When Chef told us that we’d be studying about and making sauces last week, you couldn’t slap the smile off my face or stop me from immediately opening my book to Chapter 8. Well, maybe not THAT much of a freak, but I did impart to our Captain that if he thought I had asked a lot of questions before, just wait until we delved into this little market basket.

I think it seriously kicks ass that in a mostly male dominated profession, the fact that the most elemental components (in my opinion) of cooking are the MOTHER sauces!  From the mother sauces come baby sauces, or small sauces ~ and they are soooo much fun! In case you’re interested, the mother sauces are: Bechamel, Espagnole, Tomato, Hollandaise, Veloute and Demi.  The easy way to remember these is a little phrase that goes thus:  BETH has VD.  We weren’t taught that Demi-Glace is a mother sauce, but it wouldn’t be funny or memorable if Beth only had V.

I LOVE SAUCES!  So basically, I was pretty much jumping up and down and pointing last week.  We made a brown stock and a white stock and then went to town!  The aromas emanating from the Basics Kitchen perfumed the entire school.  It’s like when you open the front door and get that first whiff of your moms’ spaghetti.  From these stocks we made those aforementioned MOTHER sauces which we transformed into Supremes and Allamendes, Marchand de Vin, Sauce Robert and Chasseur.  To our Bechamel we added sauteed onion for a Soubise and oodles of cheese for a Mornay.  How can we forget our Hollandaisse and Bernaise.  All I ate when I got home from school was fiber. God help me!!

It would be sacriligious not to mention the fact that from these beautifully prepared stocks come even more beautiful soups!  The race for my adoration between soups and sauces is neck and neck. Imaginary pots of stock sit on my shoulders and whisper “Make me into a soup!” “Make me into a Sauce!” They can be so irritating. However, as much as I adore those MOTHERS, I don’t think “Into the Sauce” would have been a good name for my company. Hits a little too close to home, if you know what I mean.  So, guess what we get to play with next? Chapter 9 ~ Understanding Soups!  God help Chef Macc!!