Last night on the premiere of Top Chef Season 5 a heated debate between CHEFtestants Stefan Richter and Danny Gagnon broke out: whether or not an emulsion is a vinaigrette or vice versa. Stefan strongly asserted that a vinaigrette isn’t an emulsion; whereas, Danny fervently claimed that the two are one and the same.
I’m here to tell you bitches: YOU’RE BOTH RIGHT.
(more after the jump)
Let’s start with the definition of an emulsion found on Epicurious.com:
emulsion [ih-MUHL-shuhn] – A mixture of one liquid with another with which it cannot normally combine smoothly — oil and water being the classic example. Emulsifying is done by slowly (sometimes drop-by-drop) adding one ingredient to another while at the same time mixing rapidly. This disperses and suspends minute droplets of one liquid throughout the other. Emulsified mixtures are usually thick and satiny in texture. Mayonnaise (an uncooked combination of oil, egg yolks and vinegar or lemon juice) and HOLLANDAISE SAUCE (a cooked mixture of butter, egg yolks and vinegar or lemon juice) are two of the best-known emulsions.
Ok, let’s see what the same source says about vinaigrette:
vinaigrette [vihn-uh-GREHT] – One of the five “mother sauces,” vinaigrette is a basic oil-and-vinegar combination, generally used to dress salad greens and other cold vegetable, meat or fish dishes. In its simplest form, vinaigrette consists of oil, vinegar (usually 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar), salt and pepper. More elaborate variations can include any of various ingredients such as spices, herbs, shallots, onions, mustard, etc. See also SAUCE.
Essentially, when the oil and vinegar is “combined smoothly” then a vinaigrette becomes an emulsion. If the two separate (which they have a tendency to do) then it’s no longer an emulsion, it’s just two liquids in a bottle. So, sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t.
This brings us to perhaps the more important aspect of this discussion: who gives a shit?
Filed under: Culinary WTF, Top Chef | Tagged: Chef, danny, emulsion, stefan, top, vinaigrette
youre wrong
Prove it.
Fabulous answer. In watching the show, my boyfriend said, “Well, Stefan’s right”. I said, ‘Not exactly. What about when you mix it together? Unstable emulsion!” A combination of Barron’s food lover’s companion and your blog gave me the answer. Kudos!
(Seems like Epicurious uses the Barron’s as its source… hmmmm….)
Great blog.. adding it to my list.
you are right in your definitions, but you are suppose to shake up the dressings and therefore emulsion is done before serving….just kidding…to emulsify it you’d have to shake the living crap out of it.
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