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Since ancient Greeks turned sour foodstuffs into delicious meals for the gods thanks to the help of sauces, the culinary invention has splashed its way around the world to the top of universal gourmet.

And it keeps such a tight grip on that cooking plinth that celebrated French chef Fernand Point, former owner of well-known La Pyramide restaurant in Vienne del Delfinado, south of Lyon, once said saucer was the soloist in the orchestra of high cooking.

Mr. Point believed the magic of sauce was the necessary finishing touch for any dish to get that once-and-only deliciousness that really makes our mouths water.

A plate of tasteless cold meat can become a superb dish good enough for even the most demanding patrons if we add a preparation based on onions, carrots, celery, crushed red peppers and just a sip of olive oil, everything seasoned in cinnamon and mashed fennel seeds.

And what about a salad of either raw or broiled cabbage that we usually shove away on the table? We could perfectly have three helpings if that same dish is slightly dipped in a sauce made of lemon juice, ketchup, mustard, radish, some vinegar, cooking oil, paprika and a pinch of salt.

But, watch out! Sauces can either put the most complicated dish up on cloud nine –its tastes, color, consistency and even brightness- or simply nip the most toilsome endeavor right in the bud.

Sauces need to be prepared with the right ingredients and be cooked with adequate temperature and timing if we really want them to get there. Just one missing ingredient or the addition of an unfitting one could render the entire effort fruitless and disastrous.

DETAILS The word sauce comes from the Latin term salsus meaning salted. In ancient Rome, salt was the condiment of choice to both season and preserve meats. At the time, salt used to be very expensive and even the word salary (the amount of money paid to workers) comes from the payments in salt made at the time to Roman Empire conquerors who then used to sell it or trade it off for other items.

In the same breath, salt has always been an indispensable addition for almost all sauces from the old times of Apiaceous the Sybaritic who used to season parrot tongues with vinegar and honey.

Even though there are as many sauces as gourmet maestros are in the world today, experts believe in the existence of the so-called mother sauces from which too many other lesser sauces spin off.

A top-tier group includes the dark sauces (demi-glace, Spanish and tomato) and the light ones (béchamel and veluté).

On the other hand, there are emulsified and cold sauces like mayonnaise and vinaigrette, and hot ones like Bernice and Dutch.

AMERICAN CONTRIBUTIONS The colonized lands chipped in tomatoes (grown by the Aztecs) and pepper (hailing from tropical America) that today stand for must-haves in any sauce around the globe. As far back as 1747, Spanish Juan de Mata wrote a couple of tomato-based sauce recipes in which the juicy fruit is broiled in olive oil, garlic and onions.

And in Latin America, famous sauces come together with a legend of their own. The story goes that in 1610, a Spanish bishop in the Mexican city of Puebla had made up his mind to pay a visit to the Santa Rosa monastery where there was only one chicken in the barnyard. Bent on pleasing the bishop, the cook put ecclesiastic moderation aside and made a sauce with over twenty different ingredients that included tomatoes, prunes, peanuts, almonds, chili peppers and anis. The result swept the visitor off his feet and mole sauce was born.

Other famous such sauces are guacamole (also from Mexico), the guasacaca from Venezuela and chimichurri, a garlic-oil combination from the livestock plains. DUTCH SAUCE Ingredients: 9 tablespoons of unsalted butter, 3 egg yolks, ¾ tablespoon of lemon juice, 1/8 teaspoon of white pepper (recently ground) and 3/8 teaspoon of salt.

Melt down the butter without boiling. Heat a blender vase in hot water, wipe it dry and put the egg yolks, the lemon juice, the pepper and the salt in it right away. Put the lid on the vase and flip on the blender at high speed. A second later, pour the melted butter continuously and try to do the whole pouring in less than 10 seconds. Turn off the blender. Keep the sauce hot in double-bowl heating.

Note: If the sauce gets too thick, whip it with a wire beater as you add one or two tablespoons of lukewarm water.

GUASACACA SAUCE One of Venezuela's best-known sauces, the guasacaca is the right companion of beef, poultry meat, pies, empanadas and waffles. In the case of roast meat, this sauce is a real knockout as it hypes the taste of the main course.

Ingredients: 1 avocado, 1 medium-size onion, 2 garlic cloves, 1 small green pepper, a bundle of coriander, a bundle of parsley, cooking oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.

Remove the avocado seed and skin, dice off the kernel and put the pieces in a food processor or a blender together with the onion, the pepper and the garlic. Add also the coriander leaves and the parsley, and turn on the processor. Pour some hot water and vinegar until a light crème is formed. Add a pinch of both salt and pepper. Make it as much thick or light as you want.

CREOLE SAUCE Ingredients: Fresh tomatoes (124 gr.), tomato paste (81 gr.), garlic (8 gr.), onion (110 gr.), cooking oil (34 gr.), pepper (42gr.), 1 bay leaf, ground pepper, salt (6 tablespoons) and cloves of wild leek.

Mash the garlic in a mortar. Dice off the onions, the garlic, the leek and the fresh tomatoes in small cubes. Put the oil in an adequate container on a burner and add the garlic as soon as it's piping hot. Once the garlic gets crispy, add the onions, the garlic and the leek. Whip the ingredients for a minute and then add the fresh tomatoes, the tomato paste, the bay leaf and the pepper. Pour as much water or broth as you want to either enhance or reduce the sauce for five minutes. Finally, add a pinch of salt.

These recipes are courtesy of the Meliá Cohiba Hotel.