Thomas Keller Third MasterClass Review

Thomas Keller Teaches Cooking Techniques III: Seafood, Sous Vide, and Desserts

For this week, we are excited to tell you that we team up again with the fantastic team of MasterClass. Today, we bring you the last MasterClass from Chef Thomas Keller, Teaches Cooking Techniques III.

In his third MasterClass, Chef Thomas Keller focuses on preparing fresh seafood like lobster and salmon, making classic desserts such as apple pie and lemon tart, and showing how sous vide cooking can be done at home to enhance flavor and texture. Whether you’re a beginning or advanced cook, you’ll learn the techniques and principles that will give you the understanding and skills to get the most delicious results.

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Learn How To Use Your Senses

We couldn’t be happier to review another MasterClass from Chef Thomas Keller. If you didn’t have the opportunity to read our two previous reviews we really encourage you to do that after you read this one. Like in the previous classes, this one will teach you important techniques that will give you confidence in the kitchen.

Many home cooks find seafood intimidating, but accordingly to Thomas Keller, it doesn´t need to be. In this class, he dives into the bounty of our rivers, oceans, and seas, to help get you comfortable with round fish, flatfish, lobsters, shrimp, mussels, clams, and more. You’ll learn how to identify fresh seafood and important techniques that will allow you to prepare delicious fish and shellfish dishes. Like in his other MasterClass, he will teach you how to use all your senses, and how you can work by sight, sound, smell, and feel to get the best possible results, whether you’re crisping the skin on sauteed King salmon or checking for doneness on butter-poached lobster.

We already said this in the previous Thomas Keller’s classes, but the reason why we love them so much is because you’ll really learn how to cook. You’ll get access to delicious recipes, but most importantly you’ll learn techniques that will make you a better cook.

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Masterclass Overview

01 – Introduction

Chef Thomas Keller returns for his third MasterClass, focusing on seafood, sous vide, and desserts. In this opening lesson, Chef Keller discusses how to buy and look for freshness in seafood and shares tips for storing fish.

02 – Sauté: Salmon With Spinach

Chef Keller teaches you how to make a dish that he eats several times a week: sautéed salmon with spinach. He demonstrates how to properly cut and fillet a King salmon and explains his technique for cooking salmon mostly on one side.

03 – Sauté: Dover Sole With Pommes Château

Chef Keller shows you how to cook a dish that has been cherished by generations and is served with a classic garnish of pommes château.

04 – Pan Roasting: Monkfish Tail With Beurre Rouge

Beginning with a red wine butter sauce, Chef Keller shares his technique for preparing a delicious monkfish tail.

05 – Baking: Salt-Baked Branzino With Fennel and Red Pepper Vinaigrette

Sautéing and pan-roasting are not the only ways to cook seafood. In this lesson, Chef Keller shows you how to create a salt crust for a branzino to capture and intensify the flavors.

06 – Butter-Poached Lobster With Macaroni and Cheese

One of the most famous dishes at the French Laundry is the butter-poached lobster with macaroni and cheese. Chef Keller shares his recipe and teaches his techniques. Viewer advisory: A live lobster is cooked during this lesson.

07 – Oven Roasting: Shrimp Scampi

In this lesson, Chef Keller talks about the dish he made every night as a young chef under the mentorship of his older brother, Joseph.

08 – Lobster Boil

Chef Keller teaches you how to build the right mix of seafood ingredients and spices for a lobster boil, an ideal meal for a summer evening. Viewer advisory: A live lobster is cooked during this lesson.

09 – Sous Vide Cooking: Getting Started

In this introductory lesson on sous vide cooking, Chef Keller provides an overview of sous vide packaging and preparation as well as how the technique is used.

10 – Sous Vide Cooking: Carrots, Asparagus, and Fennel

Chef Keller shows you how to cook three kinds of vegetables using sous vide cooking methods, showcasing different preparation techniques.

11 – Sous Vide Cooking: Turbot

Continuing to use the immersion circulator at a constant temperature, Chef Keller cooks a piece of turbot with chicken velouté enriched with cream.

12 – Simplified Sous Vide: Salmon

In this lesson, Chef Keller demonstrates a sous-vide technique that doesn’t require any restaurant-grade equipment: just a pot of hot water, a thermometer, and kitchen film.

13 – Desserts: Pots de Crème

Pots de crème are small but extremely rich. Chef Keller discusses the importance of ingredient selection in this dish, and he explains the techniques for creating a creamy filling.

14 – Desserts: Lemon Tart With Pine Nut Crust

Lemon tart is a very special dish to Chef Keller. He demonstrates the exact recipe for his lemon tart that he’s been making since the early 1980s, including how to make a pine nut crust and how to broil the dessert to perfection.

15 – Desserts: Apple Pie With Lard Crust

Chef Keller teaches you how to make an apple pie with a lard crust, reveals why he prefers the Granny Smith apple, and demonstrates techniques for creating the lattice top.

16 – Conclusion

Eat up! Chef Keller concludes his MasterClass by showcasing techniques for slicing your desserts, and he offers some final words of advice.

17 – Bonus: Sous Vide Cooking: Varying Time and Temperature

Using short rib as an example, Chef Keller demonstrates how cooking for different times and at different temperatures via sous vide and more traditional preparations can lead to drastically different tastes and results.

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Your Frist Steps Into Sous-Vide

If you like to cook sous-vide, or if you want to learn more about it, this is the right MasterClass for you. Nowadays, more and more people are willing to try sous-vide at home. It’s now easy to do, and you can easily find the right equipment to use at home. In fact, we already have covered some of the best sous-vide equipment you can buy for your kitchen.

For professional and home cooks, sous vide cooking can be a wonderful technique for preparing a variety of meats, poultry, fish, fruits, and vegetables. But don’t think of it as a shortcut. In fact, it calls for longer cooking times at lower temperatures. When executed properly, your food will have amplified flavors and succulent textures.

Throughout this class, you will learn different things about this technique. Whether you’re working with fruit, vegetables, or a protein, there are guidelines for ensuring successful packing and compression. You will learn the importance of packing, the steps to achieve a perfect seal, or how assembling multiple sous vide preparations at one time. And of course, you’ll also learn how to make some delicious recipes.

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Time For Some Desserts

Last but not least, in this MasterClass, you will learn how to make some classic desserts. Recipes like apple pie, lemon tart, and pots de crème are the ones you’ll learn to master. Compared with the other sections of this class or even compared with the previous classes, here you will need to be exact. Making desserts requires a higher level of exactitude! Recipes for dough must be measured to the gram; precise execution, time, and temperature are also critical.

This last part of the MasterClass is where you’ll learn that some times we need to be precise. Although there are only three dessert recipes in this class, you’ll learn important techniques that you can use in other recipes. Even if you don’t have a sweet tooth yourself, you’ll want to make these wonderful desserts for your family and friends.

At the End of Thomas Keller Third MasterClass Review

This new Thomas Keller’s MasterClass continues to push forward the high-quality standards of the MasterClass Program. We have been reviewing all the previous classes and we can guarantee you that they are getting better and better. This one is full of new content, that will improve your skills and your recipe repertoire. If you want to fill more confidence around seafood, if you want to learn more about sous-vide cooking, or if you want to make some classic delicious desserts this is the perfect Masterclass for you.

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