Question about risotto in food TV show?

[BAPyessir6]

Watching Gordan Ramsey's Hells Kitchen (season 7) and I'm wondering how they do risotto as an appetizer for the dining room. I've made risotto a few times, and I'm pretty sure it's hard to "hold" it, as once it's cooked, you need to eat/serve it pretty immediately. Isn't it very hard to not let it get gloppy or starchy after it's fully cooked and the starches release?

Does this mean you'll cook each to order, which would take like 20-30 minutes per order? Or could you somehow par cook it before finishing it for each order?

I understand you might not wait to serve once it's cooked, but if you can't hold it once it's cooked, I wonder how you'd make it for an appetizer if it takes so long to make. Or is a 20-30 minutes wait to freshly cook risotto (to order) normal in a fancy restaurant?

Or is there some way to fully cook it then hold it until an order comes in?

Never really worked in a high scale fancy restaurant, so I'm curious how potential large batch/multiple orders cooking would work for something like that. Something you could par bake/blanch to 80/90 percent doneness makes sense then finish when the order comes in. Risotto does not.

 

[dragnlaw]

Never heard of risotto being served as an appetizer.

 

[BAPyessir6]

I've figured it out! According to a Google search and people on the show (contestants) who worked with Gordon Ramsey himself, he tells the contestants to blanch the rice (boiling salted water, throw rice in 9 minutes, strain and throw on a sheet pan) then it's 90 percent cooked and it takes only 3-5 minutes after that. Wonderful! Also people say it's as good as or better than traditional risotto.

Who knew!! You learn something new every day!

 

[dragnlaw]

Well, there's an eye opener for me. Just googled it and apparently in Italy it is often served as a primo - first course.
So I don't know how they do it. But I could guess that in a restaurant it is only one style of risotto at a time. Meaning they don't serve different type of risotto during the evening. So for a 7 o'clock sitting they can expect a certain amount of orders for it and could potentially prpare it to be ready for that time serving. should there be a 2nd sitting, guess they would then start a 2nd lot at a specific time?

edit:
ahhh - thank you! good info and I'm going to try it!

 

[Andy M.]

Risotto is typically cooked from raw rice with onion/shallot, wine and a stock or broth. All these flavors are absorbed into the rice. Blanching the rice instead would yield less flavorful rice in my mind.

 

[BAPyessir6]

True, true. But I guess in a commercial kitchen that 5 minute cook time would look pretty sweet.

 

[medtran49]

I've figured it out! According to a Google search and people on the show (contestants) who worked with Gordon Ramsey himself, he tells the contestants to blanch the rice (boiling salted water, throw rice in 9 minutes, strain and throw on a sheet pan) then it's 90 percent cooked and it takes only 3-5 minutes after that. Wonderful! Also people say it's as good as or better than traditional risotto.

Who knew!! You learn something new every day!

I had a "risotto" within the last couple of weeks that might have been cooked like that. Certainly looked and tasted like boiled rice, that then had a sauce stirred into it.

I sent it BACK!

 

[BAPyessir6]

It's F*';ing bland!!!!

 

[BAPyessir6]

I wonder if you parboiled the rice in seasoned chicken stock instead, would that improve the flavor?

 

[medtran49]

Try this method. It uses the traditional way to cook risotto but breaks the cooking into 2 separate times.

The Restaurant Secret for Quick, Make-Ahead Risotto

A simple, common restaurant trick that allows you to prep and cook risotto ahead of time.

www.seriouseats.com

 

[dragnlaw]

I wonder if you parboiled the rice in seasoned chicken stock instead, would that improve the flavor?

Which sounds exactly like what Serious Eats has said.
Only difference between the two is water and broth. I'd definitely go with the broth.

 

[Jade Emperor]

Keep in mind that on Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen competition, there is a TON of background tasks that happen without you ever knowing (or even thinking about them).
There is an entire team of professional cooks around who do lots of prep and if needed will step into the kitchen if an entire team is sent off. Those beef Wellingtons are already prepared and ready to be cooked before the contestant gets the order.
There is also a large scullery team for cleaning up after service.
Majority of the guests you see dining are friends, family or clients of the production company - very few people are regular people who can make a booking - filming takes considerable hours.
The winner may get to be “head chef” at a Ramsay restaurant but the contract is for 12 months only, and often the job isn’t actually a head chef role at all.
End of the day - it’s an entertainment show and really nothing more.

 

[Andy M.]

Try this method. It uses the traditional way to cook risotto but breaks the cooking into 2 separate times.

The Restaurant Secret for Quick, Make-Ahead Risotto

A simple, common restaurant trick that allows you to prep and cook risotto ahead of time.

www.seriouseats.com

This makes more sense.

 

[medtran49]

Which sounds exactly like what Serious Eats has said.
Only difference between the two is water and broth. I'd definitely go with the broth.

No, SE cooks it partially the first time the traditional way.

 

[Meryl]

I had a "risotto" within the last couple of weeks that might have been cooked like that. Certainly looked and tasted like boiled rice, that then had a sauce stirred into it.

I sent it BACK!

I understand you sent it back, a risotto made with boiled rice is not a risotto.
It's seasoned rice, just like boiling pasta, draining it and stirring it into a pan with a sauce made while boiling the pasta. It's simply seasoned, boiled rice which is also a very tasty dish, millions of different delicious seasonings you can use.

The whole point of a risotto is the starch which holds it together. Then two fundamental ingredients - a knob of butter and grated Parmigiano - stirred in when it's almost ready, to give it the typical creamy effect that all risottos should have.
A risotto must be "legato" and "mantecato" (held together and thickened/creamed).
Cooking a risotto using broth is usually recommended rather than water, unless the ingredients used have a particularly strong flavour.

 

[BAPyessir6]

That's all very true. I think of it as a cooking show, even though 98 percent of the actual cooking is magically removed and the camera only really focuses on the drama. I didn't know cooking was so dramatic!!!

 

[pictonguy]

In restaurants, it's pretty common actually. I do it all the time, well at least twice a year.

I use carnaroli rice, it makes a difference imo. Basically I cook the rice to about the 70% stage then spread it out as thin as possible on a sheet pan and then on the rolling rack in the walk in to cool it down as quickly as possible and some restaurants have walk in freezers, which is better.

All the real flavor and embellishment happens quickly near the end anyway and when making the finished dish it all comes together in about 5 to 7 minutes depending on what the ingredients are for that particular appetizer or first course.

Unfortunately most restaurants haven't a clue how to do it properly and I generally never order risotto when I go out unless it's a restaurant that I feel might have a clue but most of the time I'm proved wrong.

 

[dragnlaw]

Thank you for the info pictonguy.
I wonder how I can use my rice cooker to do that. It generally takes about 50 to 60 minutes So if I take it out with approximately 10 or 15 minutes to go, cool in the freezer on a sheet, then finish in a pot. I don't think I can use the cooker. It does have heat setting but I think it is only to keep warm, not sure it reheats from cold. I'll have to dig out the instruction book.

I think Mushroom Risotto is the food of gods, or at least my god.

 

[pictonguy]

Thank you for the info pictonguy.
I wonder how I can use my rice cooker to do that. It generally takes about 50 to 60 minutes So if I take it out with approximately 10 or 15 minutes to go, cool in the freezer on a sheet, then finish in a pot. I don't think I can use the cooker. It does have heat setting but I think it is only to keep warm, not sure it reheats from cold. I'll have to dig out the instruction book.

I think Mushroom Risotto is the food of gods, or at least my god.

Doing the 2 stage cooking of risotto for home use really doesn't make any sense at all imo. Reason being, you need to facilitate the extra work and time to cool down and store the rice for that later 2nd stage, then your going to have to have another mise en place of all the ingredients needed for the second stage and some stock heated on the stove which for all intense and purposes will be much much longer in the long run than if you just made risotto from start to finish for a particular meal, it takes about 20 minutes to make it from start to finish, where you'll probably need at least 15 or so minutes just setting up to start the 2nd stage, let alone then cook the risotto. Basically you could have cooked risotto from start to finish before you even got the risotto on a sheet pan and in the freezer.

The 2 stage is for restaurants really and that's just for time constraints and many Italian restaurants actually refuse to do that and will inform their quests that it will take extra time for the risotto, which is actually preferred, so doing this at home is actually reducing the percentages of a good risotto simply because even in the restaurant setting doing a 2 stage is very elusive for most restaurants and cooks and chefs and the reason I said I generally don't bother ordering risotto.

Sorry for the word salad but I think this is an important consideration. Use your rice cooker for a different rice, would be my recommendation. I can give you a decent description of the methodology to make a decent risotto if you want.

 

[dragnlaw]

yes, chef... I'll trudge back to the kitchen dragging my apron behind me and start again.
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Edit: not a word salad if it helps comprehension, which it did. Thank You.