A French sauce spoon or saucier spoon is a

spoon A spoon is a utensil consisting of a shallow bowl (also known as a head), oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery (sometimes called flatware in the United States), especially as part of a place setting, it is used primarily f ...

that is typically the size and shape of a

dessert spoon A dessert spoon is a spoon designed specifically for eating dessert and sometimes used for soup or cereals. Similar in size to a soup spoon (intermediate between a teaspoon and a tablespoon) but with an oval rather than round bowl, it typically h ...

, but with a flattened bowl that has a thinner edge and a small notch on one side. As the name suggests, a French sauce spoon is used to eat the

sauce In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French wor ...

accompanying a dish. Such a spoon may be referred to simply as a sauce spoon, but this can also refer to a spoon used to serve sauce. The spoon's flattened bowl and thin edge aids scooping a thin layer of sauce from a

plate Plate may refer to: Cooking * Plate (dishware), a broad, mainly flat vessel commonly used to serve food * Plates, tableware, dishes or dishware used for setting a table, serving food and dining * Plate, the content of such a plate (for example: ...

without resorting to tipping the plate; the notch in the bowl is variously claimed to allow

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

fat In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specifically to triglycerides (triple est ...

to drain away from the sauce, or to be a reference to the notch in a

fish knife A knife ( : knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidenced ...

. Originally invented in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

at the restaurant Lasserre in 1950 (chef René Lasserre) as the ''cuillère à sauce individuelle'' (individual sauce spoon) and originally found mainly in France, French sauce spoons are increasingly popular in high-end restaurants elsewhere.{{cn, date=March 2016

References

*
Sauce spoon sighting!
, Los Angeles Times, August 29th, 2005 *
Don't be bullied by the sauce spoon
, ''eatocracy,'' CNN, June 12th, 2012 Spoons Products introduced in 1950