French (and other) Names for Food
What’s happened to them?
If I have one abiding memory of my formative years as a chef and particularly at college then it was learning the names of famous (French) dishes. Back then everything had a name, granted you had no idea what it was when you ordered it but it sounded good, especially when the waiter told you it was a good choice in a phoney French accent. I miss that, cheesey it might be but I enjoyed it.
Do you remember those menus? Eggs Florentine, Spaghetti Milanaise, Tournedos Rossini, Potatoes Lyonnaise, Blanquette of Veal, Coupe Jaques, Kidneys Turbigo, Sole Bonne Femme etc, etc,etc. What did they all mean? It was a nightmare for me trying to remember them all so it must have been murder for the customer trying to order. Can you imagine trying to impress a first date and then falling over your tongue trying to pronounce vichysoisse to a smirking waiter? If working out which knife and fork to use first wasn’t bad enough you then had to order a bottle of wine and you prayed that blanc meant white because that was what your date wanted. You then sat there sweating buckets about how you’ve tried to look good by ordering for your date and you had no idea what you were going to get.
Learning the names and the key ingredients to each one was no fun either. I hated consomme garnishes, there were so many of them you had to learn, the same for fish sauces-another nightmare. Looking back I don’t know how restaurants used to get away with offering customers menus they couldn’t understand. If I walk into a bookshop and all of the books are in Polish then I wouldn’t be happy, unless I was in Poland and then I’d think ‘fair enough’. But we were never in France, or Poland for that matter so why did we do it? and when did we stop doing it? As hard as I try I cannot pin point a certain period when the practice stopped. But stop it has and I’m not sure wether I like it or not.
You see back then when I was a skinny student, learning those famous French dishes gave me a classical training, a disciplined and structured apprentiship and they are rare in these times of fast track qualifications. They also had a sense of romance, of being ‘fancy’ when all we want to do now is tell you how we’ve suspended an egg yolk in air that used to be made from parmesan and recreates that sense of a sweaty sports sock. Thinking about it was it all that bad? are we any the wiser today? has the need for schoolboy French been replaced by the need for a degree in chemistry? How many more question marks can I fit in this post? I’m off to bed, it’s been a long week already and it’s only Monday.
I first found your site when I was googling “classic French sauces.” I was about to graduate culinary school and was pissed off about not having these sauces committed to rote. The rest of my class thought me insane - “Who makes their own mayo anymore?” “Hollandaise! No one eats Eggs Benny these days!” Arghhh. Early in life I realized that learning the basics and mastering technique makes you better (in anything!) Why such a rush to discount the past? I can’t stand the French - but this was something they had right!
I am all for innovation - I use an immersion blender daily; and farm raised mussels are a godsend - hell, getting my hands on real Serrano Ham, Prosciutto from Parma, or a great raw milk cheese - this was all unavailable 20 years ago. Good god, if it’s not a gelee or a foam now it’s old and unoriginal.
It’s late, I’m drunk - I hope this makes some sort of sense
September 23, 2008 @ 4:50 am
Miles,
Food in this country must have been very stylish long ago….. stuffed Peacock etc but somewhere along the way must have lost that edge. Enter the French and their take on all things culinary which was probably very similar to our take on things once upon a time. Attention to detail and learning the basics… I’m all for it regardless of nationality. So then last week my child comes home and says next lesson is Risotto….. ‘excellent’ says I, everyone should known how to put together this simple rice dish’. I look at the recipe and method and see that ‘easy cook’ rice is listed and the colour drains from my face. I write a note and slip it into the cookery box saying ‘I have provided Arborio rice because I could not bring myself to buy easy cook ~ sorry if this is an inconvenience!’. I suspect I’m not flavour of the month in the staff room
Cid
September 23, 2008 @ 8:25 am
Dave,
You’re right, we dismiss the classics at our peril, they are, afterall, classics for a reason.
There’s too much emphasis on style over substance these days and they miss the point.
Miles
September 23, 2008 @ 5:55 pm
Cid,
Good for you! What’s the point of doing it in the first place? Everything is dumbed down now because that’s the easy option. Basically, it sucks.
Miles
September 23, 2008 @ 5:57 pm