The Garde Manger Profession

Prerequisites

Before reading this chapter, you should have already learned

• About basic food-service equipment.

The world of professional food service embraces many specialized fields of work. One of the most respected is garde manger, or cold foods preparation. The earliest form of garde manger work was food preservation. The culinary term garde manger is derived from the French language and literally translates as “keep to eat.” Predecessors of modern garde manger chefs developed techniques to make food last longer and taste better. They discovered the processes of salting, drying, and smoking and used these to store perishable meats and fish for weeks and months without refrigeration. From scraps and trimmings, they created rustic sausages and hearty meat pies. Faced with excess milk, they turned it into cheese.