My favorite sauce or condiment or whatever you want to call it, is mayonnaise. Aioli is how I usually refer to it on my menu because sometimes mayonnaise doesn’t sound as cool. Wikipedia says mayonnaise is” a thick condiment made primarily from vegetable oil and egg yolks.” I think when most people think of mayo they think of
Hellman’s or Real Kraft, or whatever, another reason to use the word aioli. There’s nothing wrong with either of these condiments, I grew up with a terrible fondness for Real Kraft mayonnaise on everything! However a homemade mayo is much different and usually much more decadent. First , why does mayo taste so good? Fat. A mayo is basically made up of eggs and oil, sometimes mustard, vinegar, and lemon juice, but at its very essence it’s an emulsion of eggs and oil. Some say mayo comes from Spain, more specifically Mahon, hence mayonnaise. I don’t know if that’s true but whoever came up with the idea of combining eggs, oil, garlic, and lemon juice together to make a sauce should be revered. I think garlic aioli is quite possibly one of the most versatile sauces or condiments or whatever you want to call it. Garlic aioli can be served with almost anything I can think of; fish, meat, vegetables, fries, vegetables, chicken, bread, anything.
One of the things I always try to do in my kitchen is create dishes that taste great but are also fairly easy to execute on a very busy night. Aioli is a very handy and powerful tool in that regard. It can be kept room temperature or chilled, which means no reheating or holding in a steam table. It‘s very consistent, you make it before dinner service and it tastes and looks exactly the same all night. Usually I pair aioli with seafood because I find lemon and garlic flavors can be paired well with almost any fish. Although not very groundbreaking or original I find it tastes really good, and that’s usually what I think is most important. As I grow older I find pleasure in simple things. I think simple things done extremely well are the most satisfying, I don’t see the need for wacky combinations or for 107 condiments or sauces on a plate. When you look at the cuisine of great chefs, take Daniel Boulud , their cooking is often very simple ideas and concepts elevated to another level by quality of product, technique, and execution. I had a dish at Daniel that was basically Halibut cooked in brown butter that was one of the best things I have ever put in my mouth. Really crispy fries with a little sea salt and garlic aioli is extremely satisfying, add a craft beer to the equation and I can’t think of too many things more luxurious to me.
It seems that nowadays young chefs want to impress with unusual technique or what Anthony Bourdain usually refers to as torturing food to make it look or taste like something else. This seems somewhat sad to me, I don’t think many of these chefs have ever sat down and tried their own food. Alice Waters has been a huge influence on me and when I first looked at her cookbooks as a young chef I didn’t really get it. The recipes were very simple and straightforward. I didn’t understand what the big deal was; most of these dishes were things I cooked in culinary school. It wasn’t until later in life I had my epiphany, it wasn’t the recipes so much, it was the ingredients. High quality ingredients cooked very simply and with great care and passion are what it’s all about. It took me about 15 years of banging my head against a stove to figure this out but I’ve always been a slow learner.
What does this have to do with mayonnaise? Well, if you know how to make a mayonnaise (some cooks who graduate culinary school still don’t know), you can put a lot of things together and it gives you a foundation to build upon. Making a mayonnaise grounds you in tradition, tradition every cook should be aware of. Before you learn how to cook a steak, a piece of fish, or make coffee caviar, you should be able to make a mayonnaise blindfolded. Some cooks miss these basic skills, it’s sad to me. I know some young chefs think mayo is tired or boring but both Thomas Keller and Wylie Dufresne have forms of mayo on their menus, if it’s good enough for them it’s good enough for me.
Alice Waters’ recipe for aioli
· 2 cloves of garlic
· a couple pinches of coarse salt
· 1 large egg yolk
· 1 tablespoon of water
· 1 cup of oil
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