Twelve sauces, one private chef, Westport, CT
The Sauces
A sauce is the difference between a cooked protein and a finished dish. These are the twelve I build every week from scratch, beginning with Escoffier's five mother sauces and ending with the working sauces that hold, chill, and reheat cleanly for five-day meal prep.
Who this is for: Westport households comparing private chef and weekly meal prep options, and home cooks who want the classical foundation explained plainly.
What you'll learn: the base, thickener, and signature of each sauce, what it pairs with, and whether it survives the refrigerator.
The five mother sauces
Auguste Escoffier reduced the sprawling sauce repertoire of the 19th century to five foundations in Le Guide Culinaire (1903). Learn these and most of the French canon is a variation away.
Béchamel
The white sauce
Béchamel is milk thickened with a white roux of equal parts butter and flour, seasoned with white pepper, a little salt, and a whisper of nutmeg. It is the mildest of the mother sauces and the base for gratins, croque monsieur, lasagna, and every cheese sauce worth eating.
- Base
- Whole milk, often steeped with onion and bay
- Thickener
- White roux, cooked two minutes, never colored
- Pairs with
- Gratins, baked pasta, cauliflower, poached eggs
- Named for
- Louis de Béchameil, steward to Louis XIV
The whole discipline is in the whisking. Hot milk into a warm roux, added in stages, keeps it lump-free; a low simmer for ten minutes cooks out the raw flour. I finish it with white pepper so the sauce stays pale.
Holds five days chilled; loosens with a splash of milk on reheat
Velouté
The velvet sauce
Velouté is a light stock, usually chicken or fish, thickened with a blond roux and simmered until silky. It is the quiet workhorse of a private chef's kitchen because it takes on the character of whatever is finished into it: cream, mushrooms, lemon, herbs, or wine.
- Base
- White chicken, veal, or fish stock
- Thickener
- Blond roux, cooked just to a straw color
- Pairs with
- Chicken breast, poached fish, spring vegetables
- Children
- Suprême, Allemande, Bercy, Normande
Add heavy cream and it becomes sauce suprême; add egg yolk and lemon and it becomes Allemande. Nearly every "cream sauce" on a dinner menu in Westport is a velouté under another name.
Holds five days chilled; reheats without breaking
Espagnole & Demi-Glace
The brown sauce
Espagnole is brown veal or beef stock thickened with a brown roux and enriched with mirepoix and tomato, then simmered for hours and strained. Reduce it by half with more brown stock and you have demi-glace, the concentrated foundation beneath Madeira, Bordelaise, and every serious red-wine sauce.
- Base
- Roasted-bone brown stock
- Thickener
- Brown roux plus long reduction
- Pairs with
- Beef, short rib, lamb, roasted mushrooms
- Time
- Two days: stock on day one, sauce on day two
This is the sauce that made banquet kitchens possible. A quart of demi-glace in the walk-in means a dozen finished sauces are minutes away. I make it in batches and freeze it in half-cup portions.
Holds a week chilled and three months frozen
Sauce Tomate
The French tomato sauce
Sauce tomate is tomatoes cooked slowly with aromatics and stock until thick and rounded, then passed through a food mill. Escoffier's version began with salt pork and a roux; the modern kitchen leans on ripe tomatoes, a little butter, and patience.
- Base
- San Marzano or summer field tomatoes
- Thickener
- Reduction, occasionally a light roux
- Pairs with
- Pasta, braised chicken, eggplant, white beans
- Children
- Provençale, Portugaise, Creole
Depth comes from restraint: a low simmer for forty-five minutes, a knob of cold butter at the end, and basil added off the heat so it stays green.
Holds five days chilled; improves on the second day
Hollandaise
The warm emulsion
Hollandaise is egg yolk whisked with lemon juice and a reduction of white wine or vinegar, then mounted with warm clarified butter into a glossy, pourable emulsion. It is the one mother sauce with no starch and no long simmer, which is why it is both the most elegant and the least forgiving.
- Base
- Egg yolk and acid
- Thickener
- Emulsified clarified butter
- Pairs with
- Asparagus, poached eggs, salmon, halibut
- Children
- Béarnaise, Choron, Maltaise, Mousseline
The rule is temperature: warm enough to thicken the yolk, never hot enough to scramble it. I make hollandaise only for in-home dinners where it goes straight from the pan to the plate.
Does not hold; made à la minute for in-home service only
The seven working sauces
The daughters and cousins of the mother sauces that actually appear on my clients' weekly menus. Each is chosen for flavor first and for how it behaves after four days in a cold-packed container second.
Beurre Blanc
The Loire Valley butter sauce
Beurre blanc is a reduction of white wine, white wine vinegar, and shallot into which cold butter is whisked piece by piece until it turns pale, creamy, and just thick enough to coat a fish fillet. There is no egg and no flour, only butter held in suspension by acid and motion.
- Base
- Dry white wine, vinegar, shallot
- Thickener
- Cold butter emulsion
- Pairs with
- Sea bass, halibut, scallops, poached salmon
- Origin
- Nantes, on the Loire, early 1900s
A tablespoon of cream in the reduction makes it stable enough to hold for an evening. For weekly meal prep I replace it with a lemon beurre fondue built on the same reduction, which reheats without separating.
Classic version does not hold; cream-stabilized version holds two days
Madeira Sauce
Demi-glace with fortified wine
Madeira sauce is demi-glace reduced with Madeira wine and mounted with butter, giving a glossy brown sauce with the nutty, faintly sweet finish of the fortified wine. It is the sauce behind Chicken Madeira, which is on the Week One menu for nearly every client I take on.
- Base
- House demi-glace
- Thickener
- Reduction, finished with butter
- Pairs with
- Chicken breast, beef tenderloin, mushrooms, veal
- Wine
- Sercial or Verdelho, dry to medium-dry
I sweat cremini mushrooms in the pan first, deglaze with Madeira, reduce nearly to a glaze, then add demi-glace. Mild, deep, and reliably loved by children and grandparents alike.
Holds five days chilled; reheats to full gloss
Mornay
Béchamel with cheese
Mornay is béchamel enriched with Gruyère and Parmesan, sometimes with a yolk stirred in for sheen. It is the sauce of macaroni and cheese done properly, of cauliflower gratin, and of chicken Florentine.
- Base
- Béchamel
- Thickener
- Roux plus melted cheese
- Pairs with
- Pasta, vegetables, eggs, white fish
- Cheese
- Gruyère for body, Parmesan for salt
The cheese goes in off the heat, in handfuls, so it melts without turning grainy. A pinch of dry mustard sharpens it without announcing itself.
Holds five days chilled; reheat low and stir
Forestière Mushroom Cream
Velouté finished with mushrooms and cream
Forestière is a chicken velouté built on sautéed mushrooms, shallot, and a splash of white wine, then finished with cream and fresh thyme. It is the most requested sauce in my weekly program because it makes a simple roasted chicken breast taste like a Sunday in the French countryside.
- Base
- Chicken velouté
- Thickener
- Blond roux plus cream
- Pairs with
- Chicken, turkey cutlets, egg noodles, pork loin
- Mushrooms
- Cremini, shiitake, king trumpet in season
Mushrooms are browned hard first, in batches, so they taste of the pan and not of steam. The sauce is seasoned with white pepper and very light garlic.
Holds five days chilled; loosens with a spoon of stock
Bordelaise
The red wine sauce of Bordeaux
Bordelaise is dry red wine reduced with shallot, thyme, and black peppercorn, combined with demi-glace, and classically finished with diced bone marrow. It is the sauce for a seared strip steak or a braised short rib when you want depth without sweetness.
- Base
- Demi-glace and red wine
- Thickener
- Reduction, finished with butter
- Pairs with
- Steak, short rib, lamb, roasted root vegetables
- Wine
- Cabernet or Merlot blend, never sweet
Reduce the wine to a syrup before the demi-glace goes in; that is where the color and backbone come from. I strain it twice and hold the marrow for in-home dinners only.
Holds a week chilled; freezes well
Lemon Dill Cream
The salmon sauce
Lemon dill cream is a fish or chicken velouté finished with heavy cream, fresh lemon juice and zest, and a generous handful of dill stirred in at the last moment. Bright, pale, and mild, it is the sauce I pack beside roasted salmon nearly every week.
- Base
- Light velouté
- Thickener
- Blond roux plus cream
- Pairs with
- Salmon, halibut, shrimp, steamed potatoes
- Acid
- Lemon juice added off the heat
The lemon goes in last so it stays fresh rather than cooked. Dill turns dark if it simmers, so it is folded in cold; a second pinch is packed on top so it looks bright when reheated.
Holds five days chilled; keep below a simmer on reheat
Salsa Verde
The Italian green herb sauce
Salsa verde is finely chopped parsley, capers, and anchovy bound with good olive oil and a little vinegar, sometimes with soft breadcrumbs for body. It is uncooked, room-temperature, and the one sauce on this list that gets better with a day in the refrigerator.
- Base
- Flat-leaf parsley and olive oil
- Thickener
- None; chopped herbs and oil
- Pairs with
- Grilled swordfish, roast chicken, poached beef, green beans
- Origin
- Northern Italy, served with bollito misto
Everything is chopped by hand, not blended, so the sauce stays textured and green. It is the antidote to a week of cream sauces and pairs with almost any grilled protein.
Holds five days chilled; serve at room temperature
Questions about sauces and weekly meal prep
What are the five French mother sauces?
The five French mother sauces, as codified by Auguste Escoffier, are béchamel (milk thickened with white roux), velouté (light stock thickened with blond roux), espagnole (brown stock with brown roux and tomato), sauce tomate (tomato-based), and hollandaise (an emulsion of egg yolk and clarified butter). Nearly every classical French sauce descends from one of these five.
Which sauces hold best for weekly meal prep?
Roux-thickened and reduction-based sauces hold best: béchamel, velouté, Madeira, Bordelaise, Forestière mushroom cream, and sauce tomate all chill, reheat, and keep their body for five days. Butter emulsions such as hollandaise and beurre blanc are the exception; they are best made the day they are served and are not part of a cold-packed program.
How should a cook-chill sauce be reheated at home?
Reheat gently in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring, until the sauce just steams. Cream and roux sauces loosen with a tablespoon of milk, stock, or water if they have tightened in the refrigerator. Never boil a cream sauce and never microwave on full power; both can cause the sauce to break or separate.
Why are sauces packed separately from the protein?
Packing sauce separately keeps a seared crust crisp, prevents fish and chicken from over-absorbing liquid during five days of refrigeration, and lets each component reheat at its own correct pace. The sauce is warmed in its own pan and spooned over at the table, which is how it would be plated in a restaurant.
Does Chef Robert make all sauces from scratch?
Yes. Every dinner sauce in the weekly program is made from scratch in Westport, CT, starting with house stocks, wine reductions, fresh herbs, and butter. No jarred bases, bouillon, or commercial thickeners are used.
Can sauces be adjusted for dietary restrictions?
Most can. Velouté and reduction sauces can be built without dairy, roux can be replaced with a rice-flour slurry for gluten-free clients, and seasoning is kept mild by default with white pepper and light garlic. Restrictions are documented in each client's standing rulebook before the first week is planned.
Taste them at your own table
Weekly cook-chill meal prep in Westport, CT: five dinners, scratch sauces packed separately, cold-delivered and labeled, with reheating instructions written for your kitchen. Executive chef experience from private dining, banquets, country clubs, and restaurant groups.
Plan your first week