Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making
by James Peterson

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Book Reviews of Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making

Book Review: Best Sauces book
Summary: 5 Stars

Summary of Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making

"James Peterson has done for sauces that which Escoffier did for the cuisine of La Belle Epoque...Sauces is a manual for the professional cook and, as such, it will rapidly become a classic and indispensable reference."-Richard Olney, from the Foreword.

"...another cookbook that can stand among the best reference works."-Gourmet Magazine.

"This is a book I wish I had written myself...Every few decades a book is written that says all there is say on a subject, or has all the information and passion that sets the standard for professional and amateurs alike. Sauces is one of the best culinary books of this century in English."-Jeremiah Tower, Stars Restaurant.

The ultimate reference for sauce making is now better than ever. This updated and expanded edition includes more than 500 recipes, including traditional and contemporary versions of almost every sauce imaginable. You'll find classic white and brown sauces, both starch-thickened and flourless; popular meat and fish sauces made with drippings and juices; sauces based on egg yolks, including bearnaise, hollandaise, mayonnaise, and their variations; sauces made with butter, including the beurre blanc-based sauces that revolutionized modern cookingl vegetable purees, dessert sauces, and many more.

The new edition features all-new chapters on Asian sauces and pasta sauces, plus nearly 50 new recipes, many that cater to lighter, contemporary fare. And a new 32-page color insert clearly and brilliantly illustrate the fundamentals of good sauce making. More than just a compendium of recipes, Sauces explains how and why the ingredients of a sauce are combined.

James Peterson is a chef and cooking instructor. He is also the author of Fish and Shellfish and Splendid Soup, which was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award.

The "where do you want to go" part continues to evolve, as it always will, but remains just as evident in the way we sauce our creations, both elegant and fundamental. In the second edition of Sauces, released seven years after the first, the "we" has expanded beyond Frenchmen and their disciples, and now includes the broader range of flavors experienced by Italians as pasta sauces, as well as New World cooks and their counterparts in the Middle East and throughout greater Asia. The solid base from which all this grows, however, remains the lessons learned in the French kitchen--and a better kitchen for such lessons has never been developed.

To cook is one thing, to sauce another. The right sauce lifts the right dish to a wholly different plateau of dining than would be the case if the cook didn't bother. This can be a humble pasta sauce created as a perfect balance of ingredients on hand, or a carefully considered sauce the ingredients of which have been developed at the stove over days, not mere hours.

In the sauce can be seen the reflection of the cook. There is no room to hide. In the well-crafted sauce can be found the ultimate expression of simplicity, which leaves even less room to hide. It is James Peterson's great talent that he can draw the home cook and professional cook into his dialogue on sauces, and teach them both how to stay afloat in such shallow waters.

Peterson gives the reader--in close to 600 pages, mind you--the continuum on which sauces have been based in culinary history. He gives the reader the kitchen science that allows sauces to work. He gives the reader the techniques necessary to follow along where many a cook has already whisked up a splendid creation. But most of all, he gives the reader permission to go ahead and be creative, to cut loose with knowledge and technique in hand and discover for oneself the way an inkling of a flavor idea can find its way to a dish and make the combined ingredients lift off the plate. Or not. Finding out what doesn't work can be just as important.

This is a book that can be taken to bed and savored, page by page, sauce by sauce. It is a book that should be on the shelf in any kitchen, professional or homebody alike. It is not a book to ever gather dust and need dusting. --Schuyler Ingle

Herbs, Spices & Condiments Books

• Subjects > Cooking, Food & Wine > Cooking by Ingredient > Herbs, Spices & Condiments
• Sauces, Salsa & Garnishes
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