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Sauces Reconsideredby: Gary Allen
Latham MD:
apres Escoffier Rowman 6 Littlefield 2019, Hardbound
ISBN: 978-1-5381-8
Reviewed by: Jacqueline M. Newman
Fall Volume: 2019 Issue: 26(3) page(s): 19
One in the Studies in Food and Gastronomy series, this
one defining sauces, takes a worldview
with humor, and
is beyond ancient thoughts about them. This volume
is in two parts, one with five, the second with seven
chapters; the first one has sauces you may already know
and is titled ‘Ancien Regimes.’ The second is titled: ‘O
Brave New World.’
The first part does include: ‘So Many Rich Sauces, Old
Wine in New Bottles, Nineteenth Century, The French
Were Not Of Course The Only Sauciers, and The Modern
World of Cooking Begins.’ Throughout both parts, Allen
writes about sauces that readers can sense he lives
for food and understands it. He provides advice on
how to incorporate ingredients in modern sauces and
explains how ingredients work. In chapters titled: ‘Time
for a Change, Solutions, Suspensions, Gels, Emulsions,
Cultured Sauces, and Composites.’ He has written or contributed to several dozen books,
most cookbooks, and this one has academic overtones
with chapter notes but very few recipes. There are
many things about sauces you may never thought about
or ever known, some are popular, others may not be.
Even his information may be from countries you may
not know existed, or know the hundreds of sauces from
more than a hundred countries discussed as he details
information about their salt, taste, and more; and gives
the reader many references. Do not be frustrated by things you wished were there,
simply glean from the chapter notes, references, and
multi-page index enjoying, learning, and using his
valuable info using his ideas and do try and taste them
in your cookery. They offer depth and flavors to satisfy, learn from,
and be delighted by. We found many things, even in
his eleven-page chapter notes, six-page bibliography,
and eleven-page
two-columns index at the end.
However, there was something missing, a list of
recipes discussed and folks mentioned; going back, we
had trouble relocating many in both areas. There were some that were basic, a few with
ingredients we never thought to include when cooking
ours. Many could vary your foods, many were super,
and his fine taste buds and knowledge were worth
devouring as we thought of them in every dish he
mentioned. Reconsider your own sauces, make them,
and devour them all. |
