Cheese Sauce, Stodgy and Unstodgy

What about Sauce Mornay?

“Sauce mornay!” my friend James MacGuire responded. He meant that it was impossibly out-of-date and yet, I think, conceivably interesting. The name mornay — no one knows where it comes from — was never widely known in English. It’s just the cheese sauce of French cusine: béchamel with Gruyère melted in, sometimes mixed with Parmigiano-Reggiano. Sauce mornay all but disappeared because of its reputation for gloppiness and a raw-flour taste. You don’t see it on a menu. Its only acceptable role these days is to be the base for a cheese soufflé. (And how often does a cheese soufflé appear on a menu?) Once, mainly, mornay was poured over fish, although cheese and fish aren’t particularly good complements. Where mornay does make sense is with vegetables: cauliflower, broccoli, Belgian endive, turnip, especially in a gratin.