Dishwasher Duty on Sauce Day

Day two of sauces and the pile of dishes didn't end: each team of two used 2 sauté pans, two sauce pans, several large stainless bowls, numerous cereal-sized tasting bowls, a cutting board, a tray... plus their individual tools and a half dozen big plastic bins that held clarified butter, veal stock, and demiglace. But in the middle of cleaning the kitchen, we received a tray of perfectly baked cookies and toffee. Time for a short break...

We started the day with a review of the questions we're likely to encounter on the safety exams. We'll have two — Monday is the in-class final and Tuesday is the certification exam. Chef made it into a game — the two students with the highest score on today's quiz won Lindt chocolate bars. ("Come on, people, this is serious business! There's chocolate at stake!!") We spent about an hour reviewing multiple choice questions, regularly interrupted by hilarious stories about lobsters flying across the dining room, sewers crawling with cockroaches, the hot line at the Saint Francis hotel, and wasp removal ("Shut the windows and watch from inside.") Jordan staged a come-from-behind win for first place, much to Rudy's chagrin.

In the kitchen, we learned our second primary (formerly "mother") sauce, espagnole. Espagnole is veal stock, enriched with mirepoix, tomato paste, and herbs, and reduced by half. To make a classic demiglace, the espagnole is then strained, combined with an equal portion of veal stock, and reduced by half again. The resulting mixture is richly brown and gelatinous at room temperature, and an invaluable ingredient in "quick" pan sauces. Note the term "classic": Chef told us that contemporary chefs usually make a "modern" demiglace by reducing veal stock by half. And demiglace is commercially available also, but very expensive if it's well made. You can see why.

So we made Espagnole out of the veal stock we made earlier in the week, then made classic demiglace from that. (Because of the length of class, we were unable to cook either sauce for the recommended two hours or more. The kitchen Chef collects the successful results of the day's classes and combines them, then gives them the required attention to become finished products. They're either used again in our class or another, or used in the student cafeteria.) We also made Bordelaise, Robert, and Bigarade sauces, all using demiglace. The Bordelaise is red wine-based, and so luscious that you can taste the steak and sautéed mushrooms that should accompany it. Robert is mustard-based. Bigarade has orange and lemon juice and peel, and goes with duck. Our teams made less than a cup of each sauce, enough to taste and season properly, and to have the Chef taste it and advise. He brought in a couple of loaves of French bread so that leftovers were not really an issue.

Dishes were another story.

Some months ago, I told myself (and anyone who would listen) that I would rather peel potatoes than deal with "those people". Add to that, I would even rather be on dishwasher duty on sauce day. I'm loving this.