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The 5 Mother Sauces

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  • Difficulty: moderate
  • Video Length: 29:05
  • Course: Sauces and Salads WTF?

There are five mother sauces that are the foundation of French cooking: Béchamel - a white sauce that begins with a light roux of flour and butter and enhanced with milk or cream and light seasonings. Veloute - a stock-based white sauce that combines a roux with veal or chicken stock. Espagnole - a roasted veal stock thickened with roux and combined with tomato paste and mushrooms. Hollandaise - a truly difficult sauce, it is made by whisking egg yolks over a water bath then adding clarified butter and lemon. Tomato - a basic tomato stock that begins with miro poix combined with tomatoes, tomato paste, flour and a little sugar and water or stock and then seasoned with a bouquet garni.

Spike Mendelsohn (Season 4)

Spike works as the chef de cuisine at Tribeca's new hotspot restaurant, Mai House, owned by the renowned restaurateur Drew Nieporent. Mai House was named as one of the New York Times' top ten best new restaurants of 2007. Born in Montreal, Canada and trained in classic French cuisine in restaurants around the world. Spike has worked with Gerard Boyer at Les Crayeres, Thomas Keller at Bouchon and The Maccioni Family at Le Cirque. Spike believes in learning the basics to become the best. His latest venture is opening a new chain, Good Stuff Eatery, with his family (first location opening in Washington D.C. later this year) The new restaurant features his weaknesses -- hamburgers, hot dogs, fries and milkshakes.