified dishes and menus he instituted. The system of organization he established is still in use today, especially in large hotels and full-service restaurants.

MODERN TECHNOLOGY

Today’s kitchens look much different from those of Escoffier’s day, even though our basic cooking principles are the same. Also, the dishes we eat have gradually changed due to the innovations and creativity of modern chefs. The process of simplification and refinement, to which Carême and Escoffier made monumental contributions, is still ongoing, adapting classical cooking to modern conditions and tastes.

Before we discuss the changes in cooking styles that took place in the twentieth century, let’s look at some of the developments in technology that affected cooking.

Development of New Equipment

We take for granted such basic equipment as gas and electric ranges and ovens and electric refrigerators. But even these essential tools did not exist until fairly recently. The easily controlled heat of modern cooking equipment, as well as motorized food cutters, mixers, and other processing equipment, has greatly simplified food production. Research and technology continue to produce sophisticated tools for the kitchen. Some of these products, such as tilting skillets and steam-jacketed kettles, can do many jobs and are popular in many kitchens. Others can perform specialized tasks rapidly and efficiently, but their usefulness depends on volume because they are designed to do only a few jobs. Modern equipment has enabled many food service operations to change their production methods. With sophisticated cooling, freezing, and heating equipment, it is possible to prepare some foods further in advance and in larger quantities. Some large multiunit operations prepare food for all their units in a central commissary. The food is prepared in quantity, packaged, chilled or frozen, then heated or cooked to order in the individual units.

COOKING IN THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES

All these developments have helped change cooking styles, menus, and eating habits. The evolution of cuisine that has been going on for hundreds of years continues. Changes occur not only because of technological developments, such as those just described, but also because of our reactions to culinary traditions. Two opposing forces can be seen at work throughout the history of cooking. One is the urge to simplify, to eliminate complexity and ornamentation, and instead to emphasize the plain, natural tastes of basic, fresh ingredients. The other is the urge to invent, to highlight the creativity of the chef, with an accent on fancier, more complicated presentations and procedures. Both these forces are valid and healthy; they continually refresh and renew the art of cooking. A generation after Escoffier, the most influential chef in the middle of the twentieth century was Fernand Point (1897–1955). Working quietly and steadily in his restaurant, La Pyramide, in Vienne, France, point simplified and lightened classical cuisine. He was a perfectionist who sometimes worked on a dish for years before he felt it was good enough to put on his menu. “I am not hard to please, “he said. “I’m satisfied with the very best. “Point insisted that every meal should be “a little marvel.” Point’s influence extended well beyond his own life. Many of his apprentices, such as Paul Bocuse, Jean and Pierre Troisgros, and Alain Chapel, went on to become some of the greatest stars of modern cooking. They, along with other chefs in their generation, became best known in the 1960s and early 1970s for a style of cooking called nouvelle cuisine. Reacting to what they saw as a heavy, stodgy, overly complicated classical cuisine, these chefs took Point’s lighter approach even further. They rejected many traditional principles, such as a dependence on flour to thicken sauces, and instead urged simpler, more natural flavours and preparations, with lighter sauces and seasonings and shorter cooking times. In traditional classical cuisine, many dishes were plated in the dining room by waiters. Nouvelle cuisine, however, placed a great deal of emphasis on artful plating presentations done by the chef in the kitchen.

Very quickly, however, this “simpler” style became extravagant and complicated, famous for strange combinations of foods and fussy, ornate arrangements and designs. By the 1980s, nouvelle cuisine was the subject of jokes. Still, the best achievements of nouvelle cuisine have taken a permanent place in the classical tradition. Meanwhile, many of its excesses have been forgotten. It is probably fair to say that most of the best new ideas and the lasting accomplishments were those of classically trained chefs with a solid grounding in the basics.

New Emphasis on Ingredients

Advances in agriculture and food preservation have had disadvantages as well as advantages. Everyone is familiar with hard, tasteless fruits and vegetables that were developed to ship well and last long, without regard for eating quality. Many people, including chefs, began to question not only the flavour but also the health value and the environmental effects of genetically engineered foods, of produce raised with chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and of animals raised with antibiotics and other drugs and hormones.

The public has benefited greatly from these efforts. Today, in supermarkets as well as in restaurants, a much greater variety of high-quality foods is available than there was 40 or 50 years ago. Many chefs have modified their cooking styles to highlight the natural flavours and textures of their ingredients, and their menus are often simpler now for this reason.

International Influences

After the middle of the twentieth century, as travel became easier and as immigrants arrived in Europe and North America from around the world, awareness of and taste for regional dishes grew. Chefs became more knowledgeable not only about the traditional cuisines of other parts of Europe but about those of Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere.

Many of the most creative chefs have been inspired by these cuisines and use some of their techniques and ingredients. For example, many North American and French chefs, looking for ways to make their cooking lighter and more elegant, have found ideas in the cuisine of Japan. In the southwestern United States, a number of chefs have transformed Mexican influences into an elegant and original cooking style. Throughout North America, traditional dishes and regional specialties combine the cooking traditions of immigrant settlers and the indigenous ingredients of a bountiful land. For many years, critics often argued that menus in most North American restaurants offered the

same monotonous, mediocre food. In recent decades, however, American and Canadian cooks have rediscovered traditional North American dishes. The use of ingredients and techniques from more than one regional, or international, cuisine in a single dish is known as fusion cuisine. Early attempts to prepare fusion

cuisine often produced poor results because the dishes were not true to any one culture and were too mixed up. This was especially true in the 1980s, when the idea of fusion cuisine was new. Cooks often combined ingredients and techniques without a good feeling for how they would work together. The result was sometimes a jumbled

mess. But chefs who have taken the time to study in depth the cuisines and cultures they borrow from have brought new excitement to cooking and to restaurant menus. Today chefs make good use of all the ingredients and techniques available to them. It is almost second nature to give extra depth to the braising liquid for a beef pot roast by adding Mexican ancho peppers, for example, or to include Thai basil and lemon grass in a seafood salad. In the recipe sections of this book, classic dishes from many regions of the world are included among more familiar recipes from home. To help you understand these recipes and the cuisines they come from, background information accompanies

many of them. Cooking and cooking styles continue to change. Technology continues to make rapid advances in our industry, and men and women are needed who can adapt to these changes and respond to new challenges. Although automation and convenience foods will no doubt grow in importance, imaginative chefs who can create new dishes and develop new techniques and styles will always be needed, as will skilled cooks who can apply both old and new techniques to produce high-quality foods in all kinds of facilities, from restaurants and hotels to schools and hospitals.