Sauces Info

French classic cuisine features a large variety of butter, egg, cream, and brown sauces. Sauce making is a great culinary art requiring supreme care and patience, from selecting ingredients and preparing stock to achieving desired texture and color through reduction, careful cleaning, skimming, and sieving. These steps demand method, application, love, and a good eye.

The author expresses a passion for sauces, lamenting their modern disappearance, often replaced by 'jus' or general 'salsa,' which are criticized as 'coloured water' and derogatory by critics. In contrast, Curnonsky emphasized sauces as the 'honour and glory of French cookery,' contributing to its pre-eminence, serving as the orchestration and accompaniment of a fine meal, and allowing chefs to demonstrate talent.

The sauces prepared at the River Cafe, despite being basic, are described as difficult to perfect. Due to minimal ingredients and often no cooking, ingredient quality is paramount. Essential ingredients include the best extra virgin olive oil, Maldon sea salt, flat leaf parsley, and salted anchovies.

Traditional Italian cooking often features few sauces for meat or fish, typically serving them with olive oil and lemon. However, specific pairings are enjoyed, such as fresh chopped red chilli sauce with squid, roasted red chillis in olive oil on grilled lamb or steak, salmoriglio with monkfish or scallops, chillis on monkfish, and anchovy and rosemary sauce on lamb, or other sauces with grilled polenta or bruschetta.

Salsa verde, salsa rossa, and salmoriglio are foundational Italian sauces intrinsic to many classic regional dishes. These recipes are adapted to their cooking style, emphasizing no strict rules or measures. Continuous tasting is essential, as ingredient strength dictates proportions. Sauces should enhance, not mask, food flavor, and intense sauces should be used sparingly.