Cook starts to read special designs for sauces (9)

I believe the answer is:

dressings

'sauces' is the definition.
(dressing is a kind of sauce)

'cook starts to read special designs' is the wordplay.
'cook' is an anagram indicator.
'starts to' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letters of 'read special' is 'rs'.
'rs'+'designs'='rsdesigns'
'rsdesigns' is an anagram of 'DRESSINGS'.

'for' acts as a link.

(Another definition for dressings that I've seen is " bandages".)

I've seen this clue in The Hindu.

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