assessed by the renowned chef Antonin Carờme (17841833) In the Preliminary Discourse to his Maợtre dHụtel franỗais, he noted that the splendor of the old cuisine was made possible by the lavish expenditures of the master on personnel and materials After the Revolution, cooks lucky enough to retain a position were thus obliged, for want of help, to simplify the work in order to be able to serve dinner, and then to do a great deal with very little Necessity brought emulation; talent made up for everything, and experience, that mother of all perfection, brought important improvements to modern cuisine, making it at the same time both healthier and simpler Restaurants too brought improvements; “in order to flatter the public taste,” the commercial chefs had to come up with novel, ever more “elegant” and “exquisite” preparations So social revolution became a new motivating force for culinary progress Sauce Families Carême made a number of contributions to this progress, and perhaps the most notable involved the sauces His idea, set forth in The Art of French Cooking in the 19th Century, was to organize the infinity of possibilities that Marin foresaw, and thereby help cooks realize them He classified the sauces of the time into fourfamilies, each headed by a basic or leading sauce, and each expandable by playing variations on that basic theme Only one of the leading sauces, espagnole, was based on expensive, highly concentrated meat extract; both velouté and allemande used unreduced stock, and béchamel used milk Many of these sauces were thickened with flour, which is much more economical than reduced meat bouillon This approach suited the limits and needs of ... them He classified the sauces of the time into fourfamilies, each headed by a basic or leading sauce, and each expandable by playing variations on that basic theme Only one of the leading sauces,... most notable involved the sauces His idea, set forth in The Art of French Cooking in the 19th Century, was to organize the infinity of possibilities that Marin foresaw, and thereby help cooks realize them He... “elegant” and “exquisite” preparations So social revolution became a new motivating force for culinary progress Sauce Families Carême made a number of contributions to this progress, and perhaps the