Chef encourages residents to prioritise ratio over recipes
Karen Rossouw explains how understanding the science of various ingredients helps one become a better cook and baker.
Swiss Hotel School head of department Michelle Karen Rossouw sat down with the Randburg Sun to share her journey in the culinary industry.
Rossouw, who has a long history in pastry, shared that her work and passion have earned her a career that resulted in her travelling across South Africa, having worked as a chocolatier for Lindt and in Stellenbosch prior to working at the culinary institution.
While her work at the school involves being in charge of both the theoretical and practical aspects of students, her first love was not always pastry, but the hot kitchen.
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“In my career, I have been exposed to many opportunities, and I truly believe it’s what one does with the said opportunity that really turns it into something worthwhile. I believe people who are into art are often all over the place, and with pastry you need to be very neat, and I have both, which is often very rare to come across. So, when the opportunity opened to work in pastry during my practicals, I fell in love with it,” said Rossouw.
She further highlighted that her favourite aspect of pastry is the science behind it. Rossouw shared that 90% of pastry ingredients are the same old flour, eggs, sugar, butter and cream, but it always boils down to how you mix those ingredients and the temperature you apply to make various dishes.
“Once you understand what ingredients do and what they do under certain pressures, it helps you become a better chef and cook in general because it’s not just about following a recipe. This is why I always encourage people to prioritise ratio over following recipes – if you understand how much of something will cause something else to have a different reaction. Like chocolate ganache is just cream and chocolate, but if you add more cream it can turn into a chocolate sauce or pipeable, and once it sets it becomes softer to bite,” she said.
As the festive season approaches, Rossouw encourages families to adopt different cultures’ foods as themes to keep every festive season interesting. She further encourages families to adopt Portuguese dishes this Christmas as they are easier to replicate and more affordable on the pocket.
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“If you think of Nando’s, they are a perfect example as it is very Portuguese-influenced and we don’t normally realise it. A lot of us grow chillies in our garden, so families can make a chicken flattie and a nice peri-peri sauce. They even have a version of milk tart that uses egg yolks and sugar, and chicken is one of your more affordable proteins, so it could be very fun,” she said.
Rossouw concluded by encouraging families to marinate the meat the day before the braai and make the potato salad ahead of time, as it tastes better the next day, and to limit being busy on Christmas Day so they can enjoy being with loved ones and cherishing those closest to them on the day.
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