Saucier
This is just as it appears. This chef specializes in making sauces, and sometimes meats that are cooked in sauces.
This type of specialty is actually quite prestigious among the chefs out there. Since sauces are often the basis of French haute cuisine, the saucier chef is considered a very necessary person in the kitchen.
The best trained saucier’s know that the five basis of all sauces rest behind the five mother sauces first.
These sauces are:
Espagnole (brown sauce): This is made of dark roux of cooked flour and butter as well as brown stock made from roasted bones and vegetables.
Veloute: (white sauce) is made of a pale roux and a light stock.
Béchamel: a basic white sauce that is made of milk, butter and flour. Sometimes cheese is also added to it.
Vinaigrette: simple oil and vinegar mix. Sometimes other ingredients are added, such as garlic, shallots and herbs.
Hollandaise: a mixture of egg, oil or butter, and mayonnaise.
Of course, this is just the basics of the training that a saucier has to know. You must have a great sense of taste to be a successful saucier, and it helps to be creative in your mixes. Knowing what sauces would taste best with what foods in essential in being a good saucier.
The saucier is the most important person in the room for many gourmet dishes. A meal can be prepared to perfection, but if the sauce is bad, there goes the meal.