French cuisine has given us dozens of words and phrases that are now part of general English usage and new ones appear on restaurant menus all the time. Here’s a quick A-Z selection of some of them, including descriptions of classic French sauces for those who can’t remember the difference between Béchamel and Béarnaise.
Amuse bouche: A showy, delicious bite-sized morsel, presented to restaurant diners at the start of a meal, compliments of the chef.
Ballotine: Meat, especially chicken, deboned and stuffed with any of a variety of fillings, from foie gras to seafood, wrapped in clingfilm. Can be braised, poached or baked.
Béchamel: A basic white sauce of butter and milk (no eggs), thickened with flour. Variations include Sauce Mornay.
Béarnaise: A classic sauce made from egg yolks and clarified butter, with white wine and onions or shallots, flavoured with tarragon and chervil. Good with steak.
Beurre blanc: A sweet butter sauce flavoured with sweet white wine or lemon juice.
Clafoutis: A sweet dish, of fruit baked in a batter matrix.
Coulis: Puréed fruit or vegetables.
Crème anglaise: An egg-based sauce, similar to English custard.
En papillote: Wrapped and cooked in special paper or sometimes foil. NB: paper inedible!
Espagnole: A classic brown sauce, made with roux, veal stock, beef (bones), vegetables and seasoning.
Feuilletée: Puff pastry (‘feuille’ means ‘leaf’). See also Mille-feuille.
Fondant: A sugar-based sweet that can be variously flavoured. May also refer to croquettes made of meat, fish, or vegetables (such as potatoes).
Galantine: Similar to a ballotine, but served cold, often encased in aspic.
Galette: a round pastry (like a rimless pie base) or savoury pancake.
Goujon: In French cuisine a goujon is usually breaded, deep-fried fish, but the term is now used also for other meats in breadcrumbs, cut in strips and deep- or pan-fried.
Hollandaise: A classic white sauce enriched with egg yolks and flavoured with lemon juice.
Jus: The juices from roasted meat, sometimes further prepared to make a thin gravy.
Lardon: Cubed meat, typically bacon or ham.
Mille-feuille: Meaning ‘a thousand leaves’, this puff pastry is made of multiple layers of ultra-thin pastry leaves.
Mornay: Another classic rich French sauce, enriched with egg yolks and flavoured with cheese.
Noisette: Literally a hazelnut, small ‘nuggets’ of meat, especially lamb, or vegetable.
Quenelle: A small pillow-shaped dumpling, containing veal, fish, or poultry, poached in stock.
Rémoulade: A mustardy mayonnaise-based sauce flavoured with herbs, capers, anchovies and pickles.
Roux: The most basic ingredient of classic sauces, consisting of flour blended with fat.
Rouille: A mayonnaise, often with a fish stock base, flavoured with chillies and garlic.
Suprême: A classic sauce made from light meat stock (chicken, sometimes veal), with cream.
Timbale: Food cooked in a timbale, a thimble shaped container with sloping sides.
Velouté: From the French word for ‘velvet’, a classic sauce made using meat, poultry or fish stock, thickened with butter and flour.
For those seeking an almost exhaustive list of French culinary terms and dishes, patriciawells.com offers a downloadable glossary.
