Chacun sa sauce et sa saucée
You don’t need to make the sauce from a recipe book or blog photo, just one that you like… If it’s good, it’s good! Indulge yourself and give in to your taste!
“Chacun sa sauce” is an expression that means “to each his own”, according to one’s preferences.
A “saucée” is a slang term to express the idea that one has just been drenched in heavy rain, which has fallen unexpectedly and quickly, taking us by surprise, with the consequence of being completely wet.
A saucée is also used to refer to a strong reprimand, a correction.
It also refers to dipping bread in sauce.
Making mistakes doesn’t mean taking a cold shower or a “saucée”. It’s an opportunity to try out new things, to do things “à sa sauce”, which sometimes leads to new recipes. To do things right, you have to be willing to fail miserably, as this allows you to correct your mistakes and then succeed or create new things. This applies not only to cooking, but also to other fields.
“In one of the first scenes of Généalogies d’un crime (Raoul Ruiz, 1997), Solange (Catherine Deneuve), who has just learned of her son’s death, is busy with ‘anodyne tasks’. In the foreground of the kitchen, she mixes oil and condiments. Looking fixedly at the bowl, she explains to her mother, who is in the background, how to make sure that the mayonnaise does not “take at all” (become too firm). The mother, who is somewhat blurred, seems critical. “Really?” she asks cautiously when Solange announces that an egg yolk “crushed with a fork” must be added. “The chives always disappoint me,” she retorts when Solange explains that she has to sprinkle the chives she found at a dealer’s, whose address she refuses to give. The household chores combined with the placidity of the mother, gradually made manifest by the widening of the shot, create a feeling of tension that crystallizes temporarily in the curt prohibition that Catherine Deneuve (Solange) places on her mother answering the phone.
The true nature of this tension is revealed in the following scene. The two women are reunited with a third party, a friend who is a magistrate, in the very wide, dark corridor of the morgue where the body of the deceased son has been taken. The framing emphasizes their rivalry. On one side is the mother, alone in her chair. On the other, the daughter and her friend. Each has their own plan. The shot-reverse-shot offers a clear break. While the daughter begins by attacking her mother – “my mother is crazy” she explains – her mother’s reply is surprising as much for its harmless nature as for the intensity of its effect. “Do you know why I’m smiling? I’m thinking about your salad dressing,” the old woman suddenly quips. ‘What’s wrong with my salad dressing?’ Solange worries in close-up. The mother continues: ”It’s funny though, you set out to make mayonnaise… You know, she was never able to make mayonnaise, it never took.” Solange seems strangely disturbed. The montage alternating close-ups of the two women is disrupted by blurring effects, which show how much this seemingly innocuous conversation takes on unexpected importance. Solange’s reaction is no less strong: “Stop it, Mom!” she exclaims. In close-up, with a pernicious voice and a piercing gaze, the mother continues: “A failed mayonnaise turned into a vinaigrette, isn’t that good, don’t you think? I don’t know, I think it’s good: to use one’s own incapacities to achieve something new and inventive.”
Catherine Deneuve Femme de Maison, Jérémie Kessler, ENS Editions. P.134-136
Généalogies d’un crime – La Vinaigrette – Raoul Ruiz (1996): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrxWxnTSkus
Catherine Deneuve also stands out in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, a film that runs as smoothly as a well-soaked mayonnaiseand in its own sauce. The characters also take each other down (“saucées) with a good cold shower, and not just meteorologically speaking.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg – Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Umbrellas_of_Cherbourg
Genealogies of a Crime – Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogies_of_a_Crime
Two for the Road – A film about two disabled characters where things take a turn for the better (“La mayonnaise prend”) and create a new, inventive life, and it all comes together (“tout cela monte en sauce”) to make a masterpiece of cinema.
