C4 Mrs. Maria Cassar & Mr. Ronald Debrincat
A SHORT PRAYER BEFORE CLASS
Learning Outcome 4 K1 Know the different aspects when preparing, cooking, serving and storing food commodities.
C4 Discuss the quality checks to follow when cooking and serving dishes by suggesting ways to improve the sensory features in a meal. DESCRIBE...? Assessment...?
MATSEC SYLLABUS C-4. Discuss the quality checks to follow when cooking and serving dishes by suggesting ways to improve the sensory features in a meal. Quality checks: appearance: colour; garnishes; aroma; texture; taste; Improving sensory features: use of herbs and spices to improve aroma; use of fruits and vegetables to enhance colour; use of equipment to serve at the correct temperature e.g. warming bulb; use of coloured plates for serving pale dishes.
Notice the appearance and garnish!
Why is quality checking important? Food quality is the quality characteristics of food that is acceptable to customers. This includes external factors as appearance (size, shape, colour, glass and consistency), texture, and flavour.
Have a look at what is expected for perfection!
Quality checks when cooking & serving food Appearance: Colour and garnishes Aroma Texture Taste
Which senses do we use? A range of senses are used when eating food. These senses are: sight; smell; hearing; taste; touch. A combination of these senses enables you to evaluate a food.
Appearance
Appearance The size, shape, colour, temperature and surface texture all play an important part in helping to determine your first reaction to a food. Often if a food does not look appetising, then you will not eat it. Appearance is therefore vitally important if you want your food to be eaten and enjoyed.
Useful words to describe appearance: Appearance stringy firm dry heavy flaky crumbly flat crisp lumpy fizzy fluffy smooth crystalline hard mushy cuboid sticky fragile dull
Appearance What words would you use to describe these foods??
Appearance: Colour
Appearance: Colour The recognition of specific flavor often relies on the food being coloured as expected. For example, we expect chocolate flavoured products to be brown.
When you re planning meals, think ahead about the colours you want to feature on the plate. You might not be able to represent all the colours of the rainbow at every meal, but challenge yourself to have as much colour as possible. Appearance: Colour
Appearance: Colour If you realize you re about to serve several like-coloured foods, like grilled chicken and mashed potatoes, adding a serving or two of fruits and vegetables is a fantastic and easy way to add pops of colour.
Appearance: Colour If you re not sure how to add colour, utilize garnishes. Nearly any savoury dish is well-served by a sprinkling of fresh chives, parsley, dill, or mint. Lemon and lime wedges are welcome alongside poultry and seafood dishes.
Use beautiful and high quality foods Bring out vegetables brightest colours. Veggies that are a tad overcooked lose their colour and tend to look less appetizing than those that are cooked just to the paint of softness. To avoid mushy, pallid vegetables, aim to cook them until they re bright with a bit of crunch by steaming, roasting or sautéing them.
Let meat rest Sear your meat and let it rest. Many meat dishes look most appetizing when the meat has been seared. The sight of a steak or piece of grilled salmon with a brown, crispy sear will make your dinner guests mouths start to water.
Let meat rest In addition to searing your meat, you should let it rest for several minutes before cutting it. This allows the juices to absorb back into the meat so that they don t end up running all over the plate.
Visualize the finished plate Consider how to present the main portion in relation to the side dishes. Be it a slice of pie, meat, a flan or anything else, consider where it will look best on the plate with the other elements of the dish.
Visualize the finished plate Consider also how to get the best impact: the appearance and symmetry are all affected by whether the food is sliced thinly, thickly or left whole.
Appearance: Garnishes
Using garnishing Use garnishes that enhance the flavor of the meal. Think beyond the standard garnishes. No matter what you re serving, make sure the garnish actually makes the dish better instead of just cluttering up the plate.
Using garnishing If you serve a dish with lemon or lime wedges, consider creating slender, pretty twists instead of slicing them into thick wedges. This might entice the diner to actually use the garnish instead of scooting it to the side of his or her plate.
Using garnishing Think outside the box and use garnishes you might not normally consider. Sprinkle a dash of cinnamon over a chicken dish, or a handful of pomegranate seeds over an otherwise ordinary salad. Choose garnishes that add a burst of both flavor and colour.
Using garnishing In many cuisines, flower are an acceptable garnish or a large inedible leaf sitting underneath the food.
Quality checks: Aroma
Odour The nose detects volatile aromas released from food. An odour may be described by association with a particular food, e.g. herby, cheesy, fishy. The intensity can also be recorded. Odour and taste work together to produce flavour. This is the reason why people with a blocked nose find it difficult to determine the flavours of foods.
Odour Useful words to describe odour: aromatic pungent spicy floral bland tainted perfumed rancid savoury rotten tart citrus acrid strong mild musty weak scented fragrant
Odour What words would you use to describe these foods?? British Nutrition Foundation 2010
Flavour and aroma are inextricably tied together making the ability to detect and distinguish specific aroma and flavor components crucial to sensory analysis. Quality checks: Aroma
Quality checks: Aroma It may be difficult to detect aroma since you have more than one ingredient in the dish, however if a foul smell is detected, make sure to check the food.
Quality checks: Texture
Texture Texture can be assessed through touch. When food is placed in the mouth, the surface of the tongue and other sensitive skin reacts to the feel of the surface of the food. The sensation is also known as mouthfeel. Different sensations are felt as the food is chewed. The resistance to chewing also affects texture, e.g. chewiness, springiness. The viscosity is also a factor, e.g. runny, thick. The mouth also detects temperature, which plays an important stimulus, e.g. cold icecream, warm bread, hot soup.
Texture Useful words to describe texture: brittle rubbery short gritty clammy close stodgy bubbly sandy tacky tender waxy open soft firm flaky crisp fluffy dry crumbly lumpy smooth hard mushy sticky chalky grainy fibrous
Texture What words would you use to describe these foods??
Quality checks: Texture The chef/cook has to make sure that the food is cooked at the correct consistency. Overcooked food affects its texture.
Quality checks: Texture Some food after cooking become tough like meat, while others become slimy and sloppy like pasta and vegetables.
Quality checks: Texture Undercooked food also affect the texture, leaving dishes hard to eat and unpalatable.
Quality checks: Texture Undercooked Overcooked
Quality checks: Taste
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mzqoimqgc8 TASTE
Taste The tongue can detect five basic tastes: bitter; salt; sour; sweet; umami. Taste may be described by association with a particular food, e.g. meaty, minty or fruity. The intensity can also be recorded, e.g. mild or strong Cheddar.
What is umami? Umami is a savoury taste, often known as the fifth taste. It is a subtle taste and blends well with other tastes. It was discovered by Dr Kikumae Ikeda, from Tokyo Imperial University, Japan, in 1908. He undertook research into Dashi, a traditional Japanese stock made from kombu (kelp). Umami has its own distinct savoury taste, often associated with ripe tomatoes and cheese.
Taste is not to be mixed with Flavour! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy3bfj8mrcm
Taste Useful words to describe taste: sweet cool bitter umami zesty warm hot tangy sour sharp rich salty bland rancid tart acidic strong citrus mild savoury spicy tainted weak
Taste What words would you use to describe these foods??
Quality checks: Taste Well seasoned food is always preferred by customers, however, too many strong flavours may be confuse the palate of the dish.
Quality checks: Taste A well-balanced dish should use the minimum number of ingredients to achieve the required results.
Quality checks: Taste Customers will then opt to add extra salt, pepper and cheese to enhance the taste according to their preference. Chilli French Mustard English Mustard Winchester Sauce Ketchup BBQ Sauce
Consolidating the 5 different tastes of food: Quality checks: Taste
Your Presentations! What to focus on: Appearance Colour Taste Texture Aroma What could be added What could be left out Different recipe
PICTURE 1
PICTURE 2
PICTURE 3
PICTURE 4
There are 5 different tastes of food: Quality checks: Taste Sweet Sour Salty Bitter Umami
Quality checks: Taste Sweet taste Sweetness is almost always caused by a type of simple sugar such as glucose or fructose or disaccharides such as sucrose, a molecule combining glucose and fructose.
Quality checks: Taste Sweet taste Artificial sweeteners such as sucralose are used to mimic the sugar molecule, creating the sensation of sweet, without the calories. Other types of sugar include raw sugar, which is known for it s amber colour, as it is unprocessed.
Quality checks: Taste Sour taste Sourness is caused by the taste of acids, such as vinegar in alcoholic beverages. Sour foods include citrus, specifically lemons, limes, and to a lesser degree oranges.
Quality checks: Taste Sour taste Sour is evolutionary significant as it is a sign for a food that may have gone rancid due to bacteria. Many foods, however, are slightly acidic, and help stimulate the taste buds and enhance flavor.
Quality checks: Taste Salty taste Saltness is the taste of alkali such as sodium and potassium. It is found in almost every food in low to moderate proportions to enhance flavor, although to eat pure salt, it is regarded as highly unpleasant.
Quality checks: Taste Salty taste There are many different types of salt, with each having a different degree of saltness, including sea salt, fleur de sel, kosher salt, minced salt and grey salt.
Quality checks: Taste Salty taste Some canned foods, notably soups and packaged broths tend to be high in salt as a means of preserving the food longer.
Quality checks: Taste Bitter taste Bitterness is a sensation often considered unpleasant characterized by having a sharp, pungent taste, unsweetened dark, chocolate, caffeine, lemon rind, and some types of fruit are known to be bitter.
Quality checks: Taste Umami taste Umami is the taste of glutamates, especially monosodium glutamate (MSG). It is characterized on savoury, meaty, and rich in flavor. Salmon and mushrooms are foods high in umami.
Improving sensory features in food
1. Use of herbs and spices
1. Use of herbs and spices Avoid overwhelming a dish with too many seasonings and never use two very strong herbs together. Instead, season with one strong flavor, and one milder flavor to complement the food.
1. Use of herbs and spices When cooking, add dried herbs early in the process, but use fresh herbs at the end for optimum flavor.
1. Use of herbs and spices Add herbs and spices to cold dishes several hours before serving to allow the flavours to blend.
Fresh leaves should be chopped very finely. 1. Use of herbs and spices
1. Use of herbs and spices When necessary, a mortar and pestle can be kept in the kitchen to powder any herbs.
1. Use of herbs and spices If doubling a recipe, you may not need to double the herbs. Use just 50% more.
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Basil Use to enhance Italian foods (especially tomatoes, pasta, chicken, fish and shellfish)
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Bay leaf Use to enhance Bean or meat stews and soups
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Caraway Use to enhance Cooked vegetables such as beets, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, turnips and winter squash
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Chervil Use to enhance French cuisine, fish, shellfish, chicken, peas, green beans, tomatoes and salad greens
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Chili powder Use to enhance Bean or meat stews and soups
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Chives Use to enhance Sauces, soups, baked potatoes, salads, omlets, pasta, seafood and meat
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Cilantro Use to enhance Mexican, Latin American and Asian cuisine, Rice, beans, fish, shellfish, poultry, vegetables, salsas and salads.
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Cumin Use to enhance Curried vegetables, poultry, fish and beans
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Curry Use to enhance Indian or southeast Asian cuisine; Lamb or meat based dishes and soups
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Dill (fresh) Use to enhance Seafood, chicken, yogurt, cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes and beets
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Ginger (dried) Use to enhance Rice, chicken and marinades
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Mace Use to enhance Baked goods, fruit dishes, carrots, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Marjoram Use to enhance Tomato-based dishes, fish, meat, poultry, eggs and vegetables
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Oregano Use to enhance Italian and Greek cuisine. Meat and poultry dishes
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Paprika Use to enhance Spanish dishes, potatoes, soups, stews, baked fish and salad dressings
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Rosemary Use to enhance Mushrooms, roasted potatoes, stuffing, ripe melon, poultry and meats (especially grilled)
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Sage Use to enhance Poultry stuffing, chicken, duck, pork, eggplant, and bean stews and soups.
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Tarragon Use to enhance Chicken, veal, fish, shellfish, eggs, salad dressings, tomatoes, mushrooms and carrots
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Thyme Use to enhance Fish, shellfish, poultry, tomatoes, beans, eggplant, mushrooms, potatoes, and summer squash.
Varieties of herbs and spices Herb or spice Turmeric Use to enhance Indian cuisine; Adds color and taste to potatoes and lightcoloured vegetables.
2. Use of fruits and vegetables
2. Use of fruits and vegetables When having food (that is white, cream, brown and green, you have to add colour to make the food stand out.)
2. Use of fruits and vegetables Make sure that on your plate you have the three main colours: the green, the red and the yellow/orange.
3. Use of equipment during plating & serving
3. Use of equipment during plating & serving There are various equipment that one could use to perform neat plating.
These include: 3. Use of equipment during plating & serving Chocolate shaver Moulds Forms Tongs Melon baller Pastry brush Pastry cup
Reviewing dishes for quality
Reviewing dishes for quality Quality depends on several factors, including the quality and freshness of ingredients.
Reviewing dishes for quality Consider how the ingredients are produced, the region from where food comes fro and the way food was grown.
Reviewing dishes for quality Quality of cooking obviously affects the final dish. Make sure that food is cooked correctly and using the correct cooking method.
Reviewing dishes for quality Have a serious of criteria on which to base the review, including the sensory qualities.