Hello both of you,
I guess you didn't do French at school, much of chefspeak is French words that don't translate very well.
A soupçon pronounced as you have spelled it literally means "a little bit", usually there isn't a strict measure but you put in what instinct tells you is right. I'll bet your Grandma never measured anything when she was cooking and it always tasted good.
Roux (pronounced roo or rue) is the starting point for all thickened sauces and gravy. It is simply an amalgamation of flour and fat. For the French the fat is always butter, in Spain, olive oil. For proper English gravy which the French don't recognise, I prefer lard, but the best gravy maker I've ever known told me that she always uses margarine.
Broth or stock, bouillon in French, caldo in Spanish, is flavoured water made by boiling various combinations of vegetables, meat, herbs and spices. This is then blended with roux in varying proportions to make soups, sauces and gravies.
As I wrote in answer to the Post asking for an apple pie recipe, look out for a copy of the Penguin Cordon Bleu Cookery book. It's out of print but can be found in second hand shops or boot sales. Don't be put off by the title, it's down to earth, easy to read and will probably answer most of your questions. I found a copy to replace my battered and worn copy in a second hand bookshop in Menorca last year.
Happy cooking'
Bazrev