Related Recipes: Eggs Sardou; Leeks, Shrimp, and Goat Cheese Frittata; Spanish eggs; Veal Holstein
Marie-Antoine Carême (1784-1833), who some say was the first celebrity chef, was known for greatly simplifying and codifying the style of cooking known as haute cuisine, the high art of French cooking.
At the young age of twenty-one, he was already a noted chef to the French aristocracy and went on to serve as head chef to the future George IV of England, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Baron James de Rothschild. Not only was he a renowned chef, he was the author of voluminous works on cookery, which included hundreds of recipes, menus, a history of French cookery, instructions for organizing kitchens, and of course, instructions for monumental architectural constructions of food called pièces montées.
Carême is also credited with redesigning chef uniforms as we know them today. For example, he required his chefs to wear double-breasted jackets, which serves to conceal stains on the jacket as one side can be rebuttoned over the other. Carême also thought that the hats should be different sizes, to distinguish the cooks from the chefs.
The chefs wore the tall hats and the younger cooks wore shorter hats, more like a cap. Carême himself supposedly wore a hat that was eighteen inches tall! The folded pleats of the hat, called a toque, later became an established characteristic of the chef's hat. Often there were precisely a hundred pleats, said to have been added to indicate the more than a hundred ways in which a chef can cook an egg.
It is such culinary trivia that the students in my Culinary 101 History and Development class in the John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University find quite interesting. For instance, the double-breasted jacket (chef’s coat) not only serves to conceal stains, but it also repels heat and prevents serious injuries from burns and scalds. An apron is worn to just below knee-length also to prevent burns due to spillage. The black-and-white checked pants camouflage minor spills and soiling, and the neckerchiefs give a more finished look to the uniforms, as well as soaking up perspiration in hot kitchens.
One of my more curious students cornered me one day after class and asked if there really were a hundred ways to cook an egg, and I assured him that there were.
Think about it. The incredible, edible egg is pure protein in a small ovoid package, and there are numerous (both sweet and savory) methods to prepare this natural and versatile food.
Eggs can be boiled, scrambled, poached, baked, basted, fried, shirred, coddled, pickled (as in quail eggs) and used to make omelets, frittatas, and soufflés. Eggs go into cake batters, quiches, breakfast burritos and are used to make mayonnaise and hollandaise.
Eggs, along with bread and milk, are staples in most kitchens, and every country on the globe has its own repertoire of egg-based dishes.
At the John Folse Culinary Institute, first-year students get their fair share of hands-on preparation of eggs. Drop in at early-morning four-hour labs and you will observe students in Chef/Instructors Dean Terrebonne and Amelie Benoit’s classes flipping eggs (it’s best to practice flipping dry toast in a skillet before plopping an egg into the pot), turning out perfect (well, some not so perfect) omelets, scrambling (do you want yours soft or hard?), making frittatas (similar to a quiche or omelet) and showing off their toads-in-a-hole. Just about everyone, both students and chef/instructors, has their personal favorites.
I, for one, love deviled eggs—plain old deviled eggs, but especially those in which smoked salmon or crabmeat is added. Chef George Kaslow (our meat fabricator instructor) loves a tortilla Espanola—eggs, potatoes, onions, Spanish olive oil, salt and pepper made in a non-stick skillet. Chef Kaslow and I share a love for veal Holstein—an egg plopped on top of veal scallops.
When asked about her favorite egg dish, Chef Benoit brought me a cookbook Eggs by Jodi Liano and told me “anything out of this book.” After flipping through it, I agreed that any of the recipes within would tickle my taste buds—I particularly liked the sound of egg and spinach tarts. Chef Randy Cheramie claims that any of the New Orleans brunch classics—eggs Benedict, eggs Hussard, eggs Sardou—suit him just fine as long as any of the accompanying sauces such as béarnaise and hollandaise are made just right.
Marcelle Bienvenu was born into a large Acadian family for which good cooking was almost as large an article of faith as the Catholic religion. In addition to writing food columns, she is the author of several cookbooks.
