5 Mother Sauces

The five mother sauces are basic sauces which involve all the basics techniques in French culinary art sauce making. I like to add some cold emulsified sauces such as Vinaigrette and Mayonnaise into this category as well as they are also important sauces, so that will bring our mother sauces to seven.

The five mother sauces are:

• Béchamel Sauce (White)
• Velouté Sauce (Blond)
• Brown (Demi-glace) or Espagnole Sauce
• Hollandaise Sauce (Butter)
• Tomato Sauce (Red)

Mother Sauces are also called “Grand Sauces”, because they regroup the basic techniques in sauce making, they are the five most basic sauces that every cook should master.