Culinary Ladder · College

Flavor, Seasoning and Menu Design

The basic tastes and aroma, salt, acid, fat and heat, tasting and adjusting, herbs and spices, cooking with the seasons, and writing and pricing a menu.

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6 topics in 2 units. Builds on Stocks, Sauces and Soups and Proteins. Leads to Plating and Service. Not sure this is the right course? Find your rung.

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Unit 1 Tasting and Seasoning

4 topics

The basic tastes, salt, acid, fat and heat, herbs and spices, and how to taste and adjust.

Sources and credits

U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Food Code 2022, and FDA guidance on cooling and food allergens: the restaurant rules for holding, cooking, cooling, reheating, date marking and allergens, restated in our own words
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, safe minimum internal temperatures and the Danger Zone: the consumer temperatures in the lessons, quiz and practice
A. Escoffier, A Guide to Modern Cookery (London, 1907), Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive: the leading sauces and short quotations, each with its source (public domain)
OSHA Young Worker Safety in Restaurants eTool, and the Cambridge (Massachusetts) Fire Department: the burn, slip and grease-fire prevention notes
MICHELIN Guide, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the American Culinary Federation: what the stars mean in Michelin's words; career figures (BLS, 2026); certification levels
The Culinary Institute of America course list, and the Exploratorium's sugar stages: the order of topics (topics only) and the candy temperatures; our lessons, pictures and problems are our own

Every source and licence the site uses is on the Credits page.

Unit 1 Tasting and Seasoning

Unit 2 Seasons and Menus