Book excerpt: “A book you’ll use every day. . . . Think of these sauces as a culinary bag of tricks. I do.” —Dorie Greenspan, James Beard Award winner and New York Times–bestselling author of Around My French Table Mastering sauces can take your cooking to a whole new level. Award-winning food writer Martha Holmberg was trained at La Varenne, and in Modern Sauces she tackles this sometimes-intimidating subject—using clear, short bites of information and dozens of process photographs to deliver the skill of great sauce-making to every kind of cook, including beginners. More than 100 recipes for sauces range from standards such as béarnaise, hollandaise, and marinara to modern riffs including maple-rum sabayon, caramelized onion coulis, and coconut-curry spiked chocolate sauce. An additional fifty-five recipes use the sauces to their greatest advantage, beautifying pasta, complementing meat or fish, or elevating a cake to brilliant. Organized by ingredient and method, Modern Sauces is both an inspiration and a timeless reference on kitchen technique. “In a clear and encouraging voice, she explains how to season, store, portion, and improvise on classic sauces . . . Easily Holmberg’s best cookbook to date, this uses delicious recipes—like the outstanding Rice Pudding with Cardamom Meringues, Lime Crème Anglaise, and Chunky Mixed-Berry Coulis—to put essential skills in context.” —Library Journal