Professional Garde Manger: A Comprehensive Guide to Cold Food Preparation

Master the Art of the Cold Kitchen

Millions if chefs have learned the fundamentals of cooking and baking like a professional from Professional Cooking and Professional Baking. Now, Lou Sachett, Jaclyn Pestka, and consulting author Wayne Gisslen bring those same hallmark features to understanding the art of garde manger.

This comprehensive and beautifully designed book builds on basic skills to present students and professional chefs with the advanced concepts and skills necessary to master garde manger work. Visually stunning and lavishly illustrated, the book includes step–to–step techniques, procedures, and finished dishes for more than 375 recipes and 400 variations. A variety of visuals totaling more than 700, and including more than 500 photographs, new and unique plating blueprints, and hundreds of line drawings, bring to life the methods, skills, and artistry at the core of garde manger work.

Professional Garde Manger is organized in a logical progression from basic preparations, such as sauces, salads, and sandwiches, to more complex ones, such as charcuterie work, mousselines, and chaud–froid. Within each chapter, practical theory is presented first, followed by information on ingredients, basic procedures, and, finally, recipes.

The demands of the garde manger’s craft require knowledge and skills drawn from all culinary disciplines. Professional Garde Manger, the most comprehensive treatment of the cold kitchen available, thoroughly prepares culinary students, cooks, and chefs for the specialized work of the garde manger chef—presenting high–quality cold foods for a variety of purposes and settings.

Recipe Table of Contents.

Preface.

How to Use This Book.

Acknowledgments.

1.The Garde Manger Profession.

The History of Garde Manger.

The Successful Garde Manger Chef.

Opportunities in Garde Manger.

Garde Manger Facilities and Equipment.

2. Sauces and Dressings.

Introduction to Emulsion Sauces.

Vinaigrettes.

Mayonnaise.

Classic Mayonnaise Sauces.

Contemporary Mayonnaise–Based Sauces and Dressings.

Dairy–Based Sauces.

Cold Sauces Made from Vegetables and Fruits.

3. Simple Salads and Tossed Salads.

Salads Made from Leafy Greens.

Salad Ingredients.

Purchasing Salad Greens.

Cleaning, Fabricating, and Storing Salad Greens.

Four Methods of Preparing Simple and Tossed Salads.

4. Cold Vegetables and Fruits.

Vegetables in Garde Manger Work.

Applications for Cold Vegetables.

Understanding Vegetables.

Fruits in Garde Manger Work.

Applications for Fruits and Fruit Dishes.

Understanding Fruit.

Purchasing, Storing, and Managing Produce.

Fabricating Produce.

Preparing Vegetables for Raw Service.

Cooking Vegetables and Fruits.

5. Complex Salads.

Understanding Complex Salads.

Understanding Arranged Salads.

6. Cold Seafood.

Understanding Seafood Classifications.

Types of Cold Seafood Dishes.

Cooking Methods for Cold Seafood.

Seafood Mousses.

Seafood Served Raw.

Raw Shellfish Specialties.

Caviar.

7. Cold Meats.

Applications for Cold Meats.

Preparing Cold Meat Products.

Raw Meat Dishes.

Meat–Based Mousses.

Foie Gras.

8. Cold Soups.

Understanding Cold Soups.

Preparing Cold Soups.

9. Garde Manger Sandwiches.

Understanding Sandwiches.

The Four Basic Sandwich Elements.

Types of Sandwiches.

Making Sandwiches.

Sandwich Procedures and Recipes.

10. Cold Hors d’Oeuvres.

Understanding Hors d’Oeuvres.

Types of Hors d’Oeuvres.

Presenting Hors d’Oeuvres.

Serving Hors d’Oeuvres.

Preparing Canapés.

11. Cured and Smoked Foods.

Understanding Curing.

Ingredients for Cured Foods.

Curing Procedures.

Brine Curing.

Dry Curing.

Introduction to Smoked Foods.

Ingredients.

Smoking Temperature.

Equipment for Smoking.

The Smoking Procedures.

Foods Preserved in Fat.

12. Sausages.

Understanding Sausages.

The Anatomy of a Sausage.

Types of Sausages.

Ingredients.

Equipment for Sausage Making.

The Four Phases of Sausage Production.

13. Pâtés, Terrines, and Charcuterie Specialties.

Pâtés and Terrines.

Equipment for Pâté Production.

Preparing Pâtés and Terrines.

Galantines, Ballottines, and Pâté Roulades.

Storing and Presenting Pâtés.

14. Cheese and Other Dairy Products.

Fresh Dairy Products.

Fermented Dairy Products.

Cheese.

15. Mousselines.

Introduction to Mousselines.

Understanding Mousseline Forcemeats.

Ingredients for Mousselines.

Preparing Mousseline Forcemeats.

16. Aspic and Chaud–Froid.

The Challenge of Aspic and Chaud–Froid Work.

Aspic.

Chaud–Froid.

Mayonnaise Collée.

Aspic and Chaud–Froid Work.

Surface Décor for Aspic and Chaud–Froid Work.

17. Condiments, Embellishments, and Décor.

Finishing Touches.

Condiments.

Embellishments.

Décor.

18. Buffets and Food Bars.

Understanding Buffets.

Food Bars.

Appendix: Basic Preparations.

Bibliography.

Glossary.

Subject Index.

Recipe Index. 

Lou Sachett is a food writer and culinary educator who has written for both local and national culinary publications. Having taught previously at The Restaurant School in Philadelphia, she currently teaches at Dauphin County Technical School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Jaclyn Pestka is a regionally acclaimed restaurant chef with a specialty in world cuisines. Her tenure as chef instructor at The School of Culinary Arts in York, Pennsylvania led to her work in garde manger and expertise in charcuterie. She is now executive chef of Channels Food Rescue in Central Pennsylvania.

Wayne Gisslen (Consulting Author) is the author of the bestselling series of culinary books that includes Professional Cooking, Professional Baking, Advanced Professional Cooking, and Essentials of Professional Cooking, all published by Wiley. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, he has written and worked extensively in the field of culinary arts.

We don’t know how much attention is paid to the cold food aspect of your restaurant’s operation. But we’re betting you’d find a hundred things about it you could do better merely by skimming through Professional Garde Manger: A Comprehensive Guide to Cold Food Preparation (Wiley, $85).

Authors Lou Sackett and Jaclyn Pestka are releasing their 780–page book at the just the right time. Many restaurants now emphasize super–fresh local ingredients and artisan–quality small plate offerings. Both require more careful handling of ingredients and crafting of artful presentations, but less actual cooking, than was the case even a few years ago. Cheese boards, shellfish towers and charcuterie plates are just a few of the no–cook items that have become fixtures on many contemporary menus.

These three topics are covered extensively in this impressively comprehensive book. There′s plenty of old–school garde manger fare, too: an entire chapter is devoted to aspic and chaud–froid work, and there′s one just for mousselines. But don′t worry. While the term garde manger may conjure up visions of stilted 1970s continental cuisine, this book′s contents are right in step with the culinary times.

There are 375 recipes in all. But the greater value may come from the book′s serious tone. The textbook–like approach lets whoever holds the position in your kitchen know that their work is indeed important and can be done much better than it′s being done now.

Garde manger work will never be sexy. But this book gives you an easy way to upgrade the quality of the food that comes out of the cold food station in your kitchen. These days, that can mean a lot. (Restaurant–Hospitality.com)