Sauces : Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making

Customer Reviews

Practical and Readable

This book is excellent for anyone who enjoys cooking whether they're a merely competent cook or a highly skilled chef. Peterson infuses the book with his encyclopedic knowledge of all things epicurian and a subtle sense of humor in a way that makes it eminently readable and useful.

The real benefit is that it provides the fundamentals behind making sauces. Anyone looking to expand their repetoire by learning how to make new and creative sauces, or who just needs clear direction on how to make the classics will enjoy this book.

Some may find the amount of technical terminology (glaces, coulis, etc.) daunting at first, but Peterson presents the terms and concepts in a way that can be readily understood. "Sauces" is not a recipe book per se, but a first rate instruction manual that happens to include many good recipes. The recipes are clear, but require some grasp of cooking basics.

almost overkill

If you ever wanted to know the inner workings of sauces this it the book for you. Everything you could possibly want to know about making a sauce is in this book. Although it isn't completly obvious from looking at this web page this book is enormous(could be used for killing mice), and thorough. You will learn many different styles and techniques. There are only two complaints I have about this book. It caters more to expensive restaurant chefs than to inexpensive home cooked meals. This isn't entirely true, it let's you know what shortcuts you can take, but it berates you for taking them. The other complaint, It is overkill, unless you are a proffesional chef there is very little chance you will everyone of the techniques discussed. This book is full of recipies, but I feel that they are only there as an example. A chapter will talk about a technique and then show recipies, that do exactly what the chapter talked about. Don't buy this book for recipies, but buy it because you really want to learn how to cook. I haven't followed any of the recipies in this book to the letter, but because I read about the theory I modified/improvised some seriously good sauces. If you want recipes there are better things out there for that.

GREAT book-but be prepared to read and learn

If you are looking for a recipie book to throw over something when you get home from work-pass this book up; It will overwhelm and confuse you.
If you truly want to learn how sauce is made-this is it!
Starting with stocks and moving through the basics of about every sort of classical sauce, it not only tells you the method, but the theory and how to take it where you want to go. These are the methods that pros such as myself use on a daily basis in the finest kitchens to create those wonderfull sauces that you get on plates.
There may be some terms and ingredients you are not familar with-but, as cooking is a grand adventure, you will have a wider taste and knowldge of the craft.
I do warn you that you will really sit down and read this book and asorb it. I have been cooking for almost 10 years in fine kitchens, and I have been learning things almost from the first page! Plus, in this new edition, he covers more exotic things such as Thai style curry pastes and other Asian stocks and sauces..making the book even more usefull that it was before.
EVERY pro chef and skilled home cook should have this book!