COOKING TIP: The True Meaning About the Names of Which Certain Dishes are listed on a Menu

Risotto, Pilaf, Florentine and Milanese are descriptions, of either the method for preparing an item for cooking or the dishes’ main ingredient. They define what the dish is called.

When these dishes are modified by how a Chef wishes to present them, this only serves to represent the dish as presented and served by that particular Chef.

Risotto is a method of cooking rice for a long time, slowly adding additional liquid (water, stock, etc.)  during the cooking process, to release starch from the rice grains, which is slowly cooked in the liquid, to give you, when finished, tender rice with a smooth, creamy sauce.

Thus, Risotto, modified by a Chef, to be served with vegetables, is called “Vegetable Risotto”; cooked with seafood it is called “Seafood Risotto”, etc.

The Pilaf method begins with sautéing onion in fat (oil or butter), the uncooked rice is added until slightly cooked, then liquid, as above, is added, all at once, and the rice is cooked until all the liquid is absorbed by the rice. The Pilaf can be modified by cooking it with other ingredients added, ie. – Shrimp Pilaf, Green Lentil Pilaf, etc. The name of the dish, as served, is still defined by its cooking method, the name only being modified by which other ingredients are cooked with it or in it.

Milanese denotes ingredients coated with breadcrumbs and deep fried. Tradition traces  "Cotoletta alla Milanese" back to an 1145 parchment mentioning a meal of  "Lombolo cum Panito', (breaded loin). This was, perhaps, a symbol of prosperity, since gilded food was often associated with wealth at that time. . Be that as it may, the recipe evolved over the years until Italian Chefs in Milan, Italy, coated "Cotteletes" in bread crumbs before deep frying,them, creating the dish we know today In 2008, the city of Milan granted the "Costoletta alla Milanese" the municipal designation,- DeCo - establishing that the TRUE recipe requires, "veal meat with the bone." Despite that, however, Chef s now prepare other protein foods - pork,  fish and chicken - prepared in cutlet-style and deep fried, that are called "a la Milanese" (in the style of Milan);. Thus, you can have have "Pork Milanese,"  “Chicken Milanese”, “Trout Milanese”, etc. Each Chef may serve whatever item he/she coated with crumbs and deep fried, covered with or placed over whatever the Chef chooses, but the dish's name is defined as "Milanese" because of its cooking method, not by how it is served.

Similarly, “Florentine” denotes a dish in which spinach is the main ingredient, usually as a bed upon which other items may be put.as decided by each Chef,   A bed of spinach cooked with shrimp and covered with a cheese sauce would be called “Shrimp Florentine”; similarly, a bed of spinach served only with poached eggs on it, would be called “Poached Eggs Florentine”.

It is the COOKING METHOD or THE MAIN INGREDIENT USED IN THE DISH that defines the name of the dish, not how it is presented and served by each Chef.