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What are the essential elements in a sauce?

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Char Nolan - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Recorded

This event was on January 23, 2024

Join Chef Char Nolan in her virtual office as she welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to ask anything – from cooking techniques to course-specific questions, to how to turn your cooking passion into profit or simply hearing the perspective of a professional chef, Chef Nolan is ready to answer them all.

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Question

Simone Horvitz

What are the essential elements in a sauce?

Answer

So I'm not exactly sure what kind of sauce you're talking about, but when I make sauces myself, they don't have any oil in them, but you can still make a ru with a stock and with some, uh, a flour of your choice. But the kinds of sauces that I make are usually made from, from mangoes or from fresh fruit or pureed vegetables and things like that. I love a good Romesco sauce made from tomatoes, which is delicious. So in this arena, you're looking for sauces that have good herb content and balance. You're looking for ones that are preferably made from a puree of a vegetable or a fruit, and you're looking for something that has a high taste value. Go to any book, uh, especially if you go to any of the Essel cookbooks. They have a lot of sauce recipes that are really, really delicious. And also, we have that wonderful bechamel recipe, uh, in our Plant Pro course where it's made from, of course, cashews and other delicious items. So that is a good recipe to look for. It's good I pasta. It's good cold served with vegetables, it's delicious over tofu.

Char Nolan

Chef Instructor

Char Nolan is a serious crusader for plant-based education, armed with a degree in public health from Philadelphia’s Temple University. She teaches nutrition and plant-based cooking throughout Philadelphia, and in many underserved communities. Char holds a certificate in plant-based nutrition from eCornell and completed Rouxbe’s Plant-Based Professional Certification course in 2015. In 2019, Char completed post-graduate course work in social media marketing at the University of the Arts. When she is not cooking or teaching, she manages social media accounts for several plant-based influencers. Char prides herself on learning everything she knows about cooking from growing up in her grandparents’ Italian restaurant. Her favorite vegetables are Brussels sprouts and kale, of course. Char originally hails from Queens, NY, but has lived in Philadelphia most of her adult life. She is a former Peace Corps Volunteer.