Bechamel Sauce

Guide Note

Bechamel sauce, also known as white sauce, is extremely popular in French cuisine and a fundamental element of many other European cuisines. Known as the mother sauce, it consists of flour, boiled milk,butter and nutmeg. Bechamel forms the base of many other sauces.

Fast Facts

1. Pronounced bay-shah-melehehehe
2. Invented by Duke Philippe De Mornay in the early 1600s
3. Used with white meat, eggs, vegetables and casseroles
4. A base for hundreds of other sauces

Bechamel sauce is named after the Marquis Louis de Bechamel, who was the chief steward of King Louis XIV's household, and while some say he invented it, it seems unlikely. It is more likely that it was invented by court chef Francois Pierre de la Varenne, who was the king's chef at the time and later wrote about bechamel sauce. Some food historians think it was brought to France by Catherine de Medici, and originally evolved in Italy. Others say Duke Phillippe de Mornay invented it in the 1600s, and that it was based on Mornay sauce. It seems very likely that several chefs developed a proto-Bechamel independently of each other.

1. Moussaka
2. Lasagna
3. Lobster Newburg
4. Macaroni and cheese
5. Potatoes au gratin