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French Cuisine

France · Western Europe · 19 recipes

French cooking gave the rest of the world its vocabulary: the mother sauces, the knife cuts, the order of the kitchen. Technique first, and everything else follows.

Signature dishes

  • البشاميل
  • الكريب
  • الراتاتوي
  • الكيش لورين
  • البوف بورجينيون
  • الكريم بروليه

Key spices and ingredients

  • الأعشاب البروفنسية
  • الطرخون
  • الزعتر
  • ورق اللورا
  • الزبدة
  • الخردل الديجون

If Italian cooking is a cuisine of ingredients, French cooking is a cuisine of technique. Most of the terms used in a kitchen today — sauté, blanch, julienne, mise en place, roux — are French in origin.

The mother sauces

French cooking built itself on five base sauces from which hundreds branch: béchamel (milk), velouté (light stock), espagnole (dark stock), hollandaise (butter and egg) and tomato. Master those five and you have half of Western cooking.

The roux

A roux is butter and flour cooked together, the base for thickening any sauce. The difference between a white, blond and brown roux is minutes on the heat — and that difference changes the whole sauce.

Mise en place

"Everything in its place" — every ingredient cut and weighed before the heat goes on. This single principle is the real difference between an organised kitchen and a chaotic one, and it saves more time than any other trick.

Regional home cooking

Behind the image of grand restaurants, French home cooking is very simple: ratatouille with summer vegetables, quiche with egg and cream, potato gratin. All everyday dishes with cheap ingredients.

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دليل French Cuisine