Gordon Ramsay’s Broccoli Soup – answers
1 Easy beyond belief
2 No, only two.
3 No.
4 He would have had to spend 20 minutes ‘sweating the onions down’ i.e. cooking and reducing them ready for the basis of the soup.
5 First and foremost
6 Because if they are not, it would show the broccoli was starting to flower, and is older.
7 Because it makes the soup a good colour.
8 They season it too late, at the end of its cooking time. You must cook the broccoli with the salt.
9 Both at the top and the bottom.
10 The heat of the soup will melt it and make it more creamy.
11 That it means you can slice the cheese thinly, so the cheese goes further – i.e. you get more portions more it, and 2) that the cheese doesn’t crumble / break.
12 A colander
13 It is the water the broccoli is cooked in.
14 The soup goes grainy and lumpy.
15 2) He is referring to them in a jocular way.
16 1) He compares it to ‘that little sexy black number’ (a classic expression for a woman’s elegant black dress – and 2) ‘you can take it to a different division’ (as in football). Both expressions indicate that you can make it into something really special.
17 A few walnuts
18 It is not too thick, not too thin
19 It will thicken the soup.
20 It gives it a bit of gloss, a bit of a shine, and lifts the soup.