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Essay about History of Garde Manager

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The History of Garde Mange
Aaron avers

The garde manger profession began with peoples need to preserve food. The practice of food preservation is very much older than the term garde manger. In medieval times, castles and large homes were equipped with underground larders, or cold food storage rooms. The food storage areas in these castles and manor houses were usually located in the lower levels, since the cool basement-like environment was ideal for storing food. These cold storage areas developed over time into the modern cold kitchen. In France, the larder was called the garde manger. So one meaning of the culinary term garde manger can be a person in charge of cold foods preparation and preservation. Today, in the industry, I have …show more content…

Garde manger, “keeper of the food", or pantry supervisor, refers to the task of preparing and presenting cold foods. These typically include such food items as salads, hors d'œuvres, cold soups, aspics, and charcuterie. Larger restaurants and hotels may have the need for the garde manger to perform additional duties, such as creating elements for buffet presentation like edible centerpieces made from materials such as ice, cheese, butter, salt dough or tallow. In most modern kitchens the garde manger is synonymous with pantry chef, having duties focusing on salads, soups, cold food items, and dessert plating’s. It is usually the entry level line cook position within a restaurant. The term "garde manger" originated in pre-Revolutionary France. At that time, maintaining a full supply of food was a symbol of power, wealth and prestige. Noble families had a household steward who would manage their cold store room. The steward was referred to as the "officer de bouche", a title that was eventually replaced with "garde manger". This position was extremely important, because most of the food was butchered, pickled, salted, cured, or smoked during the fall season and stored for months, all the way into the spring months. It is because of this duty of supervising the preserving of food and managing its use that many interpret the term "garde manger" as "keeping to eat".

The position of "butcher" first developed as a

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