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Line cook threw out my bouquet garni at Le Bernardin and it saved the whole sauce
Back in 2016 I was working a stage at a spot in New York and I had a sauce going for a tasting menu, a red wine reduction that I'd been babying for about 2 hours. I tied up a bouquet garni with thyme, bay, and parsley stems and dropped it in, the way I'd done it a hundred times. The chef de partie walked by, looked in the pot, and just fished the whole thing out with tongs and tossed it in the trash without a word. I stood there with my mouth open. He pulled me aside and said the herbs were done giving up their flavor after 20 minutes and past that they were just adding a muddy green taste. Tasted the sauce next to a control batch I'd kept on the side and he was right, mine had this bitter back note I'd been blind to. Now I drop the bundle in for 15 minutes, pull it, and finish with fresh thyme right before plating, and my reductions taste way cleaner. Anyone else been humbled by a chef who fixed something with less work instead of more?
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