Hi,
Here we add whole spices to the base gravies, they are very rarely ever added to a finished dish.
As an example, Butter gravy has green card, cinnamon stick, cloves, bay leaves. Onion Gravy has cloves, black cardamom, cinamon sticks, and sometimes star anise if no big cards available.
Don't get added to the final dishes as no one really wants to bit into a whole spice, if they are noticed when going into the final dish then they are removed, sometimes we miss them though.
Regards,
Mark