Victoria Mas - The Farm to Table French Phrasebook: Master the Culture, Language and Savoir Faire of French Cuisine

Text copyright 2014 Victoria Mas. Illustrations copyright Meera Lee Patel. Design and concept copyright 2014 Ulysses Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized duplication in whole or in part or dissemination of this edition by any means (including but not limited to photocopying, electronic devices, digital versions, and the Internet) will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Published by Ulysses Press P.O.

Box 3440 Berkeley, CA 94703 www.ulyssespress.com ISBN: 978-1-61243-380-6 Library of Congress Catalog Number 2013957328 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Acquisitions editor: Keith Riegert Project editor: Alice Riegert Managing editor: Claire Chun Editors: Lauren Harrison, Vincent Vichit-Vadakan Proofreader: Renee Rutledge Cover design: Meera Lee Patel Interior design and layout: Jake Flaherty IMPORTANT NOTE TO READERS: This book is independently authored and published and no sponsorship or endorsement of this book by, and no affiliation with, any trademarked brands or other products mentioned or pictured within is claimed or suggested. All trademarks that appear in this book belong to their respective owners and are used here for informational purposes only. The author and publisher encourage readers to patronize the quality brands and products mentioned in this book. To those who have fallen in love with, or plan to fall in love with, French cuisine. Contents You may not have set foot in France (yet), but youre probably already familiar with such words as baguette, pain au chocolat, or ratatouille. Perhaps youve sunk your teeth into a fresh croissant from your local French bakery and marveled at its perfect texturea delicate, flaky crust with a soft, fluffy inside. Or maybe you experimented with a batch of macarons just to see what the rage was about, and since then your approach to pastries has never been the same.

Certainly, youve enjoyed a meal at your local French bistrotthe one packed with customers eager to taste renowned and sought-after dishes that made the reputation of French cuisine. Whatever it is, something strikes you about this culinary world. Whether youre going to Paris for the first time as an exchange student and wonder how youll manage groceries or youve planned to spend your summer under the sun of the French Riviera and are eager to try out local specialties; whether you simply want to improve your cooking skills and impress friends at dinner parties with unheard-of recipes or you love French cuisine and aim to learn as much as possible about it; whatever the reason, you can be sure you have picked up the right book. From getting to know the typical ingredients found in a French kitchen to learning how to cook world-famous dishes; from navigating the menu at lunches in high-end restaurants or dinners in tiny brasseries; from shopping at Ladure and Hdiard luxury shops to wending your way through loud farmers markets: All you need to know about French food, customs, and etiquette will be found in the very pages youre reading. By gaining insight into what, how, and why the French eat, you will come to appreciate a French meal to its fullestand, perhaps, youll become a little bit French yourself. Before you bite into steak tartare and fondants au chocolat, I wish to provide you with a quick reminder of basic French.

Rest assured, this isnt meant to be a thorough lessonFrench language being as complex as it isbut this will give you the helpful basics to master culinary speech. Articles French nouns are preceded by articles, which are either masculine or feminine. From places to ingredients to objects, all things have a gender. The is translated as le (masculine), la (feminine), or les (plural): The restaurant Le restaurant (m) The bakery La boulangerie (f) The Paris markets Les marchs de Paris (pl) When preceding a vowel, le or la turns into an abbreviated l: The orangeLorangeA is translated as un (m) or une (f):A barUn bar (m)A fish shopUne poissonnerie (f)Sometimes you dont need an article. Maybe you just need some butter (du beurre) or some strawberries (des fraises). When this is the case, the French translation uses du (m), de la (f), des (pl) before the noun. For example: Im going to go buy bread, would be Je vais acheter du pain.BreadDu pain (m)JamDe la confiture (f)Green beansDes haricots verts (pl)GenderIll always give you the two variations of a noun when they existmasculine or feminine:VegetarianUn vgtarien (m), Une vgtarienne (f)Female nouns will usually have an e added at the end.Pronunciation and accentsI assume you know the basic pronunciation of words after watching all of Jean-Luc Godards movies, but just in case, heres a quick recap of the most important pronunciations:a: Sounds like avocado or abricot (apricot).

Its sometimes spelled (with a grave accent) and is pronounced the same as ah. possesses many uses, such as designating places: la mer (to the sea) or l-bas (over there); or referring to a way of making a dish: tomates la provenale (tomatoes in the style of Provence); or to describe a dish: la soupe loignon (onion soup).c: Sounds like a k before -a, -o, -u, and consonants except for -h, like carrot or cassis (currant); it will sound like an s before -e, -i, and -y, such as citron (lemon). For the c to sound like an s before -a, -o, and -u, a cdille is added and it becomes a like in franais (French).ch: Sounds like sh in shampoo. For instance, chocolat (chocolate).e: Sounds like euh in her. For instance, le (the).: With the acute accent, , it is pronounced like ay in say. For instance, caf (coffee).: With the grave accent, sounds like the first e of elephant, as in cuillre (spoon).g: Before -a, -o, -u, or consonants, the g sounds like the one in great; for instance, Gruyre. Before -e, -i, and -y, the g is like the one in mirage, such as aubergine (eggplant).i: Sounds like the vowel in feet or tea, and in cerise (cherry). Accents, as in dner (dinner) or mas (corn), do not change the pronunciation.o: The o might sometimes be spelled or , but the pronunciation remains the same as open, or orange