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Nov 7, 2005

This week's theme
French terms for food

This week's words
hors d’oeuvre
amuse-bouche
macedoine
vinaigrette
saute

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When, earlier this year, I wrote The Perfectionist, the story of Bernard Loiseau, the world-famous French chef who took his own life because of the insane pressures of his trade, I knew that the book would have to contain a lot of French terminology. At the same time, I was fully aware that most people do not read or speak French, and that it is very rude for a writer to bombard his readers with a language they do not understand. There was no way around the dilemma, though, because the French are the great codifiers of high-level western cooking, and throughout the world it is either pure French or French-derived vocabulary that is commonly used in serious professional kitchens that create la grande cuisine. (See? There we go.)

Sensing that many of my readers would need some gentle help, I translated much of the French culinary vocabulary into English, but there were certain words that were either untranslatable or would look downright silly in translation. These I left intact, in their language of origin, which is how they remain in English usage today. Here's a little selection, with a (very approximate) pronunciation guide.

hors d’oeuvre

(ohr DERV)