During the demonstration, the chef warned us that our sauce might separate. He said in French, “One of you is going to break your sauce. Which one will it be?” Of course I had no idea that it would be me and that my sauce would separate not once, but twice.

Preparing the hake, a rather unremarkable fish, was easy. Slice the fish into steaks and poach it in a court bouillon made from water, wine, vinegar, carrots, celery, onions, shallots, garlic, salt, pepper and cloves. While the fish is cooking, I moved on to the sauce.

Granted I’ve never prepared a hollandaise in the French way. Over a hot water bath, whip eggs yolks and cold water until the mixture thickens and the whisk forms tracks in the eggs. Remove the eggs from heat and gradually whisk in lots of clarified butter. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne and lemon juice. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set over barely simmering water to keep warm. Easy, right?

Once I had plated my fish and my beautifully turned vegetables, I removed the plastic from the hollandaise and was greeted with a horrific site. My beautiful, light, airy hollandaise sauce had separated into a thin, watery, yellow liquid with chunky cottage cheese-looking particles. I froze in my steel-toed clogs. How was I going to get myself out of this mess?

Thankfully the chef, a guest chef from the Canadian school, helped me resurrect the sauce. In another bowl, add a teaspoon or two of warm water. Drip a few drops of the separated sauce into the water and whisk like there’s no tomorrow. Wait for the sauce to re-emulsify and repeat. This takes an amazingly long time because you can’t add too much separated sauce at once. If you do (like I did), your sauce will separate again.

When the chef had seen that my sauce had separated again, he asked, “Are you trying to kill me?” Repairing a separated sauce takes a lot of patience and a strong arm for whisking. Once my sauce was back into a semi-normal state (although much thicker), the chef laughed and told me that if anyone else had their sauce separate, I could teach them how to repair it now that he’d shown me twice.

In the end, I’m glad this happened to me because now I know what to do if it happens again. Another great lesson. But I still don’t quite understand why the sauce separated in the first place. Where’s my favorite FoodTV host, Alton Brown, when you need him? So if you have ideas, suggestions or recommendations, please add a comment below. I’m curious to hear what you think!

Update

In my next practical, I asked Chef Guy (a.k.a. Iron Chef) why my hollandaise split. He asked me to fetch some clarified butter and eggs and said we’d make one together. Here are some things I learned:

• The egg acts as the binding agent between the water and the butter.
• With three eggs, you can add up to 25 kg of butter and the sauce will hold.
• The water bath you use to whip your eggs and water should be no hotter than 60 degrees Celsius. It should also be done in a shallow pan. Too much steam will cause the eggs to heat too quickly.
• Whip your eggs slowly – you don’t want too much air or the emulsion will end up a mouse.
• Add the clarified butter very, very gradually – drop by drop in the beginning.
• If the sauce is too thick, you can add water without it breaking.
• To keep a sauce warm while you’re preparing the rest of the meal, put it in a warm water bath. Don’t let the water get above 60 degrees or the sauce will break.
• If you add a tiny bit of flour once you’ve made your sauce, it will prevent it from separating.

But as I said above, I’m still interested to hear from you. If you have comments, add them below.

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