SCS 073 | Greek Salad Challenge, Dissecting A Dish's Flavor Structure, & Searing Scallops

Stella Culinary School

In this episode, I lay out the "Greek Salad Challenge" as a homework assignment. The purpose of this challenge is to drill knife skills, and work on creating baseline seasonings through balancing fat, acid and salt.

We then carry this concept over into a lesson on how I would recreate the flavor of a hollandaise sauce if all I had was a recipe and had never tasted hollandaise before. This first principals approach to dissecting a dish through flavor structure will allow you to understand and replicate flavor structures at their most basic level.

Then, I walk you through yet un-edited footage of me searing scallops in the restaurant, which leads to a deep dive in the mistakes people make when cooking scallops, as well as some basic plate composition tips.

CONTENT REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE

• Culinary Knife Skills: https://stellaculinary.com/cks
• Cooking Techniques (pan roasting): https://stellaculinary.com/ct
• Emulsion Science: https://stellaculinary.com/fs

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

For your homework assignment, make either a greek salad, or a salsa / chutney / garnish inspired by the greek salad methodology laid out in the podcast.

Focus on the basic knife skill techniques of:

1. The Pinch Grip
2. Guide Hand
3. Julienne. If making a salsa or chutney, focus on the dice, making everything as even as possible.

When dressing and building your flavor structures, remember; fat first, acid second, vinegar third. Take it from there. More advanced students, add a protein of choice. Recommended proteins are pan roasted chicken / fish, shrimp, scallops, steak. _____________________________________________________

The Stella Culinary School Podcast is available through your favorite podcast app, such as Apple, Google, Spotify, & Stitcher.

If you want to learn how to stop following recipes and start creating, then check out my Culinary Boot Camp & F-STEP Curriculum which can be found here: https://stellaculinary.com/bootcamp

Get notified when new content is released, by signing up for my free e-mail newsletter: https://stellaculinary.com/content/e-mail-sign

Join our Friendly Facebook Group at https://Facebook.com/groups/StellaCulinary

Check out our podcast archive here: https://stellaculinary.com/audio-podcasts/stella-culinary-school