Garde Manger

I just finished the Garde Manger class. In the classical brigade kitchen, "Garde Manger" is the cold food storage area. The person in charge of Garde Manger prepares salads, cold appetizers and hors d'oeuvres. This may not seem too exciting, but there are some really valuable things to learn about cold food. We prepared some really great appetizers, salads and hors d'oeuvres. We also learned a lot about plating, and how to create an attractive plate.



Here's some seared ahi tuna, shiitake mushroom salad with wasabi cream and sweet soy sauce.













This is a crab and avocado salad with sour cream.














Here's a green salad I made at home. It's mixed baby greens with a lemon parsley vinaigrette.

Every salad plate and appetizer plate needs four things: a main component, side component, sauce and garnish. Here, the main component is the greens, side component is the crostini, sauce is the vinaigrette and the garnish is the cheese and the tomato wedges.










Soba Noodle salad














Hors d'oeuvres:

Pesto deviled eggs















Prosciutto and melon ball canapes

















Blue cheese mousse in Belgian Endive leaves
































We made a cold soup as well. This is a chicken consomme. A consomme is a clear soup. To make this, you take regular chicken stock, and clarify it with white chicken meat, julienne of mirepoix, egg whites and simmer until clear. The ingredients will create a raft at the top of the pot. After simmering for 45 minutes, drain the liquid off and chill. You can add gelatin to thicken, and finish by seasoning and garnish. This may not be everyone's favorite dish, but it's really attractive; completely clear.
(Photo credit: Chris Grebner)



For one of the tests in this class, we were given a handful of ingredients and had to make a dish from it. My ingredients were: scallops, fennel, frisse, orange, red bell pepper and asiago cheese. I made pan seared scallops with a fennel and frisse salad, a garnish of orange supremes and a red bell pepper coulis.