Mise en place your vocabulary with these culinary gems.
Briefly plunging food into boiling water then shocking it in ice water to halt cooking—a thermal one-night stand that sets color, loosens skins, or par-cooks vegetables. It's the culinary equivalent of hitting pause.
In painting, the art of mixing two containers of similar paint colors to ensure absolutely uniform color across your project—because nobody wants a stripe down the middle of their wall. Also applicable to boxing actual punches, but that's less relevant in a commercial setting.
See 'Brunette' entry—it's important enough to deserve its own definition because sauce nerds care about roux nomenclature.
A beurre blanc-style sauce that uses brown butter instead of clarified butter. It's essentially a beurre blanc going through an identity crisis.
A heated enclosure where baby chicks or premature infants are kept warm and cozy—basically a luxury incubator for creatures too delicate to handle room temperature like the rest of us peasants.
An even more precise brunoise cut, measuring exactly 1/16 inch cubes. It exists primarily to make chefs feel superior about their knife skills.
A stick-cut vegetable roughly 1/4 inch × 1/4 inch × 2-3 inches; the Goldilocks zone between julienne and chunky, requiring just enough precision to be annoying.
A hollandaise variant made with tarragon, shallots, and red wine reduction instead of just lemon juice; hollandaise's more sophisticated older sibling who studied abroad.
A cream soup traditionally made from shellfish stock and thickened with roux, cream, and pounded shellfish meat or shells; the soup equivalent of pure decadence in a bowl.
Butter cooked until the milk solids brown, creating a nutty aroma and rich flavor; essentially burnt butter but in a socially acceptable way.
To pour heated alcohol over food and ignite it, burning off most of the alcohol while adding dramatic flair and complex flavor. It's basically controlled fire with delicious intentions.
Meat (usually chicken, fish, or game) that's deboned, filled, rolled tightly, and then tied or sewn before cooking. It's basically meat engineering for those who want stuffing without the bird.
A magnificent meal consumed when day-time sleeping has left you in a chronological gray zone, combining breakfast comfort, lunch portions, and dinner variety into one glorious feast.
A stick-shaped vegetable cut measuring 1/4 inch × 1/4 inch × 2-3 inches long. It's the bigger brother of julienne and slightly less intimidating.
Dark brown butter, cooked until the milk solids turn deep brown and nutty—usually finished with lemon juice and capers. It's butter that's had a glow-up.
To split a thicker cut of meat, poultry, or fish partially through, then open it flat like butterfly wings. A technique for achieving faster, more even cooking.