🥣 Mother sauces

Auguste Escoffier was a French chef and restaurateur who professionalised hotel cookery, codified the kitchen brigade and established the five classical mother sauces sti…

Béchamel is a milk-based sauce thickened with a pale roux, and one of the five mother sauces associated with Auguste Escoffier’s system of French cookery. Its history rea…

Demi-glace is a rich, glossy French brown sauce made by reducing brown stock, traditionally with espagnole sauce. It is more concentrated and technically defined than ord…

Espagnole is a classic French brown mother sauce made from brown roux, brown stock, browned vegetables and tomato. It resembles rich gravy, but its formal method, straine…

Hollandaise is a warm emulsion of egg yolks, butter and acid, usually served with asparagus, fish and eggs Benedict. It resembles gravy only in its role as a finishing sa…

Sauce tomate is the traditional French mother sauce based on tomatoes, aromatics and a cooked thickener. It predates modern bottled pasta sauces and differs from gravy in…

Velouté is a classical French sauce made by thickening a light stock with a pale roux. It resembles some gravies in method, but differs in its deliberately smooth texture…