The culture of French cuisine has a long history. According to legend, after Catherine, an Italian woman married Henry II, king of France, in the 15th century, she brought to France the cooking methods of beef liver, black fungus and black truffle, tender steak and cheese, which were popular in the Italian Renaissance period. Louis XIV also launched a cooking competition, which is the Corden Bleu Award. Anthony, who served as chief chef to King George IV and Tsar Alexander I of Imperial Russia. Kellemen wrote a great dictionary of food that became the basis of classical French cuisine. After the 17th century, French cuisine kept improving, and pushed the classical dishes of the past to the so-called new cuisine cooking, and mutual use, the way of preparation pay attention to flavor, natural, skills, decoration and color coordination. French cuisine, depending on the geographical location, contains many regional dishes. In northern France, where the livestock industry thrives, creamers and cheeses make you eat. The south is rich in olives, seafood, garlic, fruits and vegetables and spices.
A dainty French meal usually takes about 3 hours to eat, and an authentic French meal has at least 5 steps.
The first step is the aperitif, which the French drink for about an hour before a meal, with olives and small biscuits, so that when they actually sit down to eat, they don’t feel the same hunger pangs. Aperitif is generally wine, champagne, cocktails, juice, soda, etc., have the function of promoting appetite. More people enjoy a glass of champagne before a meal than tend to drink hard liquor that ruins their taste.
The second step is the front dish, the so-called front dish, is generally salad, cold dish, seafood and vegetable (meat) soup, the amount is not large, put bluntly, is to let you pad the belly, “warm up”.
The third step is the main course, which is usually served on a platter with at least two hot dishes, one meat and one vegetable, and sometimes rice and noodles, which are side dishes. The main course is always French bread.
The fourth step is dessert, French dessert is quite famous, including various flavors of cake and ice cream, as well as a variety of cheese, is an optional part of the French meal.
The fifth step is coffee or wine, after a full meal, the French like a cup of coffee, they think, coffee can relieve the greasy. Some people also choose to cite digestive liquors, which have a higher alcohol concentration than aperitif and are classified as spirits.
With so many features and procedures introduced, let’s take a look at some famous French dishes
01
dish
In French, Foie gras means “fatty liver,” and it’s actually made by force-feeding geese to form fatty liver. Foie gras, when refrigerated, has a texture similar to ice cream and a rich flavor. You can use it as a spread on a slice of bread. You can also put it on salads. Many countries now ban the production or import of foie gras, including India, Australia and some European Union countries.
Foie gras poele is simply fried foie gras, made from thick slices of foie gras, which is briefly fried and seasoned only with salt and pepper. The best foie gras is cooked in duck fat.
Steak tartare is an appetizer made from raw beef or horse meat and seasoned with salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and tabasco sauce or mustard. Optional mix meat with raw egg yolk, capers, onion, parsley and gherkin. Steak tartare is usually served with toast, rye bread, or French fries.
Beef bouillon originates from the Burgundy region of France. It features a rich red Burgundy and beef, with Onions, garlic, thyme, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms and sometimes dried orange zest.
The stew simmered for a long time until the meat was soft and juicy, and all the juices blended into a rich, dark sauce. Some people think the dish tastes better when reheated after 24 hours of refrigeration.
Snails are a favorite of the French, often served as an appetizer. Before preparation, the snails must be removed from their shells and cooked, often seasoned with butter, chicken stock or wine, and garlic, thyme and parsley added for flavor. Cooked snails can be placed on toasted baguettes, and it is most common to return them to their shells and place them on a snail plate. This requires the use of special snail tongs to hold the shell and the cochlea to pick up the meat.
Salad Leon, consisting of lettuce, bacon, croutons and poached eggs. It originated in the French city of Lyon and is one of the most popular salads in many French bistros and restaurants.
Salade Ni oise is a traditional salad originating from Nice, in the Provence region of France, and can be served on its own as a main course or as a garnish on a variety of meat and fish dishes. The salad is made with fresh tomatoes, anchovies, black olives, capers, beans and a dash of lemon juice, and is usually seasoned with Provence olive oil, garlic and basil.
Bouillabaisse, also known as bouillabaisse. It originated in the 18th century as a stew made by fishermen in Marseille using leftover ingredients from each day. Today, bouillabaisse is one of the most luxurious seafood dishes in the world. What makes bouillabaisse expensive is the use of scorpionfish, a grouper found only in the Mediterranean. Other ingredients may include whitefish, mussels, crab, squid, and sometimes even lobster or eel.
Soupe a l ‘Oignon is French onion soup, a simple soup made with caramelized Onions and soup, topped with crispy slices of toasted bread and covered with plenty of cheese. After baking, the cheese melts and forms a golden crust on top.
Magret de canard is a roast duck breast dish that dates back to the late 1950s. The duck here is usually a mule duck, a cross between a Pekin duck and a Muscovy duck. This breed is bred specifically for duck liver, so its brisket is thicker than other ducks.
Confit de canard is confit duck, once a method of preserving meat. The duck is seasoned with salt, pepper, herbs and spices. Traditionally, seasoned duck meat is cooked in a copper pot for up to 24 hours, then the meat and fat are poured hot into a jar, sealed and stored for later use.
Quiche is a French pie with a pastry crust filled with eggs, cream, and anything from bacon, cheese, and leeks to mushrooms and straits. The pie can be served hot or cold and is traditionally cut into thin slices.
Sole meuniere is a fillet breaded and fried in butter, with a squeeze of lemon juice and seasoned with salt, pepper and parsley. Sometimes you can use whole fish. Sole meuniere is usually served with mashed potatoes or boiled potatoes.
Daube is a Provencal stew, usually made from lamb or beef, in which the meat is simmered in wine over a medium heat with a variety of vegetables and seasonings such as cinnamon, cloves, thyme, bay leaf and pepper. Ingredients are added in layers, usually meat on the bottom and spices and vegetables on the top.
Tartiflette is a baked potato made with medium potatoes, white wine, Lebro-Hungarian cheese, Onions, smoked pork, and often whipped cream.
02
Bread dessert
baguette
Perhaps the most iconic French delicacy, the baguette, a crispy, fluffy bread that dates back to the 19th century. It is said that because a 1920 law forbade workers from starting work before 4am, bakers cut down on baking time by making loaves of bread in thin shapes in order to serve them hot at breakfast time. Another distinguishing feature of baguettes is the cut-out design at the top of the bread, which is made possible by the use of a machete to cut a diagonal line through the bread before baking.
Brioche is a cross between pastry and bread, with lots of butter, milk and eggs, so it’s soft and fluffy.
Pain au chocolat is a Viennese roll. Roll some chocolate bars or ganache in a rectangle of leavened dough and bake. This is a popular pastry in France and can be found in many French bakeries and supermarkets.
And then there’s the croissant that we’re very familiar with, which is the croissant. It originated from an Austrian dessert called kipfels, which the French later innovated with pastry, giving birth to the French croissant.
Macarons are small, round meringues that are light and crispy on the outside and chewy with a filling in the middle. The name macaron, which first appeared in an unstuffed Italian version in 1533, comes from the Italian word “maccherone.”
Canele is a small cake with a thin layer of caramel on the outside and a creamy inside. It’s on the Rue Saint-Catherine in Bordeaux.
The Lemon Meringue Pie is underlaid by a flaky pastry and topped with lemon mousse and meringue. Custard is usually made from an optional mixture of lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, egg yolk and starch.
Fraisier’s name derives from the word “fraise,” which means “strawberry.” It is traditionally made with sponge cake, vanilla cream mousse, marzipan and slices of fresh strawberries.
Petit four refers to those delicate bite-sized pastries that come in a variety of forms and flavors. This pastry is usually served as an appetizer or as an afternoon snack.
Gougere is a cheese puff, and the most common cheeses are Contey, Emmental, or Gruyere. It can be served with drinks such as champagne or wine, or as an appetizer.
Dacquoise is traditionally made with almond or hazelnut meringue sponge cake with a layer of whipped cream or creamer between them. The cake is said to have originated in the 17th century as a dessert served at the French court.
trivia
Bread is not only a necessity of daily life, but also reflects the ideas, moral judgments and values of the French people.
There are many proverbs in French that have to do with bread.
For example, in France, a best seller is often described as “objets qui se vendent comme des petits pains” because every household needs bread and bakeries are doing well.
Another example is “bon comme le pain as good as bread,” which means a person is “kind and kind.”
Someone who says “avoir du pain sur la planche has bread on the panel” means he “has a lot of work to do;
For the well-informed and well-traveled, “avoir mange plus d’un pain has eaten more than one kind of bread.”
Because bread is so important to the French people, it is similar to the rice bowl in China. So “gagner son pain making bread” is described as making money.
The French know that only hard work mains noires font manger le pain blanc. It mains noires font manger le pain Blanc.
They certainly don’t believe in the “c ‘est du pain benit” thing.
The French cannot live without bread, so they describe a year as “long comme un jour sans pain.”
“tremper de son pain de larmes” is said when grieving.
If you are “perdre le gout du pain, you can’t even taste bread”, you have a serious problem, because this is French for “near death”.
From these rich and vivid proverbs, we can see that the French express a lot of what they want to express through bread, which shows the influence of bread on their life and ideas.
Perhaps no other country has adopted bread as a national symbol, except France, which, in an effort to keep the tradition alive, has designated Bread Day on May 16 every year. Every year on May 16 is the anniversary of Saint Donoghue, the patron saint of bread. Since 1996, the French government has held a national bread festival to promote the traditional craft of bread making.
