max223•8d ago

The new cooks keep over-reducing sauces and calling it 'concentrated flavor'

I noticed about six months ago at the place I work in Denver, a lot of the younger line cooks started reducing their demi-glace until it was basically syrup. They'd show me a pan with barely a cup left from a gallon and say it's more intense. But they lost all the body and it just tastes burnt and sticky. Anybody else seeing this trend where people confuse reduction with just cooking the water out?

3 comments

3 Comments

moore.beth8d ago

Boy howdy, I had this exact fight at my last kitchen. What finally worked was pulling the new cooks aside and doing a side by side tasting of a properly reduced demi against their syrup sludge. I let them see how the good one still coats a spoon but flows, while theirs just sits there like tar. Then I had them taste each one on a piece of bread, not just off a spoon, so they could feel the difference in texture and how the saltiness hits you. Forced them to remake it from scratch three times until they stopped babysitting the pan and let it reduce at a gentle simmer. They got it eventually but man it took a lot of wasted veal stock to get there.

michaelgrant8d ago

Three times from scratch? That's insane. Veal stock is expensive as hell. I'd be having a heart attack watching them dump that down the drain over and over. Did you make them pay for the wasted product or did the restaurant just eat that cost? Because that's like a hundred bucks in bones and veg right there. No way my chef would let that slide more than once.

susan_adams7d ago

That "syrup sludge" bit you mentioned moore.beth really got me. I can just picture that stuff clinging to a spoon like glue. You know, it's funny because my Aunt Carol used to make a gravy that was basically concrete by the time dinner was over. We'd have to chisel it off the plate. But anyway, back to the stock thing, it really is a waste watching good product get dumped. Michaelgrant, you're right about the cost being insane, three times over would make me sweat just thinking about it. Did you ever figure out a way to scale that training so it doesn't cost the restaurant a fortune?