Happy New Year Foodie Friends!
I hope your new year celebration was everything you needed and more!
I spent time with my family in the Virgin Islands and really leaned into aligning with my roots. It was a time of reflection, revision, and refocus! So much so that I've decided to share with you a brief history lesson about the mother of all sauces.
To become a great chef/cook we have to learn the basics, and nothing lays the framework like the knowledge of creating the mother sauces. Each one of your favorite sauces starts from one of these 5 smaller sauces or mother sauces as the historians would write:
*Béchamel - a simple cream sauce made with milk, flour, and butter; then flavored with onions, cloves, and nutmeg.
*Velouté - a basic white sauce made by thickening white stock and roux (flour & butter paste). For example, chicken velouté is made with chicken stock.
*Hollandaise - an emulsion sauce made from clarified butter and warm egg yolks; then flavored with lemon juice and cayenne pepper.
*Tomate Sauce - a robust tomato-based sauce made with rendered salt pork, mirepoix, stock, tomatoes, a ham bone and roux.
*Espagnole (Brown Sauce) - a complex sauce made with rich brown stock, mirepoix, tomato puree, and roux.
My personal favorite is bearnaise sauce, which derives from Hollandaise. It is a blend of tarragon and white wine vinegar that takes its mother sauce, (Hollandaise) to the next level! Imagine a rich, creamy, buttery bite with a bold tangy flavorful punch! That's why bearnaise sauce is at the top of the charts for me. It is perfect on eggs benedict, salmon, steaks and vegetables.
Sometimes we have to go back to the basics and remember where it all started. That allows us to see just how far we've come as we pave the way for the next generation.
Be on the lookout for more content, tips, tricks, and recipes. Let's make 2025 our best year yet!
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