The document discusses various topics relating to soups, including: - Three categories of soups - clear soups, thick soups, and specialty/ethnic soups. - Key factors for achieving a great soup - starting with a high quality stock and fresh ingredients. - Considerations for garnishing soups properly, such as using complementary and uniformly prepared garnishes. - Safety guidelines for soup preparation, cooling, holding, and leftovers.

1. Soups
•
•
•
•
•
Similar thickening agents
Vegetable purees used a lot
Similar finishing techniques
Use of mother sauces
Garnishes
In order to achieve a great soup you must start with a great
stock and quality ingredients.
Chef Michael Scott
Lead Chef Instructor AESCA
Boulder
• Think of soups as a large sauce

2. • The garnish should be attractive
• The meats and vegetables used should be neatly cut into an
appropriate and uniform shape and size
• The garnish texture and flavor should complement the soup
• Starches and vegetables used as garnishes should be cooked
separately
• Garnishes should be cooked just until done; meat and poultry
should be tender but not falling apart
Chef Michael Scott
Lead Chef Instructor AESCA
Boulder
Garnishing Soup

3. • Clear Soups
Consommé
Clear broths
• Thick Soups
Cream
Puree
Bisques
chowders
• Specialty or Ethnic Soups
 Egg drop
 Borscht
 Hot & Sour
 Gumbo
Chef Michael Scott
Lead Chef Instructor AESCA
Boulder
Three Categories for Soups

4. Sanitation, Safety & Service
• Service
• Use proper portioning equipment
• Use of underliner
• Specialty service
Chef Michael Scott
Lead Chef Instructor AESCA
Boulder
• Cool properly
• Hot hold at the correct temperature
• Utilizing leftovers in soups – be careful

5. • Clear soups, which are always “clear consommés with a slight garnish in keeping
with the nature of the consommé”.
• Purees, which are made from starchy vegetables and are thickened with
rice, potato or soft bread crumbs.
• Cullises, which use poultry, game or fish for a base and are thickened with
rice, lentils, espagnole sauce or bread soaked in boiling salted water.
• Bisques, which use shellfish cooked with a mirepoix as a base and are thickened
with rice.
• Veloutés, which use velouté sauce as a base and are finished with a liaison or
egg yolks and cream.
• Cream soups, which use béchamel sauce as a base and are finished with heavy
cream.
• Special soups, which are those that do not follow the procedures for veloutés or
creams.
• Vegetable soups, which are usually paysanne or peasant-type and “do not
demand very great precision in the apportionment of the vegetables of which
they are composed, but they need great care and attention, notwithstanding”.
• Foreign soups, “which have a foreign origin whose use, although it may not be
general is yet sufficiently common.”
Chef Michael Scott
Lead Chef Instructor AESCA
Boulder
Escoffier definitions for soup

6. Consommé
• Start from cold
• Stir often until raft forms
• Do not break raft
• Baste
• Onion brulee
• Strain through fine chinoise & cheesecloth
• Garnish and serve
Chef Michael Scott
Lead Chef Instructor AESCA
Boulder
• High quality flavorful and colorful stock
• Clear meat