Prep Class: Béchamel Sauce (e.g. "Basic White Sauce")

Béchamel sauce is considered one of the "meres" ("mother sauces") in French cooking. It is a quite basic white sauce that can be extended to all sorts of purposes. One of those purposes, of course, is in the creation of a gratin. The history of béchamel is a bit debated, but it was most likely created by Chef Francois Pierre de la Varenne (1615-1678). He was a court chef during King Louis XIV's (1643-1715) reign, during the same time that powerful financier Marquis Louis de Béchamel was there in court. La Varenne wrote Le Cuisinier Francois ("The True French Cook"), which included Béchamel Sauce - the first known place the recipe was seen in print. It is thought that he dedicated it to Béchamel as a compliment. Before you can make a proper gratin, you should master the technique of creating béchamel sauce. The core of making a béchamel is to make a roux - which you should know how to do by now if you tried to make my gumbo :). The most basic version comes from the master herself - Ms. Julia Child. From this core sauce you can build many others - including the necessary one for building the gratin.