The Deceptively Simple Soup Gordon Ramsay Once Cooked For Anthony Bourdain

Before Gordon Ramsay shot to international fame with his TV show "Hell's Kitchen" in the mid-2000s, he was a celebrated British chef with a namesake London restaurant. Anthony Bourdain visited Gordon Ramsay Restaurant in 2002 for his first food travel TV series, "A Cook's Tour," launched by Food Network that year as Bourdain's own career had begun taking off. He raved in the episode about the food he ate that was cooked by Ramsay, including consommé, a classic French soup that's deceptively simple.

Bourdain's meal began with a ham hock terrine and the chilled consommé with caviar. Consommé is a seemingly simple, clear soup that actually requires a finicky process to prepare. That's why it's one of the fine-dining dishes some chefs believe you should leave to the professionals. After tasting Ramsay's consommé, Bourdain said during the episode, "It's a pain in the ass to make a great consommé, but Gordon's done it," calling it "really, really, really extraordinary." The rest of his meal included lobster ravioli, shin of beef with foie gras, and wild strawberry gelée with ice cream.

Bourdain doesn't reveal during the show what kind of consommé he had. But while there are some foods Ramsay avoids at all costs, he's said one of the things he'd want to eat at his last meal is caviar with cold tomato consommé. He also served tomato consommé with caviar at a high-stakes 2000 dinner for then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair and visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin. So we can guess it might have been tomato consommé that Bourdain enjoyed so much.

Consommé is known for being perfectly clear and full of concentrated flavor. However, it starts out as a standard stock or broth, so preparing it involves two stages: making the base soup and then turning it into consommé. The stock is commonly made with beef, veal, chicken, fish, or tomato. The protein-based ones use a lot of bones to create richness and body from their collagen. Tomato consommé, which begins with tomato sauce, is lighter and packed with pure tomato flavor.

Once the stock is made, it's simmered with what's called a raft created by egg whites, and sometimes lean ground beef, diced vegetables, and/or herbs, which sit on top of the soup. The raft filters out impurities, such as small pieces of meat, bone, vegetables, and herbs, by trapping them as the soup simmers, leaving behind a clear, flavorful consommé. Once the raft comes together and is set, it can't be stirred or disturbed. However, a hole can be made in the raft with a ladle as it forms, which allows steam out and lets you ladle out the consommé through the raft once it's done. Finally, the broth is strained to make sure there's no tiny pieces remaining.

Consommé is often served with something in it, like the caviar that was part of Ramsay's. Other typical additions include julienned vegetables, a poached egg, and pasta.