Sauces in French Cuisine. Romeo Brodmann

prominent than they once were.

      Art presupposes solid craftsmanship. Salvador Dali learnt to paint in the true classical manner before he embraced surrealism and abstract art. The pianist Lang Lang interprets the most difficult pieces as lightly as a feather because he learnt classical piano playing from a sound base. You can only become a virtuoso by continually practicing the fundamentals.

      Craftsmanship means working on the foundation repeatedly and understanding the reasons why the basics work so well; you cannot adapt them until they are second nature. According to Escoffier it is essential to truly understand the sauces and their structural composition as one of the most important bases of French cuisine.

      Always start at the beginning to really learn the basics of the chef’s profession. You only become a star chef or chef to the royal household by constant practice, learning, extending your knowledge, and developing further. You can only become a virtuoso when you have really understood the basics and appreciate the science of cooking – why heat will produce one reaction and cold another. To be able to feel a passion for cooking, with heart and soul, is the intrinsic condition of being a great chef.

      “I really welcome this book and know that, within a short space of time, the copy I will be putting in the kitchen at Mosimann’s will certainly become not only well-thumbed, but also sauce-splattered; surely the essence of a great and important book!”

      Anton Mosimann, OBE

      The schematic representation of the sauces

Basic Products	Basic Sauces	Minor (compound) Basic Sauces	Variations
Brown Sauces
Brown StockBrown Veal Stock (Gravy)Veal Gravy	Brown Basic Sauce (Demi-glace)		Variations
	Thickened Brown Veal Gravy
	Thickened Veal Gravy
	Thickened Brown Gravy, based on Duck
Brown Game Stock	Thickened Brown Gravy, based on Game
Tomato Sauces
Tomatoes-Concassée	Sauce Portugaise
	Sauce a la Provençale
	Tomato Sauce
White Sauces
White Veal Stock	Veal Veloute	Sauce Allemande (also known as Sauce Parisienne)Veal Veloute + Egg Yolk and Cream	Variations
Chicken Stock	Chicken Veloute	Chicken Veloute(Chicken Veloute + Cream)	Variations
White Fish StockConcentrated White Fish Stock (Fumet de Poisson)	Fish Veloute	White Wine Sauce(Fish Veloute + Cream)	Variations
Milk	Sauce Béchamel		Variations
Butter Sauces
Egg Mass + Butter	Bavarian Sauce
	Béarnaise Sauce		Variations
	Hollandaise Sauce		Variations
	Tyrolienne Sauce		Variations
Water and ButterThickened with Roux	Bastard Sauce		Variations
Frothy Butter, warm Sauces	Frothy Sauce
	Solférino Sauce
Hot English Sauces
	Hot Englisch Sauces
Cold Sauces
Egg Yolk + Oil	Sauce Mayonnaise		Variations
Vinegar + Oil	Vinaigrette (Sauce Ravigote)
Oil	Other Oil Sauces
Whipped Cream	Cold Sauces based on Cream
	Cold Englisch Sauces
Aspic Jellies and Chaud-Froid Sauces
Ordinary Aspic Jelly + Brown Stock		Brown Chaud-froid Sauce
Chicken Aspic Jelly + Brown Gravy, based on Duck		Brown Chaud-froid Sauce for Ducks
Game Aspic Jelly + Brown Gravy, based on Game		Brown Chaud-froid Sauce for Game
Ordinary Aspic Jelly + Brown Stock + Tomato Puree		Tomato-flavoured Chaud-froid Sauce
Chicken Aspic Jelly + Béchamel or Chicken Veloute + Tomato Puree		Pink Chaud-froid Sauce (Aurora Chaud-froid Sauce)
Chicken Aspic Jelly + Béchamel or Chicken Veloute + Herb Puree		Green Chaud-froid Sauce
Chicken Aspic Jelly + Béchamel or Chicken Veloute		White Chaud-froid Sauce
Ordinary Aspic Jelly + Mayonaise		Jellied Mayonnaise
Ordinary Aspic Jelly + Mayonaise		Whipped Mayonnaise, Russian Style
Compound Butters and Flavoured Oils
Butter + Ingredients		Compound Butters
Oil + Ingredients		Flavoured Oils

      Georges Auguste Escoffier

      Born on 28 October 1846 in Villeneuve-Loubet, France

      Died on 12 February 1935 in Monte Carlo, Monaco

      As far as is possible to tell from the records, Escoffier, the king of chefs, was a calm and equanimous chef de cuisine who spent a good 60 years of his life at the stove.

      1859 | Started his apprenticeship at the age of 13 in the kitchen, table service and buying of produce in the restaurant belonging to his uncle. Then first jobs as a chef at the Hotel Belleveue near Nice and in the Petit Moulin Rouge in Paris.

      1866 | Chef de cuisine in the French general staff, among others during the Franco-Prussian War (1870 to 1871). Prisoner of war.

      1872 | Return to Nice as the chef de cuisine at the Hotel Luxemburg.

      1873 | Then to Paris, as the chef de cuisine at the Petit Moulin Rouge.

      1876 | Opening of his own restaurant Le Faisan doré in Cannes.

      1878 | On 28 August marriage to Delphine Daffis, with whom he had three children Paul, Daniel and Germaine.

      1879 | Took over the management of the Maison Chevet at the royal palace in Paris.

      1880 | Chef de cuisine in the Casino in Boulogne-sur-Mer and in the Restaurant Maire in Paris.

      1884 | César Ritz recruits Auguste Escoffier as chef de cuisine. First attempts to rethink traditional French cuisine.

      1890 | Took over the management of the kitchen at the Savoy Hotel in London, where important creations such as the Homard à l’américaine, Poire Hélène or Pêche Melba were developed.

      1897 | Disputes with the owners of the Savoy. Escoffier leaves the Savoy with the majority of his team and returns to Paris where he was recruited by César Ritz for the reopening of the Ritz on the Place Vendôme for the organisation of the kitchen. The European gourmet community already follows him everywhere.

      1899 | Reorganisation and management of other kitchens on behalf of César Ritz, among others that of the Ritz in London. The arrangement to manage the kitchens of the hotels in London and Paris for César Ritz lasted until 1920. Escoffier works on his culinary guide, the «Guide Culinaire».

      1903 | His work Guide Culinaire, a culinary guide, is published.

      1919 | Escoffier is appointed an Knight of the Legion of Honour by the French President Raymond Poincaré. In the same year, Escoffier, who is now 73, writes his memoirs «L’aid-mémoire culinaire». The first edition appears in 1923.

      1920 | Escoffier retires with his wife.

      Guide Culinaire

      The content of the culinary guide, or to give it its original title in French «Guide Culinaire», still appears very simple, streamlined, extremely contemporary and above all timeless, even today. Even more than a hundred years after the first edition, the content and language of every teaching manual of the present is based on Escoffier’s culinary guide. Even if the basics already existed back then, the culinary foundations were still an unordered