There was so many creative sauces in this book! Stuff I would have never dreamed of. I used a couple recipes in a sauce making competition and WON! I think that let's you know my opinion on this book. I want to keep it in my kitchen because I use it on my tablet everyday I cook. Definitely getting the paperback when it's available.

Sauces make the world go round, and this book will help you go on that trip. Simple to adventurous recipes, this cookbook will have your taste-buds dancing. Would recommend to any public library.

Lots of good recipes for sauces - from the basic to the more complicated. In addition to the sauces there is also a selection of recipes to use the sauces with. Looking forward to experimenting with this book.

I enjoyed reading through the book and trying some recipes. I know the delightful value of an amazing sauce, but can’t seem to get them under my belt; they just don’t always come together. There are quite a few sauces I wasn’t familiar with, which is a great challenge (I’ll try any food really), but some recipes are recognizable to me which is fantastic (Raita, Curry, Chutney, Satay, Jerk, Mole, Cacik, Pesto among some). I liked how the sauces were broken down by region (Asia, Americas, Middle East, Europe) as well as the description/history included. The ‘sauces for everyday recipes’ are also very helpful since sometimes I just can’t think creatively on how to mix up dinners. I’m also a big fan of numbered instructions for recipes!

Get Your Sauce On!

I love sauces in cooking, whether store-bought or ones that I make myself. So when I saw this book at a book reviewer site, I was very curious to see what it would have. The book is broadly divided into two sections: sauces of the world and recipes with which you can use the sauces. Both of these sections are further divided, the sauce section into continents and the second section into basic main ingredient types like meat, seafood, and vegetables.

Flipping through the section on the sauces, I found it to be an intriguing collection of 75 recipes. The ones you would expect to see are here like tikka masala, barbecue sauce, romesco, and chimichurri. It also contains some things that I don't really consider sauces like baba ganoush, fondue, and hummus. Other sauces are ones that I would not consider to be a signature sauce for a country or region. Even a brief glance shows you, unfortunately, that so many sauces have been left out. For instance, the French and Italians are well known for their sauces but not many are presented in this book. (Note: Look for a couple French classics in the Introduction, like bechamel, hollandaise, and mayonnaise; this section also has a basic tomato sauce.) I would have loved to have seen more sauce recipes. Frankly, I can't get enough. In this section, each sauce recipe refers to recipes in the second section to pair it with.

The second section, on using the sauces for everyday recipes, is a lot of fun. Some basic everyday recipes are given like pan-roasted vegetables, fish in parchment, and couscous. What makes these interesting is some of the accompaniments they have with them as well as the suggested sauces. Some of the combinations they suggest are unusual, but I bet they’d be good. It gets you thinking more about how to creatively combine sauces with simple recipes to really elevate a meal rather simply. There is much here for inspiration.

If you enjoy cooking with sauces, this book would be a great one to add to your library.

This is likely a great cookbook for many, it's just not a good cookbook for me. I love cooking and I love using sauces. I liked the recent Make Ahead Sauce Solution cookbook so much that I gave it 5 stars and asked for it for Christmas (see https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...), so I was excited to review this sauce cookbook. I also loved the fact that it highlights flavors from around the world.

All that said, this isn't a good fit for me or our family. Most of the recipes are fairly specific in terms of ingredients, and I can't find them in my rural Minnesota area. The author says you can order them online, but that tends to be costly and won't work for dishes you want to make that night. Sometimes they were utterly confusing. There's an American recipe for huckleberry sauce that appealed to me as a forager, but it calls for ramps and huckleberries, which you forage in two totally different seasons (huckleberries and other berries are typically summer crops, while ramps are typically foraged in early spring). The author says you can order huckleberries online, but I can't imagine how much you'd pay to overnight fresh or frozen huckleberries. There are a lot of recipes that also call for this sort of very specialized ingredient that's likely to be difficult and expensive to source.

The sauces are also very meat-based, and I cook vegetarian for our family (note for vegans: dairy is even more heavily used). The pairing recipes in the second half are mostly for meat and seafood with just a few basic vegetable-based dishes, and even some of those aren't vegetarian (example -- duck fat french fries, where you deep fry two potatoes' worth of french fries in 4 cups of canola oil and 2 cups of duck fat and then theoretically douse them in sauce). They tend towards high fat and high calories. No nutritional information is provided. Many of the recipes are also rather labor intensive.

This isn't a book to grab if you want to make a quick sweet and sour sauce for dinner, which is what I would have loved. It actually doesn't even include a sweet and sour sauce, since I think it aims to be much more high brow. The Asia section includes recipes for sauces like Pomegranate-Beet Raita, Nam Jim and Ponzo, and the only Chinese sauce is a fermented black bean sauce.

There are also almost no photographs of the recipes. I'm very visual and like to see what the recipe is going to look like and suggested presentation ideas. If you're printing a book in black and white to save printing costs (and thus, costs for the reader to purchase it), then it makes perfect sense not to include photos. But this book is printed in color with other photos and illustrations, so there's no good excuse for not having photos for at least a good chunk of the recipes. I don't care if they're professionally shot with food stylists, I just want to get a good idea of what a dish with Piri Piri Whiskey Sauce looks like or how I'd use it. Pairings are included with the recipes, referring to the section of basic (mostly meat) recipes at the end for things like seared scallops and flank steaks, but it would be so much more helpful to see actual pictures of dishes made with many of the sauces.

What's good -- each dish says at the top whether it's gluten free, nut free, vegetarian, etc. Little pepper icons show the heat in each recipe. Many recipes are courtesy foodies and chefs from that area of the world. These seem like authentic gourmet sauces for the regions.

I prefer simple, frugal and delicious recipes (bonus if they're largely vegetarian, healthy-ish and gluten free). This cookbook isn't that but it seems like sophisticated, authentic and delicious recipes that will be especially well suited for meat and seafood lovers with fairly high amounts of time and money to spend on the recipes.

My rating system:
1 = hated it
2 = it was okay
3 = liked it
4 = really liked it
5 = love it, plan to purchase, and/or would buy it again if it was lost

I read a temporary digital ARC of the book for the purpose of review.

Rockridge Press and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of The World Sauces Cookbook: 60 Regional Recipes and 30 Perfect Pairings. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

The author has traveled the world, gaining invitations into homes of local families and learning the secrets that are passed on as traditions. The cookbook is divided into two large sections, the first one being the world of sauces and the second being the recipes for which the sauces should be used. The sauce recipes are further divided into regions/countries of origin, while the second section is divided into main ingredient type.

The sauces are varied and interesting, with familiar offerings like Tikka Masala, Mango Chutney, Ponzu, and Chimichurri, as well as unfamiliar ones like Tkemali (plum sauce), Chermoula Rouge (sweet raisin sauce), and Monkey Gland Sauce. Each sauce recipe is accompanied by pairing and serving ideas, as well as heat level.

Recipes for the dishes using the sauces are laid out in the last section. Some of the dishes list different sauces for the same main protein, like Grilled Flanken-Style Ribs has instructions for using Gochujang Sauce, Berbere Spiced Sauce, or Mango Chutney. This versatility gives readers the ability to change up the flavor profile with just a switch of a sauce.

The recipes themselves are pretty basic, as the sauces are the stars of each dish. The World Sauces Cookbook is hard to read on a Kindle because the sauces are in a different section from the main dishes. The lack of pictures is a big drawback as well, especially considering that many of the sauces may be unfamiliar to most readers. Overall, the sauces are first rate, but I would be hesitant to recommend The World Sauces Cookbook to other readers.

I love cooking with spices, but I need guidance. As soon as I started reading this book I thought, "Where has this cookbook been all my life?". It's so helpful having all of these recipes in one place. I can see it becoming a quick go to book for when I have a kitchen full of fresh produce and little time to pull a fresh, healthy dinner together. The variety of flavors from around the world combined with the benefits of eating a variety of spices will make this a welcome addition to any kitchen!

I like condiments and I love sauces. So, this cookbook was right up my alley. I love how in the first part if breaks down sauces into regions of the world. You have your Asian, European, Americas, and the Middle East/African sauces to choose from! Over 60 sauces to choose from. There will be lots you haven't heard about and some that are more common ethnic sauces like chimichurri, coconut curry, and tikka masala. But the cool thing about this cookbook is that it doesn't just give you sauce recipes but it had a whole section on how to use these sauces. Its not a huge but it's a helpful guide on what sauces to use with fish, meat, beans, ect... I can't wait to dive in and try some of them.

I don't have an arsenal of sauces that I've learned to make. This cookbook gives me that. I probably won't try most of the recipes, but there are some I never even thought of making. I'm going to have to try some that I've never had. They all look delicious. The book is beautifully illustrated with pictures of the finished sauces. I think I'll have to try the barbecue sauce first.

The World Sauces Cookbook is a new cookbook/tutorial from travel writer Mark C. Stevens. Released 30th July 2019 by Rockridge, it's 238 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.

It's always amazed me how picking a protein (chicken, fish, beef, tofu, etc) and just changing the sauce and carbohydrate side dishes (rice, noodles, potatoes) gives a completely different meal.

The author says something that resonated with me in the introduction:

On the road in a foreign land, seeing everything is impossible. If you try, you miss what is truly unique about a place. Books with 400-plus recipes claim to be exhaustive, yet many of them don’t have Khoresh Fesenjoon or Jajik. Are they truly acquainted with Persian cuisine? Have they been in the kitchen, or did they just go to the monuments?


This is such an interesting cookbook. It is laid out logically and in an easy to follow format. The first section includes sauces arranged in chapters by geographical location. There are recipes from Asia-Oceania-The Indian subcontinent, the Americas (North & South), Middle East-Africa-Mediterranean-Caucasus, and Europe.

The second section has all the recipes for using the sauces as well as serving suggestions. Many of the recipes include alternative sauces or presentations. The recipes are written for American standard measurements and are (mostly) not converted to include SI measurements. There are a few places where gram measurements are given (for example the ponzu recipe which calls for 5g each of kombu and bonito flakes).

These are regional sauces many of which are not well known outside of the locale or amongst those who have emigrated elsewhere. As such many of the ingredients may be difficult to source without a well stocked international food store.

The recipes have a header with location info, short description with prep/cooking time and yields, followed by ingredients, cooking instructions, alternative finishes and (if appropriate) links to coordinating dishes.

It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

Very tasty and exotic sauces to dress up one's staple recipes. We've tried several with our regular chicken, porkchop, and sliced beef and all were quite enjoyable.

Four stars. This one will be a keeper for me.

Easy to follow recipes that actually turn out as good as they look. I found myself utilizing this book more than once when planning menus for the week.

Have you ever wondered what you were going to put on that chicken, fish or beef? What about pasta? Get tired of the same old thing? Yea me too!
The World Sauces Cookbook by Mark C. Stevens, is a book that should be in every cook's selection. In this book, you will learn a variety of techniques for classic sauces such as Bechamel and Hollandaise. Attempting to make either of these has scared me. But reading the recipes, it doesn't seem that hard, you just have to pay attention while cooking them.

There are recipes from Asia, India, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas. All of that is in part one, part two deals with how to use these sauces in everyday recipes. There is a section that deals with meat and poultry, another for seafood, one for vegetables, and lastly a chapter for legumes, beans, and grains.

At the back of the book are a few pages called World Pantry. It explains about some ingredients like caster sugar, huckleberries and fish sauce and so many more. What it does is tell the description of what it is, country it is from and the recipes in the book that it is used in.

All in all, I think that this is a book that can be very helpful to make a recipe better. I look forward to trying some of the recipes!

This is a great collection of recipes for sauces and condiments from around the world. It is one I see myself revisiting over and over. There is a great mix of well known and lesser known foods, from ragu to hummus to fish sauces and curries. I really enjoyed the way the author classified the sauces by types, and included spice levels as well as different suggested uses and pairings. This is a great reference guide to taking your food to the next level. My only criticism would be the lack of pictures, as there were only a few throughout the book, and I think the sauces and ingredients would lend themselves to a truly beautiful photographic recipe book.

I love sauces and gravies of any kind. They just seem to make any dish more delicious. I found so many new sauce recipes with ideas on the perfect recipe pairing. Highly recommend this cookbook.