Kitchen Bouquet: The Browning Sauce That Makes Any Dish Insta-Worthy

Under the #foodstagram tag, you'll find more than 115,500,000 posts showcasing beautiful eats proving that we truly eat with our eyes first. Among the intricately decorated cakes and appetizing pizzas are many plates of breathtakingly golden brown vegetable stir fry and roasted chicken. After scrolling through the feed, it's easy to wonder: why don't my dishes ever turn out such a perfect golden brown? Well, it's not that the foodies of Instagram's cooking skills are any better than ours. Whether they're eating out or creating meals at home, Instagrammers use a number of tricks, like composition and lighting, to make their food look like it belongs at a five-star restaurant. But one hack food stylists on and off the app use to produce decadently golden savory food comes in a bottle at the grocery store.

If you hear the words "browning sauce" and think "cooking shortcut," that's because it totally is. Browning sauces are generally composed of spices, vegetable concentrates, and caramel color. These ingredients allow the condiments to provide a darker look and a savory note to each dish. When it comes to making gourmet eats look beautifully roasted, Kitchen Bouquet is the sauce and broth of choice for professional food photogs and everyday foodies. Here's what you need to know about the cooking industry's best kept secret.

Kitchen Bouquet is a savory-tasting sauce that turns roasted meat and dark stews a beautiful brown color. Hidden Valley (owned by Clorox) produces Kitchen Bouquet, and per Cook's Info, the sauce's story might have begun as early as the 1880s — early bottles were marked Tournade's Kitchen Bouquet, after Jules L. Tournade of the Palisade Manufacturing Company.

Over a hundred years later, the condiment works so well that food photographers are known to keep it in their arsenal for an oven-roasted aesthetic. How can a casual cook who wants to wow dinner party guests and Instagram friends get the most out of this famous beautifying condiment? 

Use this product as a tool to ensure that your home-cooked meals get a golden upgrade. While some cooks might find flavor benefits, Kitchen Bouquet is primarily utilized to improve the color of gravy, soups, meat, and marinades. No matter how you implement the condiment, it is important to note that you don't want to douse your dishes in it — a splash will more than suffice. Taste of Home notes that overusing Kitchen Bouquet in your dish could yield an unwanted bitterness. So yes, grab this secret ingredient to make a photogenic Thanksgiving dinner, but be wary of just how much you're throwing on that turkey lest you face the unappetizing consequences.

The Kitchn food stylist Jesse Szewczyk explains, "Kitchen Bouquet can be added to sauces and stews, brushed on steaks or pork chops, or sprayed onto roasted poultry out of a small misting bottle." He recommends experimenting with the product in different ways. For example, before roasting meat in the oven, brush Kitchen Bouquet on the skin. Per Taste of Home, you'll want to use your sauce at the end of cook time, rather than after cooking.

Whether you're preparing a spread for a dinner party or are trying to make your family's roasted chicken recipe go viral, Kitchen Bouquet is just the first step in ensuring that your carefully prepared food looks camera-ready.  As the old saying goes, "Presentation is everything." 

Chef Brad Farmerie told AD, "Besides salt, color and texture are the two largest differences between restaurant meals and home-cooked meals." Kitchen Bouquet should already help with the color, but it's also a great idea to serve up your courses on plates that contrast with each dish. Putting colorful meals on a white platter and neutral ones on a bright serving dish will make them look all the more appetizing. Be sure that your plates have a rim. "A rim is to food what matting is to a photograph," Farmerie told the outlet. So whip out the Kitchen Bouquet and your best plates — you're on your way to creating dishes that will make your guests' mouths water before they even try the food.