108 Fun Facts About Culinary Arts

What technique cooks food quickly in a little fat over high heat while stirring?

Sautéing comes from the French sauter, 'to jump', because the cook tosses the food to keep it moving in the pan.

Which French mother sauce is built on brown stock thickened with a brown roux?

Espagnole is the brown mother sauce: brown veal stock bound with a brown roux plus aromatics and tomato. Reduced with more stock it becomes demi-glace.

What does it mean to julienne a vegetable?

To julienne is to cut it into thin matchstick strips; the thin, uniform cut means every piece cooks quickly and at the same rate.

Which chef wrote 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking'?

Julia Child and her two French co-authors saw the manuscript turned down by their first publisher before Knopf brought it out in 1961, and it became a best-seller.

What is the main base ingredient of a béchamel sauce?

Béchamel is a roux thinned with milk and usually scented with nutmeg; stir in cheese and it becomes Mornay, the sauce American cooks make with cheddar for macaroni and cheese.

In which country did the Michelin star restaurant rating system originate?

The Michelin star system was created by the French tire company Michelin. The first Michelin Guide was published in 1900 to encourage road travel (and tire sales), and stars for fine dining were introduced in 1926.

What cooking method sears food at high heat, then slowly cooks it in liquid in a covered pot?

Braising suits tough cuts: the long, gentle cooking breaks down their collagen and connective tissue, and that, rather than the liquid, is what makes the meat seem so moist and tender.

What does 'al dente' mean when cooking pasta?

Firm to the bite ('to the tooth' in Italian) was not always the Italian way: cookbooks of the 1400s and 1500s had pasta cooked soft, sometimes for hours, and quicker cooking first caught on in 17th-century Naples.

Which handheld tool purées soup directly in the pot it was cooked in?

An immersion blender spares the cook a risky transfer: soup straight off the stove is too hot to blend safely in a countertop blender's jar, so the blades go into the pot instead.

In which city was the Le Cordon Bleu cooking school founded in 1895?

Le Cordon Bleu began in Paris when Marthe Distel's magazine La Cuisinière Cordon Bleu started offering cooking lessons; the first class was held in the kitchens of the Palais Royal.

What is briefly boiling food and then plunging it into ice water called?

Blanching's brief boil knocks out the enzymes that would otherwise dull a vegetable's colour, flavour and texture in the freezer, and the ice bath stops the cooking before it goes soft.

Which spice is known as the world's most expensive by weight?

Saffron costs so much because each crocus flower yields just three threadlike stigmas, all picked by hand: a single pound takes upwards of 70,000 flowers.

What is 'mise en place' in professional cooking?

Prepping and arranging ingredients before service is mise en place, French for 'putting in place': everything is chopped, measured and laid out so nothing has to be hunted for once orders start.

Which tool do chefs draw a knife along before cutting to restore its edge between sharpenings?

A honing steel maintains an edge rather than making one: a few strokes restore a blade's keenness between sharpenings, while a whetstone grinds metal away to form a new edge.

What is the Italian term for a pasta sauce made with eggs, cheese, and cured pork?

Carbonara is younger than it tastes: it is usually traced to the 1940s, when the bacon and powdered eggs of American soldiers met Italian pasta and cheese, and most Italian recipes today use no cream.

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay was born in which country?

Scotland: Gordon Ramsay was born in Johnstone in 1966, but his family moved south when he was a boy and he grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon, in England.

What process transforms grape juice into wine or cabbage into sauerkraut?

Fermentation puts microbes to work: yeast turns the sugar in grape juice into alcohol, while bacteria turn cabbage's sugars into the lactic acid that sours sauerkraut and keeps it from spoiling.

Sushi chefs season their rice, known as shari, with sugar, salt and which other ingredient?

Vinegar was the shortcut: the earliest sushi was salted fish preserved for months in rice that soured as it aged, and vinegar gave fresh rice that tang at once.

What is the culinary term for adding liquid to a hot pan to dissolve the browned bits stuck to the bottom?

Deglazing turns what looks like a dirty pan into sauce: wine or stock dissolves the browned bits left by searing, and that liquid becomes the base of a gravy or pan sauce.

Which country is the origin of the noodle soup pho?

Pho comes from the north of Vietnam: the beef noodle soup took shape near Hanoi under French colonial rule and spread south with the northerners who fled after the 1954 partition.

What is the primary leavening agent in traditional sourdough bread?

A wild yeast and bacteria starter raises sourdough: the yeast gives off the carbon dioxide that lifts the loaf, while the bacteria make the lactic acid behind its tang and its longer shelf life.

Which French chef is credited with systematizing French cuisine and codifying the five mother sauces?

Auguste Escoffier ran the kitchens of London's Savoy Hotel, where he created peach Melba for the singer Nellie Melba, and organised his cooks into the brigade system kitchens still use.

Which Indian spice blend's name means 'hot spices'?

Garam masala, 'hot spices', typically blends black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cumin and cloves, which are roasted before being ground together.

What is the Maillard reaction?

Amino acids reacting with sugars to brown food is what flavours a seared steak or a bread crust; it needs a surface well above water's boiling point, from about 140°C (280°F), which is why cooks pat meat dry first.

In the brigade system, which station cook prepares vegetables, soups and egg dishes?

Entremetier comes from entremets, Old French for 'between dishes': the sides once sent out between courses, which is why this cook handles vegetables, soups and eggs rather than meat or fish.

Which Mexican sauce, with Puebla's version the most famous, can blend chili peppers, chocolate and 20 or more ingredients?

Mole, in one legend, was improvised by nuns at a Puebla convent as they rushed to feed a visiting archbishop.

Which term describes a roast's internal temperature continuing to climb after it leaves the oven?

Carryover cooking happens because a roast's outside is hotter than its centre, so heat keeps moving inward after it leaves the oven; that is why cooks take meat out a few degrees early and let it rest.

What is the name of the Japanese cooking stock made from kelp and dried bonito flakes?

Dashi is never boiled hard: the kombu (kelp) and bonito shavings are heated in water to just below boiling and strained out, because boiled kombu turns the broth bitter.

What is pastry made by repeatedly folding butter into the base, as in croissants, called?

Laminated dough is rolled and folded until thin sheets of butter and dough alternate; in the oven the butter melts and its water turns to steam, puffing the layers apart into the flake of a croissant.

Among chefs, what does the acronym CIA stand for?

The Culinary Institute of America opened in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1946 to retrain veterans returning from World War II, and later moved into a former Jesuit novitiate at Hyde Park, New York.

Which showy technique has a cook ignite alcohol in a hot pan?

Flambéing burns off less alcohol than it looks: US Department of Agriculture figures put about 75% still in the dish after the flames die, so the fire is as much presentation as cooking.

Which classic French dish consists of snails cooked with garlic, butter, and parsley?

Escargot are land snails baked in garlic and parsley butter and served in their shells; the taste is an old one, since the Romans bred snails and counted them a luxury, as Pliny the Elder recorded.

Which fifth basic taste did Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda identify in 1908 while studying kombu broth?

Umami comes from glutamate, which Ikeda isolated from the kelp; a year later it was on sale as the seasoning Ajinomoto, the first commercial MSG.

Which Italian word labels prosciutto that is cooked rather than dry-cured like prosciutto crudo?

Cotto means cooked, as in panna cotta: prosciutto cotto is cooked ham, while crudo stays raw yet is ready to eat, because salting and many months of air-drying have cured it.

Which two ingredients are cooked together to make a classic French roux?

Butter and flour, cooked together in roughly equal weights, make a roux; the longer it cooks, the darker and nuttier it turns, and the less it thickens.

Which cooking method seals food in an airtight bag and holds it in precisely heated water?

Sous vide, French for 'under vacuum', cooks food slowly in a sealed pouch at a low, exactly held temperature, so it cooks evenly from edge to centre and keeps its moisture.

What is the name of the large, cylindrical hat traditionally worn by chefs?

The toque blanche, 'white hat', carries meaning in its shape: its height may show a chef's rank, and each pleat is said to stand for a technique the wearer has mastered.

Which beans are salted and aged with koji mould to make traditional Japanese miso?

Soybeans are cooked, then aged with salt and koji, a grain carrying the mould Aspergillus oryzae; the wait runs from days to years, one reason miso ranges from pale and sweet to dark and salty.

What is a bain-marie used for in cooking?

Gently heating food in a water bath means it can never get hotter than boiling water, the whole point of a bain-marie; the name, 'Mary's bath', probably honours an ancient alchemist called Maria.

Which salty condiment, a staple of Thai cooking, is known in Thailand as nam pla?

Fish sauce is little more than fish and salt: the two are packed together in vats and left for months until a brown liquid can be drawn off, which Thai cooks balance against sugar, lime and chili.

Which classic French knife cut produces a fine, even dice about 1/8 inch (3 mm) across?

Brunoise starts as fine sticks, which are turned a quarter turn and cut across into tiny cubes, small enough to float as a garnish on a clear consommé.

Which early-1800s chef, who cooked for Talleyrand and Tsar Alexander I, pioneered French grande cuisine?

Marie-Antoine Carême began as a pastry cook famous for sugar centrepieces modelled on classical buildings, and went on to write the illustrated books that set out grande cuisine for later chefs.

In candy making, sugar syrup cooked to about 300-310°F (149-154°C) has reached which stage?

Hard crack is the 300-310°F (149-154°C) stage: almost no water remains, so the syrup sets brittle and glassy, right for toffee, lollipops and brittle.

In a French kitchen brigade, what does the garde manger prepare?

Cold dishes like salads and pâtés fall to the garde manger because the name means the larder: the cook who kept a great household's cool food store took charge of everything served cold from it.

How does the French confit method, as in duck confit, keep food from spoiling?

In a confit, food is cooked and stored in fat: duck legs are salted, poached slowly in their own fat, then left submerged in it, and sealed that way the meat keeps for months.

What ingredient is traditionally used to clarify a stock into a crystal-clear consommé?

Egg whites are the traditional way to clear a consommé of the fat and sediment that cloud it; a newer method from molecular gastronomy filters the stock through frozen gelatin, giving a clear broth that no longer gels when chilled.

What is heating and cooling melted chocolate so it sets glossy with a clean snap called?

Cocoa butter can crystallize in six different forms, and only Form V gives the shine and snap of good bar chocolate. Tempering steers the fat into that one form; skip it and the surface turns dull and streaky.

What is the Korean staple of salted napa cabbage seasoned with chili flakes, garlic and ginger called?

Kimchi is traditionally made in bulk in late autumn, a communal ritual called kimjang that UNESCO lists as intangible heritage; the jars were once buried to the neck so they would not freeze over winter.

Which fresh fruit stops a gelatin dessert from setting because its enzyme bromelain digests protein?

Pineapple's bromelain cuts gelatin's protein chains apart, so the jelly never firms; cooking or canning destroys the enzyme, which is why tinned pineapple sets without trouble.

Which chef, 'father of modern French cuisine', ran La Pyramide in Vienne and trained nouvelle cuisine's stars?

Fernand Point died in 1955, years before critics coined 'nouvelle cuisine', but the chefs who defined that movement had trained in his kitchen at La Pyramide. His maxim was that success is the sum of many small things done correctly.

What is streamed into the whipping meringue base to make an Italian meringue?

Boiling sugar syrup is drizzled into the foam while the whisk keeps running; once it has cooled, the same meringue is beaten with softened butter to make Italian meringue buttercream.

What is the stringy traditional Mexican cheese used in quesadillas called?

Queso Oaxaca, or quesillo, is made like mozzarella: the curd is stretched into long ribbons and wound up like a ball of yarn, which is why it pulls into strings and melts so well in a quesadilla.

What does the Michelin Guide's three-star rating signify?

'Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey' reads like travel advice because it is: the tyre maker Michelin started its guide to get motorists driving, and two stars are 'worth a detour'.

In a classic hollandaise, which ingredient emulsifies the melted butter into a stable sauce?

Egg yolks emulsify hollandaise: their lecithin lets the melted butter and lemon juice, which would not otherwise mix, hold together, but too much heat curdles the sauce, so it is whisked over gentle heat.

Spherification wraps a liquid in a thin gel skin using sodium alginate, which is refined from what?

Seaweed: alginate comes from brown kelps, and a liquid mixed with it grows a thin skin within moments of being dripped into a calcium bath, a trick the Adrià brothers' team at elBulli brought into restaurant kitchens.

What is the traditional Indian clay oven used for cooking naan bread called?

A tandoor is a clay cylinder fired with charcoal that can reach about 480°C (900°F); naan dough is pressed onto its inner wall, where it bakes in minutes and browns in spots from the heat.

Which French term describes the diced onion, carrot and celery base for stocks and sauces?

Mirepoix is two parts onion to one each of carrot and celery, cooked slowly in butter without browning; it is named after an 18th-century Duke of Mirepoix, a French diplomat.

Binchotan, a hard white charcoal made from oak, is the premium fuel for grilling which Japanese dish?

Yakitori, chicken skewers grilled over charcoal, is cooked over binchotan in the better restaurants: the oak charcoal burns very hot while giving off almost no water vapour, and is so hard it rings like metal when struck.

Caesar salad was created in the 1920s by restaurateur Caesar Cardini in which Mexican border city?

Tijuana drew Americans dodging Prohibition, and Cardini is said to have improvised the salad there on July 4, 1924, when a holiday rush left his kitchen short of ingredients.

Peach Melba and Melba toast both honor Nellie Melba, who was famous in which profession?

Opera singer Nellie Melba was an Australian soprano, and the same admiring hotel chef created both the peach dessert and the thin, crisp toast for her.

Which Japanese condiment is so hard to farm that dyed horseradish is widely served instead?

Wasabi grows along mountain stream beds and resists large-scale farming, so a common stand-in is a paste of horseradish, mustard, starch and green coloring.

Which Japanese dish of battered, fried seafood grew from a method brought by Portuguese missionaries?

Tempura dates to the 16th century, when Portuguese Jesuits brought batter-frying to Nagasaki; its name may come from 'tempora', the Latin term they used for Lent and other holy days.

Which famous American baking name was never a real person, but a flour company's invention?

Betty Crocker was created in 1921 by the Washburn-Crosby Company, later part of General Mills, to give a personal reply to customers' baking questions; her surname honored a company director.

Which dish was improvised by maître d' Ignacio Anaya in the Mexican city of Piedras Negras?

Nachos took Anaya's nickname, Nacho: he put the dish together at the Victory Club for the wives of US officers stationed just across the border in Texas.

Which flavoring comes from the cured seed pods of a climbing orchid native to Mexico?

Vanilla could not be farmed at scale outside Mexico until 1841, when Edmond Albius, a 12-year-old enslaved boy on Réunion, found a quick way to pollinate the flowers by hand.

Which spicy bar snack is usually traced to the Anchor Bar in western New York State?

Buffalo wings are credited to Teressa Bellissimo in 1964, when chicken wings were cheap, unwanted cuts usually thrown away or saved for stock or soup.

Which meringue dessert is named for a Russian ballerina who toured Australia and New Zealand?

Pavlova honors Anna Pavlova, who toured both countries in the 1920s; Australia and New Zealand have argued ever since over which of them invented it.

Which raw beef dish, created at Harry's Bar in Venice, is named for a Venetian painter?

Carpaccio is named for Vittore Carpaccio, whose paintings are known for red and white tones; Giuseppe Cipriani devised it for a countess whose doctors advised raw meat.

Which compound gives chili peppers the burning heat that the Scoville scale measures?

Capsaicin burns mammals but not birds, whose receptors ignore it, which suits the plant: birds scatter the seeds whole, while mammals' teeth would crush them.

Which wheat protein network, strengthened by kneading, gives bread dough its stretch and chew?

Gluten forms when two wheat proteins, gliadin and glutenin, meet water, and kneading links them into elastic strands that help a loaf rise and keep its shape.

Which natural gelling fiber, abundant in apples and citrus peel, makes jams and jellies set?

Pectin makes up about 30 percent of citrus peel but only around 1 percent of an apple, and soft fruits such as cherries hold less still.

Which leavener is pure sodium bicarbonate and needs an acid in the batter to release all its gas?

Baking soda used with no acid gives up only half its carbon dioxide, which is why baking powder is sold with a weak acid already mixed in.

Which white powder, a byproduct of winemaking, is whipped into meringue to steady the foam?

Cream of tartar is potassium bitartrate, which crystallizes inside wine casks as the grape juice turns to wine; its acidity also helps candies and frostings stay smooth.

At which temperature threshold does a heated cooking oil begin giving off a continuous bluish haze?

Smoke point is lower for virgin oils than for refined ones, because the flavorful compounds left in an unrefined oil are the first things to burn.

Which technique soaks a turkey or pork chop in salt water before cooking so the meat stays moist?

Brining seasons meat all the way through as salt moves into the cells and changes their proteins; a marinade differs by adding an acid such as vinegar or citrus juice.

In bread baking, which term names the final rise of shaped dough before the loaf goes into the oven?

Proofing is judged with the poke test: press a finger into the dough, and if the dent springs back at once the loaf needs more time.

Which technique cooks an empty pie crust, weighed down with dried beans, before the filling goes in?

Blind baking stops a wet filling from turning the crust soggy, and the beans or ceramic weights keep the bare pastry from bubbling up or losing its shape.

Which process soaks dried corn in alkaline limewater before it is ground into masa for tortillas?

Nixtamalization, used in Mesoamerica for more than 3,000 years, makes corn far more nourishing; populations that rely on untreated corn risk the niacin-deficiency disease pellagra.

Which Lyon chef, a leader of nouvelle cuisine, has a biennial world cooking championship named after him?

Paul Bocuse's restaurant near Lyon held three Michelin stars for 55 years, from 1965 until 2020, and the Bocuse d'Or is often seen as the unofficial world championship for chefs.

Which New York chef exposed restaurant kitchen life in the bestselling memoir 'Kitchen Confidential'?

Anthony Bourdain grew the book out of a 1999 New Yorker article that he wrote while he was executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in Manhattan.

Which chef opened Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, and pioneered the farm-to-table movement?

Alice Waters opened the restaurant in 1971, and her push for organic food later inspired Michelle Obama's vegetable garden at the White House.

Which chef opened Spago on the Sunset Strip and made smoked salmon pizza a signature dish?

Wolfgang Puck opened Spago in 1982, a year after publishing his first cookbook, and moved the restaurant to Beverly Hills fifteen years later.

Which American cook, host of the 1940s NBC show 'I Love to Eat', has annual chef awards named after him?

James Beard published more than twenty books, and his Greenwich Village townhouse was preserved after his death as the home of the foundation behind the awards.

Which French title belongs to the second-in-command of a professional restaurant kitchen brigade?

Sous-chef literally means 'under-chief', and the job is hands-on: in quiet spells the deputy keeps the cooks prepping and cleaning for the next rush.

In a restaurant kitchen, which role takes orders from the dining room and calls them out to each station?

Expediter is the English name for the role the classical French brigade calls the aboyeur, a title that literally means 'barker'.

Which restaurant professional, whose title once meant a pack-animal driver, selects and serves the wine?

Sommelier comes from Middle French, where it named a court official in charge of transporting supplies, in the days when those supplies moved by pack animal.

In American restaurant slang, a cook who says the salmon has been '86'd' means the kitchen has done what?

To 86 a dish is to have run out of it, and nobody knows why: the slang seems to date from the 1920s or 1930s, and its origin has inspired many rival theories.

The double-breasted front of a traditional chef's jacket can be reversed mid-service to do what?

Reversing the flaps lets a cook hide stains before facing diners, while the jacket's thick cotton guards against stove heat and splashes of boiling liquid.

Which Mexican taco filling, shaved from a vertical spit, grew out of the shawarma of Lebanese immigrants?

Al pastor swapped the lamb of shawarma for chili-marinated pork, cooked on a spit called a trompo, or 'spinning top', and often served with pineapple.

Which fiery curry from Goa takes its name from a Portuguese dish of meat marinated in wine and garlic?

Vindaloo began as carne de vinha d'alhos, made with pork, and reached Britain because the British prized Goan cooks and took up their 'Portuguese curry'.

Which pungent sauce of salted, aged fish was a prized condiment and major export across ancient Rome?

Garum was shipped to Rome from factories on the coast of Spain, where the ruins of one survive at Baelo Claudia, and jars of a kosher version turned up at Pompeii.

Which mold culture, grown on steamed rice or barley, starts the making of sake, soy sauce and miso?

Koji mold breaks the starch in rice, barley or sweet potato down into sugars, the step that lets brewers go on to turn those grains into sake and shochu.

Filé powder, stirred into Louisiana gumbo as a thickener, is made from the ground leaves of which tree?

Sassafras leaves were first dried and ground as a seasoning by the Choctaw of the American South, and Creole cooks took up the powder for their gumbo.

Which spice is made from the lacy red covering that wraps the seed of the nutmeg tree?

Mace and nutmeg come from one fruit: the crimson covering is peeled off the seed, flattened and dried for 10 to 14 days, and the tree is native to Indonesia's Banda Islands.

Which vegetable replaces the carrot when Cajun cooks turn the French aromatic base into the 'holy trinity'?

Bell pepper joined the onion and celery partly because it was cheaper and easier to find in Louisiana than carrots; chef Paul Prudhomme probably popularized the nickname around 1981.

Which Italian cheese is traditionally made by reheating the whey left over from other cheeses?

Ricotta means 'recooked': it is made by coagulating the proteins, mainly albumin and globulin, that stay behind in the whey once the casein has gone into another cheese.

Which Japanese multi-course haute cuisine shares its name with the frugal meal served before a tea ceremony?

Kaiseki draws on four older traditions, among them imperial court, Buddhist temple and samurai cooking, and the tea-ceremony meal is linked to the tea master Sen no Rikyū.

Traditional balsamic vinegar, aged for at least 12 years in wooden casks, is the pride of which Italian city?

Modena marks age on the cap: a gold one bearing 'extravecchio' shows that a bottle of its traditional vinegar has aged for 25 years or more.

Which French lawyer wrote 'The Physiology of Taste' and later had a triple-cream cheese renamed in his honor?

Brillat-Savarin published the book anonymously in December 1825, two months before his death, and French publishers have kept it in print continuously from that first edition.

Which chilled leek-and-potato soup, despite its French name, was invented at New York's Ritz-Carlton Hotel?

Vichyssoise was created by Louis Diat, the hotel's French-born head chef, who based it on his mother's leek and potato soup; it became the most celebrated of his dishes there.

Which classic French sauce is made by adding grated cheese, usually Gruyère and Parmesan, to a béchamel?

Mornay may honor the diplomat Philippe, duc de Mornay, but the origin is uncertain: the béchamel it is built on had not yet been developed in his lifetime.

Which chocolate-making step, invented by Rodolphe Lindt, stirs the mass for hours until it turns smooth?

Conching is said to have begun by accident, when Lindt left a mixer running over a weekend and found smoother, shinier chocolate; the tale may be apocryphal.

Which Michelin Guide award, named after the company mascot, marks good food at moderate prices?

Bib Gourmand has flagged such restaurants since 1997; Bib is short for Bibendum, the company's own nickname for the Michelin Man.

Which collection of ancient Roman recipes shares its name with a gourmet of the emperor Tiberius's reign?

Apicius, also titled De re coquinaria, 'On the Subject of Cooking', may have been compiled as late as the fifth century, long after the gourmet it is credited to.

Which French food encyclopedia, first edited by chef Prosper Montagné, bears a dictionary publisher's name?

Larousse Gastronomique first appeared in 1938 with few dishes or ingredients from beyond French borders; later editions added many more.

Imitation crab sticks are made from surimi, a paste most often produced from which mild white fish?

Alaska pollock became the surimi fish after record Hokkaido catches in the late 1940s, taken mainly for the roe, left a glut of meat to use up.

On a restaurant menu, 'sweetbreads' are a calf's or lamb's pancreas or which other gland?

Thymus sweetbreads come only from young animals, because the gland is replaced by fibrous tissue with age; sweetbreads from beef and pork are always pancreas.

Which New York restaurant, founded by two Swiss-Italian brothers, is said to have invented Lobster Newberg?

Delmonico's began in 1827 in a rented pastry shop on William Street, and its kitchen is one of several said to have originated eggs Benedict.