On Food and Cooking

restaurant and home cooks who do serve time-
consuming meat stocks and reductions seldom
make them from scratch; these products are
well suited to manufacture on an industrial
scale, and good versions are available in
frozen form. The rich cream and butter sauces
popularized by the nouvelle cuisine have
become less common; simpler broths, reduced
pan deglazings, and vinaigrettes more so.
Thanks to the international scope of modern
cooking, restaurant diners encounter a wider
range of sauces than ever before. Many of
them are contrasting purees made from fruits,
vegetables, nuts, and spices, or else thinner
soy-and fish-based Asian dipping sauces;
these are attractive to restaurateurs because
they require less time, labor, and often less
skill than the classic French sauces. Similarly,
home cooks are now likely to buy time-saving
and versatile bottled sauces and dressings.
And a few inventive chefs are experimenting
with unusual tools and materials — among