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Today's Special: Seared Scallops with Chestnut Puree

Today's Special: Seared Scallops with Chestnut Puree


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As much as we consider chestnuts a classic American winter treat—think roasted chestnuts sold on Manhattan's streets at Christmas, Nat King Cole songs, and the like—they're a true old-world ingredient. At his Select Oyster Bar in Boston, seafood expert Michael Serpa serves up fish dishes with Mediterranean flair. So for him, pairing diver scallops and chestnut puree with a splash of tangy blood orange vinaigrette was a no-brainer.

"Chestnuts have a deep, rich, warm flavor," Serpa says. "And I love how they pair with citrus, which adds acid for balance. Blood orange adds a floral note as well."

Pan-seared, caramelized scallops bring their own natural sweetness into play, while browned butter boosts richness and fresh thyme adds herbal brightness.

The dish is something Serpa has done for special menus. But for the home cook, the advantage is clear: It's a fancy-seeming dish with exquisite flavor balance that's a breeze to put together, letting you spend more time with your company than stoveside.

His advice on cooking with chestnuts: "They soak up a lot of liquid, so you'll use more than you'd expect." We found equal parts milk and chestnuts made a puree that wasn't too thick. Try Serpa's original dish this month at Select in Boston's Back Bay.

1 cup packaged precooked chestnuts1/2 cup crushed packaged precooked chestnuts1 cup whole milk1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided2 1/2 tablespoons fresh blood orange juice1 tablespoon red wine vinegar1 tablespoon olive oil16 diver sea scallops (about 1½ pounds)1 tablespoon canola oil2 tablespoons butter1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

1. Preheat oven to 375°.

2. Place 1 cup chestnuts on a baking sheet; bake at 375° for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Place ½ cup crushed chestnuts on a baking sheet; bake at 375° for 5 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside.

3. Combine toasted whole chestnuts and milk in a blender; process until smooth. Heat a small saucepan over medium heat. Add chestnut mixture, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper to pan; cook 3 minutes or until thoroughly heated, stirring occasionally. Keep warm.

4. Combine juice, vinegar, and olive oil in a small bowl, stirring well with a whisk.

5. Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle scallops with remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Add canola oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add scallops, working in batches if necessary to avoid crowding; cook 3 minutes or until browned on both sides and done, turning once. Pour off any oil. Reduce heat to medium. Add butter; cook 2 minutes or until browned. Stir in thyme.

6. Place 5 tablespoons puree on each of 4 plates; top each serving with 4 scallops. Drizzle each with 1½ teaspoons butter mixture and 1 tablespoon juice mixture. Top each with 2 tablespoons toasted crushed chestnuts.

SERVES 4CALORIES 282; FAT 12.8g (sat 5.6g, mono 5.1g, poly 1.2g); PROTEIN 11g; CARB 31g; FIBER 4g; CHOL 36mg; IRON 1mg; SODIUM 554mg; CALC 91mg

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13 Amazing Westchester Restaurants Open for New Year’s Eve

Whether you’re planning on going out this New Year’s Eve or cozying up for a virtual celebration at home, celebrate the arrival of a fresh new year with some of the best food in Westchester. These county mainstays are highlighting their culinary talents with a series of specialty menus, tastings, and more that you won’t want to miss.

While you can only pick one, sadly, you can always look forward to next year!

Boro6 Wine Bar

549 Warburton Ave, Hastings-On-Hudson
914.231.9200

This hip Rivertown wine and foodie bar offers several special dishes for New Year’s Eve, including steak frites with rustic steak fries and bearnaise sauce, shrimp cocktail with mustard aioli, and NYE special risotto Milanese. Finish off with Chef Paul’s light pavlova or panettone prepared in the traditional manner or with chocolate. (Pro tip: For a delicious start to 2021, enjoy Boro6’s classic brunch from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on New Year’s Day with some 2021 specials.)

BLT Steak

221 Main St, White Plains
914.467.5500

The regular dine-in menu can be enjoyed here on New Year’s Eve with the special addition of sautéed Dover sole with brown soy butter and capers or American Wagyu-style bavette, but for at-home celebrating, dinner packages (serving two to four) feature a choice of Caesar or wedge salad to start, followed by baked salmon with a honey Dijon glaze and chimichurri sauce, thyme-crusted roasted New York strip loin, or a whole lemon-rosemary chicken. Accompaniments include mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts with bacon, mac and cheese, and roasted wild mushrooms. For dessert, it’s chocolate cake or cheesecake.

The Cookery

39 Chestnut St, Dobbs Ferry
914.305.2336

This Rivertown mainstay is planning a NYE Feast at Home dinner package (serves two to four) featuring a choice of roasted Amish chicken, butternut squash lasagna, slow-roasted porchetta, or braised short ribs. Each package comes with creamy Caesar salad, buttery root vegetable mash, and double deep baked potato. You can also add an hors d’oeuvres package of crispy hash browns with caviar, bite-sized heirloom meatballs, a DIY crostino kit, a classic Easter pie, and grilled Octopus nuggets for $110. Festive dessert options include coconut cream pie and gooey chocolate brookie. Specialty cocktails are also available for midnight clinking.

Dolphin Restaurant • Bar • Lounge

1 Van Der Donck St, Yonkers
914.751.8170

The Yonkers riverfront restaurant and lounge offers specials for dining in or at home, beginning with appetizers of tomato bisque with ricotta cheese and basil oil or a burrata salad with saffron aioli. For entrees, choose between pan-roasted chicken, seafood lasagna, filet of black bass with crispy gnocchi, or Surf N Turf.

Dubrovnik

721 Main St, New Rochelle
914.637-3777

Westchester’s favorite Croatian restaurant is planning an intimate three-course dinner showcasing a wide array of choices with starters ranging from a raw bar platter or cream of mushroom soup to Adriatic- or skradin-style risotto or a pear and apple salad. For the main, offerings include wild Dover sole, almond-crusted swordfish, grilled veal chop or filet mignon, or pasta morski plodovi. For dessert, enjoy palacinke, Dubrovnik chocolate cake, chocolate carob and orange cake, and more, with a complimentary glass of sparkling wine.

Goosefeather

49 E Sunnyside Ln, Tarrytown
914.829.5454

Goosefeather at Tarrytown House Estate hosts a three-course prix fixe menu ($99 pp) that begins with starter choices of black truffle and pork wonton, Hamachi tartare, or a Buddha delight winter salad. The second course includes hot and sour soup with rice cakes and egg flour, or longevity noodles with chili-garlic black beans and crispy sweet potatoes. For the main, enjoy seared beef strip loin with oxtails and Chinese broccoli, wok-charred lobster with fried rice, or roasted squash with goji berry and mushrooms. All diners go home with a bag of sweets to end the night. Plus, $36 per person provides a bottomless wine package for toasting an end to 2020.

The Greekish

273 Halstead Ave, Harrison
914.732.3333

At this newish hotspot, Chef Constantine Kalandranis is putting together a dine-in chef’s tasting menu with a glass of prosecco for $65 per person. For takeout, consider the Noshes for Four box ($95) that includes dips and pita, feta croquettes, meatballs, wings, Brussels sprouts, roasted cauliflower, and prosecco.

The Inn at Pound Ridge

Chef Jean-Georges prepares a four-course evening ($148 pp) for ushering in the new year with taste and style. Appetizer choices of tuna and black truffle tartare or a winter chicory salad will be followed by a second course of parmesan risotto with black truffles or seared diver scallops with cauliflower lemon sauce and caramelized sofrito. Next, choose either Wagyu beef with mushrooms in fragrant red-curry infusion and crushed sesame or salmon baked in black truffle crust with parsnip puree, Brussels sprouts, house-made sriracha emulsion, and sesame. Finally, indulge in your choice of two freshly prepared desserts: Baked Alaska or a dark chocolate and passion fruit tart. Plus, everyone gets a goodie bag upon departure complete with a half bottle of Champagne and party favors.

Moderne Barn

430 Bedford Rd, Armonk
914.730.0001

One of Armonk’s favorite holiday dining destinations, Moderne Barn has arranged an intimate three-course prix fixe dinner available indoors or outdoors under a heated tent, with a la carte options for pickup. Appetizers run the gamut and include butternut squash soup, lobster bisque, tuna poke, fried popcorn rock shrimp, and Nonna’s meatballs. For the main course, choose between ricotta gnocchi cacio e pepe, seafood stew, pan-seared duck breast, filet mignon, and stout-braised short ribs, to name a few. To top it all off, think eggnog cheesecake, peppermint crème brulee, tiramisu, and more. The whole shebang is priced at $75 pp $40 for kids.


The Best New Restaurants of 2000

Guastavino's, 71 Clinton Fresh Food, Meigas New York · Pascal's on Ponce Coral Gables, FL · Medizona Scottsdale, AZ · Sel de la Terre Boston · Dining Room at Mirbeau Skaneateles, NY · Dine, Ana Mandara San Francisco · Ten Penh Washington, DC · Ciudad, Salve! Dallas · Primo Rockland, ME · Cafe Juanita Kirkland, WA · Aria Atlanta · Cuvee New Orleans · NoMI Chicago

This past year I've eaten armadillo, corn fungus, and flies' eggs in mole sauce in Mexico City, six kinds of blood sausage in Budapest, and ravioli stuffed with spinal ganglia in Bologna I've knocked back lobster shooters in Dallas, sampled creme brulee made with bee pollen at New York's "21" Club, and risked "death by gumbo" in Louisiana. So narrowing down the scores of U.S. restaurants I've eaten in this past year was tougher than ever, but twenty-two jumped out as head and shoulders above the rest. The chefs keep getting better, not just in the major-league restaurant cities but in unpronounceable places like Skaneateles (that's "skinny atlas"), New York. At the same time, restaurants have become grander in size and design. Italian restaurants have made a comeback since the onslaught of French bistros in the late '90s, and women are now asserting themselves more forcefully than ever among the top ranks of great American chefs. In choosing the best new restaurants of 2000, I focused on those that are conceived by chefs, not corporations, and I guarantee that if you dine at any of these places, the chef will be in the kitchen, cooking, and not in Las Vegas, opening a new branch. That said, let us begin.

Best New Restaurant

Guastavino's, New York

It took almost seventy years to put a restaurant in the twenty-six thousand square feet of vaulted bays under New York's Queensborough Bridge (also known as the Fifty-ninth Street Bridge), and now that Sir Terence Conran has done so with such breathtaking I beauty, all I can say is that it was worth the wait.

New York municipal structures are notorious for bureaucratic boondoggles, but when the city's landmarks commission begged Conran to undertake the renovation, it promised to shred the red tape so that such a grand space wouldn't be lost to the river rats. With partner Joel Kissin, Sir Terence -- whose huge London restaurants like Quaglino, Mezzo, and the new Aurora are marvels of sensuous rehab -- has brought one of New York's cathedrals of utility to a level of vitality and glamour no other restaurant in the world possesses. Your jaw drops upon approaching the vast four-thousand-square-foot wall of arched windows below the span of the bridge. Once inside, your eyes are drawn immediately upward to the forty-foot groined ceilings, whose creamy blond tile work was crafted by Rafael Guastavino y Moreno and his son, Rafael Guastavino y Esposito, the master Spanish masons who came to New York in 1889 and created the ceiling in the Great Hall on Ellis Island as well as the soaring vault of Grand Central Terminal's Oyster Bar.

There is a fifty-seat bar, always jammed after 6:00 p.m., and beyond it is a three-hundred-seat brasserie with a glassed-in kitchen. This restaurant features the exhilarating interplay of light and shadow for which Conran's rooms are famous. The place is alive with the sound of fashionably draped people enjoying themselves immensely, gobbling up the luscious international soul food that wreaks delicious havoc on every diet: macaroni and cheese gratin velvety gravlax platters of iced crab, lobster, and oysters caviar slathered on buttered blini garlicky, salty brandade of cod barbecued duck leg of lamb with braised beans a catfish club sandwich and a duck-pastrami reuben Conran's signature fish and chips quiche made with Spanish goat cheese eggs Benedict remarkably crisp french fries blueberry buckwheat cakes Pavlova tart with berries and fabulous warm gingerbread smothered with roasted pears.

To the right as you enter is a sweeping grand staircase leading up to the one-hundred-seat Club Guastavino, where chef Daniel Orr turns out elegant fixed-price dinners that show off his talent for both innovation and precision. His frogs' legs, as voluptuous as Grable's gams, are pumped up with garlic. His carpaccio of venison with black radishes and lemon oil has a perfect balance of gaminess and tang. And his classic sole a la meuniere is the dish for which butter was created. Special entrees may include wild boar with a potato gratin or sea scallops served simply with fava beans and spring ramps. Orr's roasted John Dory with beef marrow and wild mushrooms is a masterpiece, and you won't find a better cote de boeuf in America than the massive cut of beef at Club Guastavino.

That Orr and his fleet-footed staff can create such a fine dining experience upstairs while the frenzy of the brasserie rages below is as much a testament to Conran's and Kissin's skill in managing space as it is to the staff they have hired. They all work together to create a restaurant as dramatic as it is unique. Make no mistake: Putting Guastavino's in the same category as the Chrysler Building and the Statue of Liberty is merely placing it among those spirited monuments that make New York New York. 409 East Fifty-ninth Street 212-980-2455.

Small Is Beautiful

71 Clinton Fresh Food, New York

In complete contrast to the gargantuan glamour-puss restaurants, a number of superb storefront eateries have opened around the country, proving that smallness, focus, and commitment can be every bit as alluring as the bustling sprawl of a four-hundred-seater. The clearest example of this is 71 Clinton Fresh Food. Fresh Food, previously home to Ray's Chirping Chicken, is a tiny shop where funkiness is raised to a fine art. Inside, you get Masonite ceilings, brown-paper-draped tables, and green plastic banquettes piped in orange that match the punkish Day-Glo hair of some of the waiters.

But customers, who may wait four weeks for a reservation, don't come here for Lower East Side kitsch. They come for chef Wylie Dufresne's riveting food, all cooked out of a kitchen no larger than one found in a New York studio apartment. Not a single ingredient in any of his dishes is there for show everything has flavor and function. Parsley soup is verdant and bracing, with chunks of sweet Jonah crab. Dufresne stuffs smoky, grilled squid with morsels of shrimp and creamed fennel, then perks it all up with a drizzle of blood-orange sauce. He braises short ribs of beef for what must be days in dark beer to achieve a syrupy texture that moistens chervil spaetzle. Dufresne has an outsized talent for a small-sized room, but I hope he stays right where he is, a beacon of exquisite taste for everyone who loves fine food. 71 Clinton Street 212-614-6960.

Pascal's on Ponce, Coral Gables, FL

Like Fresh Food, Pascal's on Ponce is all about dedication, not decor. Pascal Oudin was one of the creators of what a decade ago was called New Florida Cuisine, a concept based on untapped Caribbean flavors tricked up into sometimes tantalizing, sometimes idiotic plates of many disparate elements. Even so, Oudin's cooking was always restrained, and now, at this pretty storefront, together with his wife, Ann-Louise, and brother, Jean-Marc, he has returned to his French roots. It would be unusual to find more than three perfect seasonal ingredients in any of Oudin's dishes, but every flavor is utterly natural and intense. Lump crabmeat is barely seared, then married to roasted-red-pepper butter sea bass is cuddled in a potato crust, sauteed crisp, then laid beside buttery braised leeks in a classic cayenne-sparked sauce matelote the richness of rosy duck breast comes with the green crunch of savoy cabbage and sweet sauteed apples tempered with a shot of honey and lime. Pascal's is that rare thing in the Miami area: a restaurant empty of pretension and full of good taste. 2611 Ponce de Leon Boulevard 305-444-2024.

Medizona, Scottsdale, AZ

Lenard Rubin, a chef similar in philosophy to Oudin, has left the security of the very posh Marquesa at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess to open his own place, Medizona in Scottsdale. From the outside, Medizona is any anonymous Southwest shop: a small, squat building with a patio. And from the inside, with the inevitable cow skull and wrought-iron accents, it looks like one more Casa Zorro. But after the first morsel of chef Rubin's eggplant tacos with lamb, arugula, and kasseri cheese in roasted-garlic-and-tomato sauce, you'll know you're in for something very different.

Rubin works a Mediterranean palette with finesse and daring: blackened shrimp with white-bean hummus, mango-olive salsa, and a gloss of tomatillo sauce curry-rubbed squab with applesauce, chives, sour cream, and potato pancakes honey-glazed veal chops with parsnip potatoes and quesadillas stuffed with ratatouille. The interaction of such dishes can be risky, but in Rubin's hands they are sure bets to impress guests who love intense, gutsy cooking. 7217 East Fourth Avenue 480-947-9500.

Sel de la Terre, Boston

Up in Boston, the owners of the genteel Back Bay dining room L'Espalier -- Frank McClelland and Geoff Gardner -- have gone down-market with the charming Sel de la Terre, set right across from the never-ending Big Dig. With its welcoming terra-cotta figurines, stone floor, bleached-white ceiling beams, and Provencal mural, Sel de la Terre is a respite from all the traffic and noise outside, and Gardner's cooking is French bourgeois food at its best -- deeply flavorful and lusty, like his sun-dried-tomato, spinach, and onion tart riddled with black olives and melted Comte cheese. Or try the lamb sausage grilled to burnished brown with peppers, crumbled goat cheese, and aged balsamic vinegar or a ragout of briny littleneck clams with spicy andouille sausage, potatoes, and squash. The bread is some of the best in Boston, and the chocolate bete noire with espresso anglaise and port-marinated cherries will break your diet if not your heart. 255 State Street 617-720-1300.

Best New Trend

Restaurants that require that handguns and cell phones be checked at the door.

Worst New Trends

Expensive restaurants without tablecloths on their tables.

Steak houses that screw around with sacrosanct formulas by offering unwarranted sauces with your sirloin.

Restaurants with a menu of appetizers that merely have to be scooped from a tin or sliced onto a plate rather than cooked or prepared.

Substituting the abject word server in place of waiter.

All Carlos Santana all the time on the sound system.

Designer tables so heavy you can't move them to get in and out.

Men's rooms with designer urinals.

Cigar bars in fine-dining restaurants.

Far Out

For whatever reasons, the number of chefs leaving the big city for uncertain futures in tiny towns with fewer customers is increasing steadily. Today, some of the finest restaurants in America are way the hell out in the middle of nowhere. The most famous of these is the Inn at Little Washington in Virginia, seventy miles from Washington, DC. Though it took the Inn more than a decade to achieve national status, that waiting game has not deterred other chefs who seek the freedom to cook as they wish and to avoid the enormous problems rife in big-city restaurants like those depicted in Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential.

Dining Room at Mirbeau, Skaneatles, NY

Like Primo in Rockland, Maine, and Cafe Juanita in Kirkland, Washington, the Dining Room at Mirbeau, in sleepy Skaneateles, New York, enhances a village quite happy to be nothing more than a dot on the map. Skaneateles is a nineteenth-century New York town whose main street is lined with oaks and pillared homes with vast green lawns along the restless blue Finger Lake that gives the town its name. It's as much a bucolic retreat as it is a vibrant community, so the addition of the new Mirbeau resort, which looks like Monet's Giverny, gives ample reason for anyone to visit. Factor in a fine restaurant overlooking a lily pond spanned by a Japanese footbridge, and how can you resist?

Chef Edward Moro assembles five-course menus drawing on the whole of New York -- its apples and peaches, its corn, tomatoes, and potatoes, along with fine cheddar, venison, quail, and seafood. An example might start with a spicy gazpacho and crab salad, move on to sliced suckling pig with coriander-scented artichokes, East Coast halibut with calamari and a sage cassoulet, vinegar-marinated young chicken with white sausage, and on to an irresistible peach-and-cherry crisp dotted with brown sugar and oatmeal streusel and topped with caramel ice cream. Sample a New York State wine, and then go stand on that little bridge and watch the moon snuggle in among the stars, and you'll understand why Edward Moro moved here. 851 West Genesee Street 315-685-5006.

Chef of the Year

Julia McClaskey, Dine, San Franciso

Choosing the best new chef was a breeze in 2000. Even though I was only halfway through my research for the year, I just couldn't imagine anyone cooking a more perfect meal than the one Julia McClaskey served me in the warehouse-sized Dine one summer evening in San Francisco's SoMa.

It began with seared chicken livers, juicy and pink inside, sharing the plate with applewood-smoked bacon, organic greens, and tart-sweet Bing cherries. There was a remarkably simple salad of grilled hearts of romaine lettuce, baby artichokes, goat cheese, and a sun-dried-tomato vinaigrette, followed by sauteed prawns with a bright-yellow corn salad and intensely sugary Maui onions, sprinkled with toasted sunflower seeds and a tarragon vinaigrette. Grilled lobster -- trickier than you'd think to do well -- nested on creamy corn risotto with cherry tomatoes and a champagne vinaigrette, but the piece de resistance was impeccably roasted chicken, burnished gold and still sizzling, with orzo pasta riddled with Parmesan cheese and sauteed pea shoots. For dessert, I ate the paragon of profiteroles, plump with coffee-bean ice cream and swimming in a dark chocolate sauce.

If such dishes sound pleasing rather than dazzling, it's because they are. But they are pleasing in the most heightened sense of the word pleasure. This is not comfort food it is extraordinary in every texture, seasoning, nuance, and degree of succulence. Julia McClaskey has a fundamental understanding of her ingredients and an uncanny talent for timing that makes everything that comes out of her kitchen a personal essay on how to cook. She joins other outstanding Bay Area women chefs, like Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, Judy Rodgers of Zuni, and Traci Des Jardins of Jardiniere, by doing precisely what she does best and by reminding us all what's good for us. 662 Mission Street 415-538-3463.

Pacific Overtures

For most of the nineties, when Asian food wasn't being contorted into "fusion" cuisine by American chefs who spent one night in Bangkok, another in Mindanao, and five more in Hong Kong, this cuisine lay fallow. But now, led by the An family of Vietnam, who opened the beautiful Crustacean restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Asian chefs have started to showcase the rich, endlessly fascinating foods of the Far East in formidably large restaurants where the Asian decor plays as large a part in the evening's enjoyment as the authenticity of the cooking does.

Ana Mandara, San Francisco

Anyone doubting the refinement of the food of Vietnam, which was richly influenced by French cuisine during its colonial period, need only book a table at Ana Mandara. Go at night, when the three levels of this grand space done in Asian antiques and woods, with its own little garden and indoor terrace, take on a movie set's chiaroscuro charms.

Actor Don Johnson is part-owner and a frequent presence at Ana Mandara (which means "beautiful refuge"), but the real star here is chef Khai Duong, whose formal study of classical French cuisine at Paris's Le Cordon Bleu buoys his native instincts for exotic flavors. Though most appetizers are less than ten dollars, you could easily make an entire meal of them: crispy spring rolls of crab and shrimp with shiitake mushrooms, blue-crab soup with noodles, a salad of banana blossoms with chicken and grapefruit, and papaya salad with prawns and jellyfish. But you wouldn't want to miss the entrees, either. Try marinated quail grilled over charcoal, tournedos of beef seared in a wok with sweet onions and pepper cress, or a superb fish called basa from the Mekong River, cooked with scallion flowers in a spicy lemon sauce. For dessert, go with the bananas flambeed in phyllo sheets with chocolate mousse and vanilla creme anglais. 891 Beach Street 415-771-6800.

Ten Penh, Washington, DC

Like Ana Mandara, Ten Penh advances southeast-Asian food, placing it in the same firmament as French and Italian cuisine. Set on the site of the old Sinatra Rat Pack hangout named Ten Penn, this new incarnation is a large, rambling restaurant with custom-made teak chairs and tables, a curving wine wall made of chestnut, a gold-leaf Asian gate motif behind the bar, and very beautiful Asian antiques. Not to mention the very beautiful silk-clad hostess and waitresses.

Jeff Tunks, also the culinary force behind the excellent East-West restaurant D.C. Coast, has installed Philippine-born Cliff Wharton to keep the food rigorously authentic, and from the Filipino pork and spring rolls wrapped in lumpia pastry and the Thai coconut-chicken soup to the Szechuan-style green beans and the Vietnamese-spiced quail with papaya salad, he does just that. The seriousness of the Ten Penh enterprise is carried through in what is perhaps the best selection of wines friendly to this cuisine in America. 1001 Pennsylvania Avenue NW 202-393-4500.

Biggest French Slap in the Face: Lutece, Las Vegas

Everything New York's Lutece stood for over the past four decades has been completely ignored at this Vegas branch, complete with piped-in new-age music and burnt sole a la meuniere.

Tallest Waiters in America

Dallas's the Mansion on Turtle Creek's dining room has provided each waiter with a complimentary pair of handmade, custom-fitted Lucchese black-cherry boots to wear as part of the uniform. Maitre d's and captains wear ostrich boots with their tuxedos.

Hostess of the Year

Any, and I mean any, of those at the front desk at Linq in Los Angeles.

Biggest Faux Pas of the Year

Alain Ducasse, owner of eight Michelin stars and twelve restaurants on three continents, opened the most expensive restaurant in the U.S. -- Alain Ducasse New York, with an average check of $300 per person -- then announced he would cook there only occasionally, insisting with a kind of loopy Cartesian logic, "When I am not there, I am there."

Women on Top

I haven't the slightest hesitancy in saying that women cook differently from men. In my experience, women's cooking is simpler, more direct, more nurturing, wholesome, unpretentious, and economical. They shy away from pyrotechnical displays, have no interest in bar food, and regard mashed potatoes and apple pie with the same awe and love as they do their children's toes.

Yet females in the big toques in American restaurants have remained few. This year, however, might well be proclaimed the Year of the Woman in American Dining. More women have taken the helm of wonderful new restaurants than ever before, and, while each has her own style of cooking, all share a knack for putting food that is scrumptious on the table.

In New York, Patricia Yeo at AZ (pronounced Ay-zee) is doing stellar work, while Nicole Parthemore is a rising star at She She in Chicago, where she joins veterans Sarah Stegner of the Ritz-Carlton and Suzy Crofton of Crofton on Wells. Tamara Murphy at Brasa and Christine Keff at Fandango are major talents in Seattle, Julia McClaskey at Dine in San Francisco (see above) is my pick for best new chef of the year, and in Dallas, Joanne Bondy at Ciudad (3888 Oak Lawn Avenue 214-219-3141) has given that Tex-Mex-crazed city what it has never had: a modern Mexican restaurant that authentically showcases the extraordinary regional food cultures of those states south of our border. I ate and ate and ate at Ciudad and never tired of new, exotic flavors and myriad textures -- warm queso fresco on a vibrant sun-dried-tomato sauce, flautas full of duck meat with a ginger-pineapple pico de gallo, pork barbecue stuffed into a roasted poblano chili pepper and topped off with melted Chihuahua-style cheese and green mole, and the best array of desserts -- including the tall pyramid of wafers enclosing dark Mexican chocolate mousse in a cloud of spun sugar -- I've had in any one restaurant this year. Only two or three other Mexican restaurants in the U.S. are doing food so true, and not one is doing it better.

Some of the best new women chefs have chosen to prove their mettle outside of the male-dominated kitchens of the big cities I usually travel to. But no matter where she goes, Melissa Kelly cannot get away from me. I have followed her from the Beekman 1766 Tavern in Rhinebeck, New York, to An American Place Waterside in North Miami, and then way the hell up in New York again to the Old Chatham Sheepherding Company in a tiny suburb of Albany.

So driving far up the coast of Maine to Rockland was obviously required when she and her fiance, pastry chef Price Kushner, took over an old clapboard house and turned it into a restaurant named Primo (2 South Main Street 207-596-0770), after Kelly's Italian grandfather. Here, for the first time, Kelly seems to be cooking wholly from her heart, fashioning a robust Italian-American menu heavy with the fresh provender of New England -- snap peas plucked from the garden, corn not an hour from the field, lobsters dripping wet from the sea. There are wonderful pizzas topped with Italian sausage, tomato, and goat cheese. An addictive Italian crepe called a fricco oozes Asiago cheese and eggplant caponata blessed with basil oil. Pastas couldn't be better delicate crespelle stuffed with rabbit meat are lavished with melted fontina cheese, vegetables, and wild mushrooms. Main courses are equally homespun, like grilled leg of lamb with chickpea fries and ratatouille, and local snow-white halibut with a risotto riddled with lobster chunks. Then comes dessert -- crisp, cheese-filled cannoli dipped in chocolate and an orange-glazed pistachio popover filled with creme brulee. Guys don't cook like this they just want to meet a woman who does.

Much in the same vein is Holly Smith, a vivacious woman who fell in love with Italy and Italian food and whose understanding of that country's culinary culture is evident in everything she cooks at Cafe Juanita in Kirkland, WA (9702 N.E. 120th Place 425-823-1505). Set in a ranch-style house over the Juanita Creek, the dining room has the relaxed feel of a sixties sitcom set, with Smith looking out from her open kitchen, making sure her guests are happy. And how could they not be, with dishes like langoustine with tagliatelle, fresh chickpeas, garlic, and chili, or pappardelle with sauteed chicken livers, black Mission figs, and a touch of marsala? What's not to love about roast chicken with perfectly roasted potatoes or seared sea scallops with homemade bacon, heirloom tomatoes, and green onions? And if you're good and eat your chicory greens with hazelnut apples and sweet Gorgonzola dressing, you can have a slice of Holly's caramelized lemon tart with balsamic-doused strawberries and creme fraiche.

Italian Renaissance

The French-bistro boom and the Nuevo Latino rage have knocked Italian restaurants out of the gastronomic headlines for the past five years or so, and for good reason. The pasta joints had become as dull as unseasoned polenta. But Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich's transcendent Babbo, which opened two years ago in New York, has sparked a vivid new interest in regional Italian food. Batali and Bastianich themselves opened the quintessential Roman trattoria, Lupa, in Greenwich Village last year and more recently launched a novel approach to Italian seafood -- raw, drizzled with twenty different types of olive oil -- at Esca, in the Theater District. Other New York entries like Va Tutto!, Revel, Peccavi, and Gubbio have taken their own paths, while Atlantans got a taste of bona fide Italian cooking at Cipollini, and in Los Angeles, chef Celestino Drago opened the first truly authentic Tuscan steak house in the States.

But the best news of all is in Dallas, a city not known for good Italian. Owners Janet and Phil Cobb, together with chef Kevin Ascolese, racked up thousands of kilometers on the autostrada researching regional food from Trento to Palermo, and the result of their unselfish labors is Salve! (2120 McKinney Avenue 214-220-0070), as authentic and modern an Italian restaurant as you'll find in this country. From the first taste of homemade bread to the last little chocolate baci, this is a remarkable tour de force, grounded in tradition and given just enough Texas swing to make it different from anything north of Wichita Falls.

The design of the restaurant is slinky and sensuous, from the bar to the outdoor patio, and there is a community dining table that encourages people who don't know one another to become paesans over platters of malfatti pasta with truffle sauce, risotto cooked slowly in dark-red Barolo wine, gnocchi made with a sauce of stewed wild boar, and one of the all-time great steaks alla fiorentina you're likely to find this side of the Arno.

Chefs to Keep Your Eye On

Tobias Lawry, Restaurant 821 (Wilmington, DE)

Roger Johnsson, Aquavit (Minneapolis)

Marlin Kaplan, One Walnut (Cleveland)

Eric Di Domenico, La Caravelle (New York)

Daniel Mules, Acacia (Scottsdale, AZ)

Steven Alex Vanderpool, at Cuvee Beach (Destin, FL)

Kent Rathbun, Abacus (Dallas)

Steve Zucker, Lafitte's Landing Restaurant (Donaldsonville, LA)

Michael and Wendy Jordan, Rosemary's Restaurant (Las Vegas)

Christophe Philoreau, La Panetiere (Rye, NY)

John Belleme, Zemi (Boca Raton, FL)

Rob Boone, Bambu (Miami Beach)

Paul Sale, Icon (New York)

Tim Andriola, Mark's South Beach (Miami Beach)

Worst New Restaurants of the Year

Mon Ami Gabi, Las Vegas: Clumsy onion soup, beef that tastes like a Minute Steak, curly, greasy french fries, flaccid chicken, and incompetent waiters who wouldn't know a piperade from le pipe.

Pastis, New York: A smaller version of the still wonderful Balthazar, Pastis pretends not to take reservations after 7:00 p.m., except for its ten thousand closest friends, allows smoking in the nonsmoking dining room, and serves thoroughly mediocre food to crowds who couldn't care less what they eat as long as they get a good table.

Nicholson, New York: This year, the old New York society haunt changed hands, its menu, and its name (formerly Nicholson Cafe), but the story's still the same. If you're not turned off by the mummy's-tomb design, then the flavorless food ought to do the trick.

The Grand Design

Through the nineties, it often seemed as though how a restaurant looked was more important than what came out of the kitchen. Designers David Rockwell, Adam Tihany, Tony Chi, and Jordan Mozer became as famous in the restaurant world as all but a few chefs, and extravagant designs, which were best exemplified in restaurants like California Grill at Walt Disney World, the Harley-Davidson Cafe in New York, and Dive! in L.A., became a requirement for any restaurant above the bistro level in America.

As we enter the twenty-first century, restaurants are having a bit more success at finding the balance between "experience" and eating. And the glamour-puss restaurants of the new century seem to be drawing their inspiration from the TV shows and movies of the last, whether it's the Jetsons look of New York's Brasserie 8 1/2, the La Femme Nikita chic of Nine in Chicago, or the 007 cool of Aureole in Las Vegas, where wines are fetched from a glass tower by a Pussy Galore clone swinging through the room on a wire. Most of these restaurants are designed for sex appeal, and, inevitably, the bar area is as sleek as anything out of a Kubrick movie.

Have the women of Los Angeles no pity, no restraint, no underwear? They slink into Linq (8338 West Third Street 323-655-4555), their hair like something out of a L'Oreal commercial, and they kiss-kiss the owner (who is, of course, named Mario), tower over the Tom Green types lusting at the bar, get any table they want, sip cosmopolitans (still), and laugh that high, full-mouthed laugh that causes men to forget their appetites. In the swanky shadows of the pearly-white, black-marbled, skylighted dining room (designed by Dodd Mitchell), it was only with great effort that I could concentrate on chef Andre Guerrero's menu and choose from superb starters like white-corn soup with Dungeness crab and lemongrass, lobster ravioli in a curried lobster bisque, and wok-seared scallops with a shiitake-rich potato puree and lotus-root chips. I tried hard to focus on delectable main dishes like crisp-skinned whitefish with a corn-and-shrimp ragout and red-pepper lobster sauce, and ahi tuna patted with cracked pepper in a blood-orange ponzu sauce. But do you know what it's like to watch one of those women eat a walnut-and-banana tart with malted-milk sauce? Don't ask. Go to Linq. Be a man about it.

The Buckhead Restaurant Group, which gave Atlanta the Buckhead Diner, the Atlanta Fish Market, and Chops, has often copied others' concepts with great success, but with Bluepointe (3455 Peachtree Road 404-237-9070), Bill Johnson Studios has created a restaurant sure to be copied by everyone else. On looks alone, Bluepointe is a dazzler -- a vast multilevel space with soaring ceilings and huge windows, roomy banquettes in earth tones, and curving sheets of metalwork that evoke Frank Gehry's work in Bilbao and Seattle. In this atmosphere, chef Ian Winslade has to battle for attention. It's a battle he generally wins. Winslade was schooled on how to cook seafood at New York's Le Bernardin, and his mastery in handling each individual species, from pompano to tuna, wins out over embellishment, even when the dish involves Asian seasonings, as it does with his miso cod with Thai basil-cucumber salad and his peanut-crusted grouper in masaman curry. Nonfish dishes like finely grilled quail sparked with Thai spices and served with a crunchy watercress salad come off just as well. For dessert, go with the white-chocolate panna cotta with a Georgia-peach compote and vanilla wafer.

In some cases, it's difficult to know whether the bar wags the dining room or vice versa. Annabelle's, in otherwise staid Naples, Florida (494 Fifth Avenue South 941-261-4275), seems part restaurant, part adult amusement park. Steve Samuelson's design features a glowing glass bar, a wall of water, a shark tank shaped like an ostrich egg, digital monitors in private booths, miniature plum trees, and gigondo metal sculptures -- and that's just the downstairs lounge. Upstairs, you get concrete pillars with a pineapple pattern, a bubbly water wall, and twenty-six-foot ceilings. The ba-da-bing! factor is writ large here. (Be careful about naming your restaurant after your wife you just never know.) But, hey, this is Florida, so settle into a booth, pull the curtains around you, order from the five-hundred-label wine list, and tell the superlative Andrew Marc Rothschild to cook his ass off for you. The result will be a level of fine American haute cuisine you'd be grateful to find anywhere in the U.S. He may do a duet of cured and poached foie gras with a lush pistachio-onion marmalade or parfait of crabmeat with salmon caviar, then bring out shallot gnocchi with duck confit and wild mushrooms, then grilled Chilean sea bass with Provencale vegetables, then roast rack of lamb with a potato-and-mint salad, then go on from there if you're still hungry. This guy's impressive.

Sheer exuberance makes Teatro Goldoni (1909 K Street NW 202-955-9494) the most exciting restaurant to open in D.C. in a long time. This begins the moment you are greeted by owner Ingrid Aielli, who is as effusive as she is gorgeous. The moment you walk in, you know you're in a hot zone. Olvia Demetriou's postmodern glow of red, yellow, and blue colors the three tiers of bar, dining area, and kitchen the big, roomy, curved booths along the walls and the commedia dell'arte masks hung throughout evoke the carnival of Venice, chef and owner Fabrizio Aielli's hometown. In every sense, his cooking is a reflection of the atmosphere and vice versa. His creations are resplendent with the colors of peppers, eggplant, olives, and saffron in dishes like monkfish over yellow Israeli couscous, a generous plate of linguine with mussels in vivid tomato and lemon-pesto sauces, and veal medallions so juicy they hardly need the ruddy porcini sauce and black truffles. Ruben-esque agnolotti come in a bath of deep-green spinach spiked with saffron threads. Teatro Goldoni is well named, for the Aiellis have a flair for the dramatic and a taste for the adventurous.

Sometimes a grand design has the effect of restoring a genre that had become predictable, even tiresome. If you've noticed a lack of new Parisian bistros in this list, it's not because none have opened -- dozens have -- but because few are doing anything more than trying to replicate the decor and menu cliches of others. But restaurateurs Joe Santosuosso and Paul Anthony have been far more imaginative by putting a very beautiful, large dining room called Johnny's Bistro (1400 West Sixth Street 216-774-0055) in downtown Cleveland, giving freshness to the concept with tin ceilings, wispy chandeliers, and richly varnished pillars that front a splendid open kitchen, making this easily the best restaurant design Cleveland has seen in a long while. They have also allowed chef Darren Eads to put his personal best into play with dishes like seared black bass with nicoise accents of olives and artichokes on a bed of couscous with lemon confit, and monkfish wrapped with bacon and served with a potato puree and a rich lobster sauce. His braised short ribs with truffled mashed potatoes will stave off hunger for at least forty-eight hours, but his very best idea is stuffing veal into ravioli, tossing it with truffles, and setting it afloat in a mirepoix of minced vegetables and sweet butter.

Acid indigestion: Rolling Stones guitarist and lifelong hedonist Keith Richards demanded that London's Hard Rock Cafe remove from taxis its ads reading, "Proud to feature fried items -- chicken, onions, Keith Richards." The Hard Rock complied.

Worst New Dish: Wasabi sorbet at Bambu on Miami Beach.

Square Pegs

Some restaurants don't fit conveniently into current categories of American gastronomy. Instead, they merely have the virtue of being very, very good and very, very different from what other restaurants are doing. Having learned the hard way that chefs belong in the kitchen, not the corporate office, Gerry Klaskala is back behind the stoves. The site of his triumphant return is Atlanta's Aria (490 East Paces Ferry Road 404-233-7673), on the old Hedgerose Heights premises, with bleached-white walls, beaded metal curtains, and a chandelier best described as a priapic jellyfish. In this venue, Klaskala is as proficient with southern cooking traditions -- a sweet Vidalia-onion soup, fried softshell crabs that are massive and meaty -- as he is with modern American concepts like a slow-roasted pork shoulder, juicy with a slathering of balsamic vinegar and port. As filling as such dishes may be, don't let the experience end there. Sample pastry chef Kathryn King's black plums warmed in vanilla syrup on toasted lemon cake with ginger ice cream, or iced espresso parfait with mocha malt sauce. In a culinarily retarded city where chain restaurants like the Cheesecake Factory are revered, Aria is a refreshing alternative. Now, if only the management would advise the grown men who show up in blue jeans to go home and change.

Many of the renowned New Orleans restaurateurs familiar to tourists in the Big Easy could use a refresher course in cooking and hospitality. They need someone to tell them that yesterday's reputation doesn't make tomorrow's meal. Or they could just pay one remarkable visit to Cuvee (322 Magazine Street 504-587-9001), which enhances beloved Creole culinary traditions with a modernity that makes them taste even better. Chef Richard "Bingo" Starr conjures authentic Creole and Cajun flavors by working almost exclusively with Louisiana products, pairing crispy mirliton (a local pear-shaped pseudo-squash) with spicy shrimp, or infusing a flaky napoleon with tomato remoulade and cayenne butter. Even the requisite roast baby chicken takes on a regional edge with greens smothered in hot tasso ham and corn fritters, as does the duck breast, smoked over sugarcane and nestled in a bed of Roquefort-pecan risotto. Serving this menu in a very comfortable brick-walled, mahogany-accented dining room with extremely cordial service and a tremendous commitment to wine (by the glass, twenty varieties), Cuvee maps a new direction in New Orleans cuisine -- one the old-timers would do well to follow.

Forgive NoMI (800 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago 312-335-1234) for the coy acronym ("North Michigan Avenue"), but praise it for everything else. The dining room's decor -- a grand expanse of windows overlooking the lake, the subtle use of rosewood and Italian mosaic tiles and beams wrapped in leather -- pales when compared with the focal point of the open kitchen: Sandro Gamba, who made his reputation at Lespinasse in Washington, DC.

Gamba practices a subtle art in a city too often dazzled by culinary gimmickry and ostentatious presentations. He cooks unassuming shellfish in coconut milk, then spikes it with a touch of lime. Very ripe tomatoes and a touch of chili add spark to his Thai-inspired beef salad, and he doses his risotto with mascarpone cheese, wild mushrooms, and a little prosciutto for a creamy, earthy, salty delight. I can truly say I've never had better roast lamb, served here with a zucchini galette and some garlic confit -- a lesson in restraint his Chicago colleagues would do well to emulate, if not outright steal. It's in the desserts that Gamba goes a little heavy, but that's okay, too: His dome of exotic chocolate with "fruit of the forest gel" or hazelnut feuilletine and marinated pineapple is whimsy that's gratefully indulged.

I ate at Meigas (350 Hudson Street, New York 212-627-5800) on the most bone-chilling night of the winter, barreling through the door of the cavernous restaurant with my eyelids nearly frozen shut. Yet after feasting on chef Luis Bollo's sumptuous, warming food and drinking a noble dose of rioja and Pedro Ximenez sherry (okay, maybe more than a noble dose), I faced the brutal cold outside in the belief that winter could not harm me: I had dined well.

Meigas, which is Galician for "sorceress," represents a magical first successful translation in America of modern Spanish cuisine, with echoes of the chef's own Basque culinary traditions and of the trendsetting restaurant El Bulli in Rosas, Spain. What David Bouley is doing in New York for Austrian food at Danube and Odette Fada for Italian food at San Domenico, Bollo is doing for Spanish. When you go to Meigas, expect to be forced to choose from a blend of oxtail and sweetbreads with Iberian Montsia rice, grilled salt cod with julienne peppers and pil-pil sauce of creamy garlic and olive oil, salt-crusted red snapper with raisins or pine nuts and paprika oil, and almond-crusted chocolate croquettes in a coconut foam. Can't? Well, there's no rule against ordering one of each.


EATING OUT

For those still trying to decide where to celebrate Thanksgiving, these 12 restaurants are among the many that are offering special holiday menus. (These summaries, written by Eric Asimov, are taken from Ruth Reichl's and Mr. Asimov's dining reviews, columns and articles in The Times.)

Beacon, Waldy Malouf's midtown restaurant, is organized around a huge wood-burning oven with which Mr. Malouf produces uncomplicated, big-flavored food that emphasizes fresh, seasonal ingredients. A four-course Thanksgiving dinner prepared over the open fire will be served. The menu features herbed profiteroles, roast lobster soup, Maine Belon oysters, wood roasted trout, grilled venison chop, roast organic turkey and for dessert a tasting plate of traditional holiday treats. The prix fixe dinner is $65 a person $30 for children 12 and under.

La Caravelle is a French restaurant of the old school. No restaurant in the city does a better job at guarding its traditions while honoring the present. The chef, Eric Di Domenico, is offering a three-course $80 menu featuring roast turkey with apple, celeriac and sausage stuffing, dried and fresh cranberry relish and foie gras sauce. Other entrees include roasted salmon, pan seared halibut, and venison with pepper and red currant sauce. Appetizers include chestnut veloute soup, and leek and goat cheese ravioli with mushroom coulis. Desserts include apple tart with cinnamon ice cream and orange and chocolate chip souffle.

With classic bistro accouterments like cozy banquettes hugging one wall, brass rails, mirrors and a working fireplace, this restaurant looks as if it had been airlifted from Paris. A Thanksgiving harvest dinner served by the glow of the fireplace will feature fire-roasted free-range turkey with a brioche, chestnut and candied lady apple stuffing. The three-course menu is $45 for adults and $22.50 for children 10 and under. Vegetarians will appreciate an entree of risotto with roasted fall vegetables and fresh herbs served with a buttermilk squash gratin and appetizer selections like wild mushroom flan and a country salad of organic baby greens, Granny Smith apples, walnuts, croutons and Roquefort cheese.

This TriBeCa restaurant is versatile for lunch or dinner. The cavernous dining room has the spare quality of an old steakhouse, but the clean details, loud music and hip clientele give it an up-to-date air. The chef, Henry Meer, is offering roasted wild turkey with traditional stuffing and fresh cranberry sauce. Herb encrusted halibut and filet of veal are also offered as entrees. Other dishes included in the four-course menu are squash soup, seared sea scallops with wilted endive and a baked apple or cheesecake for dessert. The prix fixe dinner is $65 for adults and $20 for children under 12.

In many ways Gotham is a quintessential New York restaurant, a vast, comfortable space that manages to offer intimacy, too. The four-course, prix fixe menu, which is $80 a person and $35 for children under 12, will start with a surprise course from the chef, Alfred Portale, followed by a choice of appetizers. Traditional roast organic turkey will be served with corn bread and venison sausage stuffing. Other entrees are wild striped bass, Atlantic salmon, duck, pheasant and steak. Desserts include chocolate cake served warm with toasted almond ice cream.

Home serves stylized renditions of American classics. The husband-and-wife owners, David Page and Barbara Shinn, offer dishes that touch a nostalgic chord without being sentimental, like meaty pork chops and, at lunch, a terrific hamburger, freshly ground and fine-textured, served with rich homemade ketchup and pickles. The four-course Thanksgiving menu ($50) includes spiced potted duck served with salad, cheese and olives smoked quail in a wild mushroom broth with a celery-root-and-potato cake roast turkey with the traditional trimmings and pie. An additional $20 brings four wines matched to the food.

Bill Telepan, the chef, is committed to freshness it is the key to the quiet but eloquent flavors he offers on his contemporary American menu. The food is unassuming but extremely eloquent, so roaring with flavor that the minute you finish one bite you instantly want another. The $68 Thanksgiving menu features appetizers like Maine lobster cakes, house smoked brook trout, and quail salad with apple-duck sausage. In addition to roasted organic turkey, entrees include venison loin, yellowfin tuna and seared Atlantic salmon. For dessert, choose from cranberry-orange upside-down cake, steamed chocolate fudge cake and pear-sour-cherry crisp. A $78 five-course tasting menu and a $39 children's menu are also available.

871 Seventh Avenue, near 55th Street

Here Greek food is presented by people who passionately want you to love it. The room is as relaxed and airy as a Greek taverna, and the service is careful and kind. The Thanksgiving menu is $39 for four courses. The menu starts with puree of chickpea soup followed by an appetizer of pastitsio, a pasta casserole with spiced ground lamb topped with yogurt-bechamel sauce. Slow-roasted turkey is being served with a chestnut, sausage and rice stuffing, wild greens and a fruit compote. Galaktoboureko, sweet semolina custard wrapped in phyllo and topped with citrus syrup, completes the menu. The regular menu will also be available.

The stylish Americana decor of antique toys, American folk art, green leather booths and mismatched plates with graphic designs is the ideal backdrop for David Burke's enticing American cooking. Mr. Burke's Thanksgiving menu is $70 a person and $35 for children, and it includes roasted turkey with corn bread and sausage stuffing, rack of lamb, and roasted prawns with corn spoon bread. Featured among the appetizers are terrine of foie gras with savory fig pastry, handmade cavatelli with wild mushrooms and white truffle oil, and Southern fried quail with greens, huckleberries, pecans and blue cheese.

10. Park View at The Boathouse

Loeb Boathouse, about 72nd Street in Central Park

The owners, Frank and Jeanne Cretella, have transformed the casually rustic Boathouse Cafe into Park View, a restaurant with finesse that captures the bucolic qualities of Central Park but frames them in a romantically jewel-like urban setting. The four-course Thanksgiving menu is $52 a person and $26 for children 12 or under. The menu starts with soup and salad courses followed by a selection of entrees, including roast turkey with wild mushroom stuffing, prime rib of beef, leg of lamb and filet of Atlantic striped bass. Desserts include pecan tart, creme brulee, warm apple crisp and pumpkin pie.

A seductive town house with oak-paneled walls, oil paintings and handsome marble-inlaid wood floors, well-appointed tables and refined American cooking make a winning combination at this popular place. It is serving a four-course dinner priced from $49 for roast turkey to $80 for thick char-grilled prime rib steak with black truffles. The second course is cream of pumpkin soup and first-course choices include gravlox, seared peppered tuna and escargots with pernod. The menu ends with a dessert selection as well as dessert wine, chocolates, cookies and coffee.

44th Drive at the East River

This restaurant, on a barge in the East River, offers a gorgeous view of the Manhattan skyline with all its romantic appeal. The restaurant is featuring a three-course Thanksgiving dinner for $55 a person and $25 for children. The menu has a choice of appetizers like roast beef and frisee salad, wild mushrooms and butternut squash cannelloni, and field green and endive salad. Entrees include pomegranate glazed free-range turkey with chestnut stuffing, rosemary scented leg of lamb and horseradish crusted salmon. Sweets and fruits of the season are offered for dessert. To ease the trip for Manhattanites, Water's Edge throws in a free boat ride from the East 34th Street ferry port.

Summaries taken from reviews use the star ratings. Others are taken from the $25 and Under column (+) and articles (++), and capsule revies from New York Today: www.nytoday.com (+++).

(None) Poor to Satisfactory

Ratings reflect the reviewer's reaction primarily to food, with ambiance and service taken into consideration. Menu listings and prices are subject to change.


Today's Special: Seared Scallops with Chestnut Puree - Recipes

Photographs by Joe Vaughn

A t first glance, Bistro 82’s menu may look like any other French bistro: steak frites, escargot, foie gras. But a closer look at each and every plate reveals what sets Bistro 82 apart: its tireless commitment to seek perfection.

It’s easy to stick to what works it’s another thing to scrap it and start over. This dedication to the craft permeates from the kitchen throughout the restaurant.

“What are we going to do to not be stagnant? What’s next?” says executive chef Derik Watson of the kitchen’s approach to food. “Everything we’re doing we try to do it better, then the next day we either try to change it or do it better.”

Since opening in early 2014, Bistro 82 has certainly not stood still. Dishes such as the cioppino and cobia have been on the menu for a long time, but when you visit the restaurant again, you notice the constant evolution of the dishes.

“It was a February opening, so warm, rich flavors are comforting, and the direction I was leaning,” says Watson. “That and the identity of the restaurant hadn’t really been established. The concept of course was, that of a modern bistro, hence the classics like steak frites, escargot, steak tartare.

“As we grew, so did the creative process,” he says. “As the seasons progress the flavors tend to lighten up [and] become more refreshing or bright, acidic, et cetera. Garnishes become what is available seasonally.”

The scallops, which have been on the menu since Day One, are a perfect example. Watson estimates there have been a dozen versions.

When we first reviewed Bistro 82 in our May 2014 issue, we noted that the scallops were served with a white bean mousseline and sauce Americaine, the rich, creamy, buttery, and slightly spicy shellfish broth-based sauce.

More recently, the scallops were the same — seared to perfection, not one degree over or under — but were accompanied with white chocolate, cranberry, chestnut puree, salsify, apple, and radicchio. At first glance, the sweet elements might seem too cloying. The radicchio on its own was bitter. But the sweet, the bitter, and the texture all came together on the plate.

The same held true for many dishes and over multiple visits. The ingredients and flavors of a Bistro 82 dish may change, but the foundation is the same.

It’s a solid foundation that’s been built under the direction of Watson.

Today’s food culture idolizes the celebrity chef, the larger-than-life persona that often dominates a restaurant’s image — and the food.

But Watson — who worked under top chefs such as Takashi Yagihashi at Tribute and Don Yamauchi at MotorCity Casino’s Iridescence, both previous Hour Detroit Restaurant of the Year winners — doesn’t fit that mold. He’s quick to point out that the restaurant’s success is not about him.

“I want [Bistro 82] to be bigger than me,” Watson says.

Bistro 82 isn’t the flashiest restaurant or the most cutting edge — and they don’t want to be. “The goal here is to not create what’s cool or trendy but a great restaurant that’s timeless,” Watson says, adding that they’re aiming to “establish a kitchen that would earn the seal of approval — like Tribute, Bacco, or Golden Mushroom.

“Are we there yet? No, but that’s the goal.”

We happen to think they are well on their way. For its subtle, precise, and elegant food, its impeccable attention to detail, its rock-solid consistency, and culture that celebrates its team, we have selected Bistro 82 as Hour Detroit’s 2017’s Restaurant of the Year.

Defining ‘New-School Cool’

Although Royal Oak has its share of interesting, diverse restaurants, it admittedly is not the first place that comes to mind when you think about fine dining. But in February 2013, Aaron F. Belen bought the former Sangria/Sky Bar space in downtown Royal Oak.

Belen, barely 30 at the time, decided to go all in, putting up more than $5 million to develop Bistro 82 and Sabrage (its sister nightclub upstairs).

It was, perhaps, a tad ambitious. Most of today’s new establishments are certainly less formal than traditional fine dining. And somewhat smaller than Bistro 82’s approximately 150 seats, as well.

“I hate saying ‘high-end’ or saying ‘fine-dining,’ ” Belen says. “The Lark was classic French fine dining — it was old-school cool. We wanted to be ‘new-school cool.’ ”

But that presented a challenge: How to strike a balance between being upscale and special, but not intimidating?

“We wanted it to have a Michigan feel to it,” Belen adds. “This is not Madison Avenue. How do you make it cool … and still approachable?”

Bistro 82 succeeds with a contemporary take that wouldn’t look out of place in any big city across the country. That’s by design. Its atmosphere was inspired by a number of visits to Chicago hot spots, from places with Michelin stars to trendy nightclubs that generated buzz.

To launch Bistro 82, Belen formed the AFB Hospitality Group and began surrounding himself with restaurant veterans and rising stars. He tapped Scott Sadoff as his director of operations, who had stints at Ocean Prime in Troy and P.F. Chang’s. General Manager Matthew Hollander (who recently left Michigan for an “incredible opportunity” in Las Vegas) did double duty, keeping an eye on the floor as well as offering his advice as a certified sommelier.

But the master stroke was landing the skilled and accomplished Watson to head up the kitchen.

Belen says Bistro 82’s real “secret sauce” was having this team develop a philosophy and mission statement, and then doggedly holding to it.

In the Heart of the House

Meticulous attention to detail and precision are hallmarks of Bistro 82’s culinary style. In the kitchen, blue masking tape is used to label everything and the rule is to cut the tape with a pair of scissors versus hastily tearing it. Something like that has no effect on whether the diner will enjoy their scallops or steak more, but the fact that the staff cuts the tape is symbolic of how the chefs and cooks work.

“Those details can inform everything we do,” says chef de cuisine Alex Dettwyler, an intensely focused chef who is known to bring a metronome into the kitchen during Saturday night service. “If we can’t get the little details right we can’t get the big details right. If we can’t cut the tape, we can’t sear a piece of fish. … Those details are what separate good restaurants from great restaurants, and we take a lot of pride in those details.”

Watson may have the title of executive chef, but he empowers the rest of the team to have input on the menu while challenging them at the same time.

The concept of team is almost a cliché, but at Bistro 82, that idea manifests itself in each plate. Take the bone marrow. The unctuous marrow is rich, the crostini crisp to a toast, the frisee salad bright with acidity from the well-balanced dressing. Each component has its place and its individual strength. On their own, they can be too rich, too bland, too bitter.

But together it’s harmonious and one component can’t succeed without the other, much like the kitchen itself.

Dettwyler cites an example. “I was working the opening shift and was supposed to go home at 6 o’clock and [was] looking at reservations, looking at weather [and] getting a feeling that something big is going to happen tonight. So I threw my chef coat back on,” he says.

The night just kept getting busier and busier.

“And then on cue Derik walks in the back door … still wearing his hoodie out of the cold [and] starts garnishing, wiping plates, and sending them out,” Dettwyler says. “That was a beautiful moment — especially [for] some of the cooks who haven’t spent a lot of time with Derik … to see him walk into that situation and jump in and help us in any way he could.”

A Legacy of Mentorship

Watson’s style of leading by example stems from his time working with some of the greats. Yagihashi, who built his reputation in Michigan as the executive chef at the legendary Tribute, says as a chef, you can tell pretty quickly if a chef has what it takes. With Watson, who worked with Yagihashi as a line cook at Tribute, he says, “I felt right away he could be very good.” Later he would ask him to work for him as his sous-chef at his eponymous restaurant in Chicago, which garnered a Michelin star.

For most of his career, Watson has always looked ahead to what’s next and not rest on his laurels. While at Tribute, he wanted to push himself as a leader, and took an executive chef job at Peabody’s. Then he moved to Las Vegas before heading to Chicago to help open Takashi.

He came back home to Michigan in search of something more challenging, and worked for Don Yamauchi at Iridescence. But he began to feel stagnant and bored, and took a year off, working odd jobs.

A friend connected him to Belen and Sadoff, and after the three of them clicked, they started planning what would become Bistro 82.

Here the chef has evolved into one who leads by influence and whose style is to “earn respect rather than demand it.”

Watson fuels motivation and creativity into his associates, says Norman Fenton, who hired in at Bistro 82 as sous-chef and was then promoted to executive sous-chef. At the time of his hiring, he says he was questioning what he was doing and the direction of his career. Then he got the call from Watson.

“He was very nurturing in the sense of helping you grow and spread your wings,” says Fenton. “Working for him is what help shaped the idea of where I want my own career to go.”

The experience helped Fenton move on to bigger roles, such as revamping the menu at Tom’s Oyster Bar and Ale Mary’s in Royal Oak before heading to Chicago to work for Grant Achatz’s Alinea Group. He now works at Schwa in Chicago, where he can “continue honing my skills under amazing chefs just like [Watson].”

The development of associates (Watson emphasizes they are not called staff) from dishwashers to the kitchen team has been one of his goals: The next position should be a step up. “No one makes a lateral move,” he says. “I’m personally reaching my goals [so] it’s really exciting to see Matthew [Hollander] head to Vegas [and] Norman moving to a large market and working with the Alinea Group and now with Schwa.”

He harkens back to the goal to emulate places like Tribute to earn that “seal of approval,” and establish a kitchen that “if you see it on someone’s resume, you would know that you’re getting a good cook, a passionate cook.”

Dettwyler is one who didn’t make a lateral move — he actually took a step down in order to work at Bistro 82. He was an executive chef in Ann Arbor, where he and his wife moved to from Pittsburgh so she could go to school. He came to “stage” at Bistro 82 (when chefs work for free in a kitchen to see if it’s a good fit for both parties) and was offered a line cook job because there were no open chef positions. It would have meant a pay cut, a long commute, and more hours, so Dettwyler said thanks, but no thanks.

But a nagging feeling stayed with him. “It doesn’t matter how hard it is, it doesn’t matter how poor you have to be, it doesn’t matter how much gas you’re going to spend each week. This is the route to the top,” he says.

Dettwyler called Watson a month later and asked if he could come back. He started at Bistro 82 a couple of days later as line cook, then moved up quickly, first to sous-chef and now chef de cuisine.

Pushing the Envelope

Now that the AFB Hospitality Group has opened The Morrie roadhouse in Royal Oak, Watson is overseeing the kitchen and menu at both places. That means he’s not at Bistro 82 “as much as he would like.”

Holding true to his goal of nurturing his kitchen team, Watson is leaving much of the menu conceptualization and development in Dettwyler’s hands.

Still, the two engage in a lot of back and forth in order to create the perfect dish. They communicate via phone and texts, and the conversation could start off simply with an ingredient such as bergamot, until the collaboration becomes a fully formed dish.

“Derik has changed a lot in past year and a half … from the guy who I was saying ‘Yes, chef’ to,” says Dettwyler. “Now … he’s more like the Yoda or the Obi-Wan Kenobi to my
Luke Skywalker.”

He adds that Watson and operations director Sadoff built the car he’s just driving it and continuing down the path that’s been paved.

And the direction is always forward.

“How far can we push the envelope in terms of quality while still being viable as a business?” Dettwyler says. “Since I’ve started we’ve always had that established goal of being an institution — not just being a flash in the pan [or] a trendy restaurant that comes and goes.

“Part of that is looking at the future, taking the long view of things, and not being afraid to make hard decisions,” Dettwyler says, citing the choice to make all the bread for both restaurants in house as an example.

“[It] was a huge undertaking and it was a huge commitment, and now it’s just a part of what we do, just one more step toward perfection — something you never get to, but you’re pushing toward it every day.”


French–English Glossary

For many diners, the restaurant menu can present a confusing and intimidating barrier to the pleasures of dining out. The French language, of course, is no help with so many sound-alike words. It is so easy to confuse tourteau (crab) with tortue (turtle), ail (garlic) with aile (a poultry wing), chevreau (young goat) with chevreuil (venison).
The variety of fish and shellfish found in France’s waters can be equally confusing, particularly when one is faced with a multitude of regional or local names given to each species. The large, meaty monkfish, for example, might be called baudroie, lotte, or gigot de mer depending upon the region or the whim of the chef.
In preparing this glossary, I have tried to limit the list to contemporary terms, making this a practical guide for today’s traveler in France. Translations are generally offered for those dishes, foods, and menus, in markets, expressions or terms phrases one is most likely to encounter on menus and in shops. I have also added regional terms one might not find explained elsewhere.

A point: cooked medium rare.
Abat(s): organ meat(s).
Abati(s): giblet(s) of poultry or game fowl.
Abbacchio: young lamb, specialty of Corsica.
Abondance: firm thick wheel of cow’s-milk cheese from the Savoie, a département in the Alps.
Abricot: apricot.
Acacia: the acacia tree, the blossoms of which are used for making fritters also honey made from the blossom.
Achatine: land snail, or escargot, imported from China and Indonesia less prized than other varieties.
Addition: bill.
Affamé: starving.
Affinage: process of aging cheese.
Affiné: aged, as with cheese.
Agneau (de lait): lamb (young, milk-fed).
Agneau chilindron: sauté of lamb with potatoes and garlic, specialty of the Basque country.
Agneau de Pauillac: breed of lamb from the southwest.
Agnelet: baby milk-fed lamb.
Agnelle: ewe lamb.
Agrume(s): citrus fruit(s).
Aïado: roast lamb shoulder stuffed with parsley, chervil, and garlic.
Aiglefin: aigrefin, églefin: small fresh haddock, a type of cod.
Aïgo bouido: garlic soup, served with oil, over slices of bread a specialty of Provence.
Aïgo saou: “water-salt” in Provençal a fish soup that includes, of course, water and salt, plus a mixture of small white fish, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, herbs, and olive oil specialty of Provence.
Aigre: bitter sour.
Aigre-doux: sweet and sour.
Aigrelette, sauce: a type of tart sauce.
Aiguillette: a long, thin slice of poultry, meat, or fish. Also, top part of beef rump.
Ail: garlic.
Ail des ours: (Allium Ursinum) Wild garlic - also known as ramsons, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek or bear's garlic
Aile: wing of poultry or game bird.
Aile et cuisse: used to describe white breast meat (aile) and dark thigh meat (cuisse), usually of chicken.
Aillade: garlic sauce also, dishes based on garlic.
Aillé: with garlic.
Aillet: shoot of mild winter baby garlic, a specialty of the Poitou-Charentes region along the Atlantic coast.
Aïoli, ailloli: garlic mayonnaise. Also, salt cod, hard-cooked eggs, boiled snails, and vegetables served with garlic mayonnaise specialty of Provence.
Airelle: wild cranberry.
Aisy cendré: thick disc of cow’s-milk cheese, washed with eau-de-vie and patted with wood ashes also called cendre d’aisy: a specialty of Burgundy.
Albuféra: béchamel sauce with sweet peppers, prepared with chicken stock instead of milk classic sauce for poultry.
Algue(s): seaweed.
Aligot: mashed potatoes with tomme (the fresh curds used in making Cantal cheese) and garlic specialty of the Auvergne.
Alisier, alizier: eau-de-vie with the taste of bitter almonds, made with the wild red serviceberries that grow in the forests of Alsace.
Allumette: “match” puff pastry strips also fried matchstick potatoes.
Alose: shad, a spring river fish plentiful in the Loire and Gironde rivers.
Alouette: lark.
Aloyau: loin area of beef beef sirloin, butcher’s cut that includes the rump and contre-filet.
Alsacienne, à l’: in the style of Alsace, often including sauerkraut, sausage, or foie gras.
Amande: almond.
Amande de mer: smooth-shelled shellfish, like a small clam, with a sweet, almost almond flavor.
Amandine: with almonds.
Ambroisie: ambrosia.
Amer: bitter as in unsweetened chocolate.
Américaine, Amoricaine: sauce of white wine, Cognac, tomatoes, and butter.
Ami du Chambertin: “friend of Chambertin wine” moist and buttery short cylinder of cow’s milk cheese with a rust-colored rind, made near the village of Gevrey-Chambertin in Burgundy. Similar to Époisses cheese.
Amourette(s): spinal bone marrow of calf or ox.
Amuse-bouche or amuse gueule: “amuse the mouth” appetizer.
Ananas: pineapple.
Anchoïade: sauce that is a blend of olive oil, anchovies, and garlic, usually served with raw vegeta-bles specialty of Provence also, paste of anchovies and garlic, spread on toast.
Anchois (de Collioure): anchovy (prized salt-cured anchovy from Collioure, a port town near the Spanish border of the Languedoc), fished in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
Ancienne, à l’: in the old style.
Andouille: large smoked chitterling (tripe) sausage, usually served cold.
Andouillette: small chitterling (tripe) sausage, usually served grilled.
Aneth: dill.
Ange à cheval: “angel on horseback” grilled bacon-wrapped oyster.
Anglaise, à l’: English style, plainly cooked.
Anguille (au vert): eel (poached in herb sauce).
Anis: anise or aniseed.
Anis étoilé: star anise also called badiane.
AOC: see Appellation d’origine contrôlée.
Apéritif: a before-dinner drink that stimulates the appetite, usually somewhat sweet or mildly bitter.
Appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC): specific definition of a particular cheese, butter, fruit, wine, or poultry – once passed down from generation to generation, now recognized by law – regulating the animal breed or variety of fruit, the zone of production, production techniques, composition of the product, its physical characteristics, and its specific attributes.
Arachide (huile d’ pâté d’): peanut (oil butter).
Araignée de mer: spider crab.
Arbousier (miel d’): trailing arbutus, small evergreen shrubby tree of the heather family, also called strawberry tree, ground laurel and madrona tree with strawberry-like fruit dotted with tiny bumps (honey of). Used for making liqueurs, jellies, and jams.
Arc en ciel (truite): rainbow (trout).
Ardennaise, à l’: in the style of the Ardennes, a département in northern France generally a dish with juniper berries.
Ardi gasna: Basque name for sheep’s-milk cheese.
Ardoise: blackboard bistros often use a blackboard to list specialties in place of a printed menu.
Arête: fish bone.
Arlésienne, à l’: in the style of Arles, a town in Provence with tomatoes, onions, eggplant, potatoes, rice, and sometimes olives.
Armagnac: brandy from the Armagnac area of Southwestern France.
Aromate: aromatic herb, vegetable, or flavoring.
Arômes à la gêne: generic name for a variety of tangy, lactic cheeses of the Lyon area that have been steeped in gêne, or dry marc, the dried grape skins left after grapes are pressed for wine. Can be of cow’s milk, goat’s milk, or a mixture.
Arosé(e): sprinkled, basted, moistened with liquid.
Arpajon: a town in the Ile-de-France dried bean capital of France a dish containing dried beans.
Artichaut (violet): artichoke (small purple) (camus) snub-nosed.
Artichaut à la Barigoule: in original form, artichokes cooked with mushrooms and oil also, artichoke stuffed with ham, onion, and garlic, browned in oil with onions and bacon, then cooked in water or white wine specialty of Provence.
Asperge (violette): asparagus (purple-tipped asparagus, a specialty of the Côte-d’Azur).
Assaisonné: seasoned seasoned with.
Assiette anglaise: assorted cold meats, usually served as a first course.
Assiette de pêcheur: assorted fish platter.
Assoiffé: parched, thirsty.
Assorti(e): assorted.
Aubergine: eggplant.
Aulx: plural of ail (garlic).
Aumônière: “beggar’s purse” thin crêpe, filled and tied like a bundle.
Aurore: tomato and cream sauce.
Auvergnat(e): in the style of the Auvergne often with cabbage, sausage, and bacon.
Aveline: hazelnut or filbert, better known as noisette.
Avocat: avocado.
Avoine: oat.
Axoa: a dish of ground veal, onions, and the local fresh chilies, piment d’Espelette specialty of the Basque region.
Azyme, pain: unleavened bread matzo.

Baba au rhum: sponge cake soaked in rum syrup.
Badiane: star anise.
Baeckeoffe, baekaoffa, backaofa, backenoff: “baker’s oven” stew of wine, beef, lamb, pork, potatoes, and onions specialty of Alsace.
Bagna caudà: sauce of anchovies, olive oil, and garlic, for dipping raw vegetables specialty of Nice.
Baguette: “wand” classic long, thin loaf of bread.
Baguette au levain or à l’ancienne: sourdough baguette.
Baie: berry.
Baie rose: pink peppercorn.
Baigné: bathed.
Ballotine: usually poultry boned, stuffed, and rolled.
Banane: banana.
Banon: village in the Alps of Provence, source of dried chestnut leaves traditionally used to wrap goat cheese, which was washed with eau-de-vie and aged for several months today refers to various goat’s-milk cheese or mixed goat- and cow’s-milk cheese from the region, sometimes wrapped in fresh green or dried brown chestnut leaves and tied with raffia.
Bar: ocean fish, known as loup on the Mediterranean coast, louvine or loubine in the southwest, and barreau in Brittany similar to sea bass.
Barbouillade: stuffed eggplant, or an eggplant stew also, a combination of beans and artichokes.
Barbue: brill, a flatfish related to turbot, found in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
Barder: to cover poultry or meat with strips of uncured bacon, to add moisture while cooking.
Baron: hindquarters of lamb, including both legs.
Barquette: “small boat” pastry shaped like a small boat.
Basilic: basil.
Basquaise, à la: Basque style usually with ham or tomatoes or red peppers.
Bâtard, pain: “bastard bread” traditional long, thin white loaf, larger than a baguette.
Batavia: salad green, a broad, flat-leafed lettuce.
Bâton: small white wand of bread, smaller than a baguette.
Bâtonnet: garnish of vegetables cut into small sticks.
Baudroie: in Provence, the name for monkfish or anglerfish, the large, firm-fleshed ocean fish also known as lotte and gigot de mer also a specialty of Provence, a fish soup that includes potatoes, onions, fresh mushrooms, garlic, fresh or dried orange zest, artichokes, tomatoes, and herbs.
Bavaroise: cold dessert a rich custard made with cream and gelatin.
Bavette: skirt steak.
Baveuse: “drooling” method of cooking an omelet so that it remains moist and juicy.
Béarnaise: tarragon-flavored sauce of egg yolks, butter, shallots, white wine, vinegar, and herbs.
Béatille: “tidbit” dish combining various organ meats.
Bécasse: small bird, a woodcock.
Bécassine: small bird, a snipe.
Béchamel: white sauce, made with butter, flour, and milk, usually flavored with onion, bay leaf, pepper, and nutmeg.
Beignet: fritter or doughnut.
Beignet de fleur de courgette: batter-fried zucchini blossom native to Provence and the Mediterranean, now popular all over France.
Belle Hélène (poire): classic dessert of chilled poached fruit (pear), served on ice cream and topped with hot chocolate sauce.
Bellevue, en: classic presentation of whole fish, usually in aspic on a platter.
Belon: river in Brittany identified with a prized flat-shelled (plate) oyster.
Belondines: Brittany creuses, or crinkle-shelled oysters that are affinées or finished off in the Belon river.
Berawecka, bierewecke, bireweck, birewecka: dense, moist Christmas fruit bread stuffed with dried pears, figs, and nuts specialty of Kaysersberg, a village in Alsace.
Bercy: fish stock-based sauce thickened with flour and butter and flavored with white wine and shallots.
Bergamot (thé a la bergamote): name for both a variety of orange and of pear (earl grey tea).
Berrichonne: garnish of bruised cabbage, glazed baby onions, chestnuts, and lean bacon named for the old province of Berry.
Betterave: beet.
Beurre: butter.
blanc: classic reduced sauce of vinegar white wine, shallots, and butter.
cru: raw cream butter.
de Montpellier: classic butter sauce seasoned with olive oil, herbs, garlic, and anchovies.
demi-sel: butter (lightly salted).
des Charentes: finest French butter, from the region of Poitou-Charentes along the Atlantic coast.
du cru: butter given the appellation d’origine contrôlée pedigree.
Echiré: brand of the finest French butter, preferred by French chefs, with an AOC pedigree, from the region of Poitou-Charentes along the Atlantic coast.
noir: sauce of browned butter, lemon juice or vinegar, parsley, and sometimes capers tradi-tionally served with raie, or skate.
noisette: lightly browned butter.
vierge: whipped butter sauce with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
Bibelskäs, bibbelskäse: fresh cheese seasoned with horseradish, herbs, and spices specialty of Alsace.
Biche: female deer.
Bien cuit(e): cooked well done.
Bière (en bouteille, à la pression): beer (bottled, on tap).
Bifteck: steak.
Bigarade: orange sauce.
Biggareau: red firm-fleshed variety of cherry.
Bigorneau: periwinkle, tiny sea snail.
Bigoudène, à la: in the style of Bigouden, a province in Brittany (pommes) baked slices of unpeeled potato (ragôut) sausage stewed with bacon and potato.
Billy Bi, Billy By: cream of mussel soup, specialty of the Atlantic coast.
Biologique: organic.
Biscuit à la cuillère: ladyfinger.
Bistrotier: bistro owner.
Blanc (de poireau): white portion (of leek).
Blanc (de volaille): usually breast (of chicken).
Blanc-manger: chilled pudding of almond milk with gelatin.
Blanquette: classic mild stew of poached veal, lamb, chicken, or seafood, enriched with an egg and cream white sauce supposedly a dish for convalescents.
Blé (noir): wheat (buckwheat).
Blette, bette: Swiss chard.
Bleu: “blue” cooked rare, usually for steak. See also Truite au bleu.
Bleu d’Auvergne: a strong, firm, and moist flattened cylinder of blue-veined cheese made from cow’s milk in the Auvergne, sold wrapped in foil still made on some farms.
Bleu de Bresse: a cylinder of mild blue-veined cow’s-milk cheese from the Bresse area in the Rhône-Alps region industrially made.
Bleu de Gex: thick, savory blue-veined disc of cow’s-milk cheese from the Jura made in only a handful of small dairies in the département of the Ain.
Bleu des Causses: a firm, pungent, flat cylinder of blue-veined cow’s-milk cheese, cured in cellars similar to those used in making Roquefort.
Blini: small thick pancake, usually eaten with caviar.
Boeuf à la ficelle: beef tied with string and poached in broth.
Boeuf à la mode: beef marinated and braised in red wine, served with carrots, mushrooms, onions, and turnips.
Boeuf gros sel: boiled beef, served with vegetables and coarse salt.
Bohémienne, à la: gypsy style with rice, tomatoes, onions, sweet peppers, and paprika, in various combinations.
Boisson (non) comprise: drink (not) included.
Bolet: type of wild boletus mushroom. See cèpe.
Bombe: molded, layered ice cream dessert.
Bonbon: candy or sweet.
Bon-chrétien: “good Christian” a variety of pear, also known as poire William’s.
Bondon: small cylinder of delicately flavored, mushroomy cow’s-milk cheese made in the Neufchâtel area in Normandy.
Bonite: a tuna, or oceanic bonito.
Bonne femme (cuisine): meat garnish of bacon, potatoes, mushrooms, and onions fish garnish of shallots, parsley, mushrooms, and potatoes or white wine sauce with shallots, mushrooms, and lemon juice (home-style cooking).
Bordelaise: Bordeaux style also refers to a brown sauce of shallots, red wine, and bone marrow.
Bouchée: “tiny mouthful” may refer to a bite-size pastry or to a vol-au-vent.
Boudouses: literally, to pout tiny oysters from Brittany that refuse to grow to normal size iodine rich and prized.
Bouchoteur: mussel fisherman a dish containing mussels.
Boudin: technically a meat sausage, but generically any sausage-shaped mixture.
Boudin blanc: white sausage of veal, chicken, or pork.
Boudin noir: pork blood sausage.
Bouillabaisse: popular Mediterranean fish soup, most closely identified with Marseille, ideally prepared with the freshest local fish, preferably rockfish. Traditionally might include dozens of different fish, but today generally includes the specifically local rascasse (scorpion fish), Saint-Pierre (John Dory), fiéla (conger eel), galinette (gurnard or grondin), vive (weever), and baudroie (monkfish) cooked in a broth of water, olive oil, onions, garlic, tomatoes, parsley, and saffron. The fish is served separately from the broth, which is poured over garlic-rubbed toast, and seasoned with rouille which is stirred into the broth. Varied additions include boiled potatoes, orange peel, fennel, and shellfish. Expensive shellfish are often added in restaurant versions, but this practice is considered inauthentic.
Bouilliture: eel stew with red wine and prunes specialty of the Poitou-Charentes on the Atlantic coast.
Bouillon: stock or broth.
Boulangère, à la: in the style of the “baker’s wife” meat or poultry baked or braised with onions and potatoes.
Boule: “ball” a large round loaf of white bread, also known as a miche.
Boule de Picoulat: meatball from Languedoc, combining beef, pork, garlic, and eggs, traditionally served with cooked white beans.
Boulette d’Avesnes: pepper-and-tarragon-flavored cheese, made from visually defective Maroilles, formed into a cone, and colored red with paprika named for Avesnes, a village in the North.
Bouquet: large reddish shrimp. See also crevette rose.
Bouquet garni: typically fresh whole parsley bay leaf and thyme tied together with string and tucked into stews the package is removed prior to serving.
Bouquetière: garnished with bouquets of vegetables.
Bourdaloue: hot poached fruit, sometimes wrapped in pastry often served with vanilla custard often pear.
Bourgeoise, à la: with carrots, onions, braised lettuce, celery, and bacon.
Bourguignonne, à la: Burgundy style often with red wine, onions, mushrooms, and bacon.
Bouribot: spicy red-wine duck stew.
Bourride: a Mediterranean fish soup that generally includes a mixture of small white fish, onions, tomatoes, garlic, herbs, and olive oil, thickened with egg yolks and aïoli (garlic mayonnaise) there are many variations.
Bourriole: rye flour pancake, both sweet and savory specialty of the Auvergne.
Boutargue, poutargue: salty paste prepared from dried mullet or tuna roe, mashed with oil specialty of Provence.
Bouton de culotte: “trouser button” tiny buttons of goat cheese from the Lyon area traditionally made on farms, aged until rock hard and pungent today found in many forms, from soft and young to hard and brittle.
Braiser: to braise to cook meat by browning in fat, then simmering in covered dish with small amount of liquid.
Branche, en: refers to whole vegetables or herbs.
Brandade (de morue): a warm garlicky purée (of salt cod) with milk or cream or oil, and sometimes mashed potatoes specialty of Provence currently used to denote a variety of flavored mashed potato dishes.
Brassado: a doughnut that is boiled, then baked, much like a bagel specialty of Provence.
Brayaude, gigot: leg of lamb studded with garlic, cooked in white wine, and served with red beans, braised cabbage, or chestnuts.
Brebis (fromage de): sheep (sheep’s-milk cheese).
Brési (Breuzi): smoked, salted, and dried beef from the Jura.
Bretonne, à la: in the style of Brittany a dish served with white beans or may refer to a white wine sauce with carrots, leeks, and celery.
Bretzel: a pretzel specialty of Alsace.
Brie de Meaux: “king of cheese,” the flat wheel of cheese made only with raw cow’s milk and aged at least four weeks from Meaux, just east of Paris brie made with pasteurized milk does not have the right to be called brie de Meaux.
Brie de Melun: smaller than brie de Meaux, another raw-cow’s-milk cheese, aged at least one month, with a crackly rust-colored rind.
Brillat-Savarin: (1755-1826) famed gastronome, coiner of food aphorisms, and author of The Physiology of Taste the high-fat, supple cow’s-milk cheese from Normandy is named for him.
Brioche: buttery egg-enriched yeast bread.
Brocciu: soft, young, sheep’s milk cheese from Corsica.
Broche, à la: spit-roasted.
Brochet(on): freshwater pike (small pike).
Brochette: cubes of meat or fish and vegetables on a skewer.
Brocoli: broccoli
Brouet: old term for soup.
Brouillade: a mixture of ingredients as in a stew or soup also, scrambled eggs.
Brouillé(s): scrambled, usually eggs.
Brousse: a very fresh and unsalted (thus bland) sheep’s- or goat’s-milk cheese, not unlike Italian ricotta specialty of Nice and Marseille.
Broutard: young goat.
Brugnon: nectarine.
Brûlé(e): “burned” usually refers to caramelization.
Brunoise: tiny diced vegetables.
Brut: very dry or sugarless, particularly in reference to Champagne.
Buccin: large sea snail or whelk, also called bulot.
Bûche de Noël: Christmas cake shaped like a log (bûche), a sponge cake often flavored with chest-nuts and chocolate.
Buffet froid: variety of dishes served cold, sometimes from a buffet.
Bugne: deep-fried yeast-dough fritter or doughnut dusted with confectioner's sugar popular in and around Lyon before Easter.
Buisson: “bush” generally a dish including vegetables arranged like a bush classically a crayfish pre-sentation.
Bulot: large sea snail or whelk, also called buccin.
Buron: traditional hut where cheese is made in the Auvergne mountains.

Cabécou(s): small, round goat’s-milk cheese from the southwest, sometimes made with a mix of goat’s and cow’s milk.
Cabillaud: fresh codfish, also currently called morue: known as doguette in the North, bakalua in the Basque region, eglefin in Provence.
Cabri: young goat.
Cacahouète, cacahouette, cacachuète: prepared peanut--roasted, dry roasted, or salted. A raw peanut is arachide.
Cacao: cocoa powdered cocoa.
Cachat: a very strong goat cheese generally a blend of various ends of leftover cheese, mixed with seasonings that might include salt, pepper, brandy and garlic, and aged in a crock specialty of Provence.
Caen, à la mode de: in the style of Caen, a town in Normandy a dish cooked in Calvados and white wine and/or cider.
Café: coffee, as well as a type of eating place where coffee is served.
allongé: weakened espresso, often served with a small pitcher of hot water so clients may thin the coffee themselves.
au lait or crème: espresso with warmed or steamed milk.
déca or décaféiné: decaffeinated coffee.
express: plain black espresso.
faux: decaffeinated coffee.
filtre: filtered American-style coffee (not available at all cafés).
glacé: iced coffee.
liégeois: iced coffee served with ice cream (optional) and whipped cream also coffee ice cream with whipped cream.
noir: plain black espresso.
noisette: espresso with tiny amount of milk.
serré: extra-strong espresso, made with half the normal amount of water.
Caféine: caffeine.
Cagouille: on the Atlantic coast, name for small petit gris land snail, or escargot.
Caille: quail.
Caillé: clotted or curdled curds of milk.
Caillette: round pork sausage including chopped spinach or Swiss chard, garlic, onions, parsley, bread, and egg and wrapped in crépine (caul fat) served hot or cold specialty of northern Provence.
Caisse: cash register or cash desk.
Caissette: literally, “small box” bread, brioche, or chocolate shaped like a small box.
Cajasse: a sort of clafoutis from the Dordogne, made with black cherries.
Cajou: cashew nut.
Calisson d’Aix: delicate, diamond-shaped Provençal sweet prepared with almonds, candied oranges, melon or abricots, egg white, sugar, and jam of oranges or apricots.
Calmar: small squid, similar to encornet with interior transparent cartilage instead of a bone. Also called chipiron in the southwest.
Calvados: a département in Normandy known for the famed apple brandy.
Camembert (de Normandie): village in Normandy that gives its name to a supple, fragrant cheese made of cow’s milk.
Camomille: camomile, herb tea.
Campagnard(e) (assiette): country-style, rustic (an informal buffet of cold meats, terrines, etc.).
Campagne, à la: country-style.
Canada: cooking apple.
Canapé: originally a slice of crustless bread now also used to refer to a variety of hors d’oeuvre consisting of toasted or fried bread, spread with forcemeat, cheese, and other flavorings.
Canard: duck.
Canard à la presse: roast duck served with a sauce of juices obtained from pressing the carcass, combined with red wine and Cognac.
Canard sauvage: wild duck, usually mallard.
Cancoillotte: spreadable cheese from the Jura usually blended with milk, spices, or white wine when served.
Caneton: young male duck.
Canette: young female duck.
Cannelle: cinnamon.
Cannoise, à la: in the style of Cannes.
Canon: the marrow bone
Cantal: large cylindrical cheese made in the Auvergne from shredded and pressed curds of cow’s milk.
Cantalon: smaller version of Cantal.
Cantaloup: cantaloupe melon.
Capilotade: basically any leftover meat or poultry cooked to tenderness in a well-reduced sauce.
Capre: caper.
Capucine: nasturtium the leaves and flowers are used in salads.
Carafe (d’eau): pitcher (of tap water). House wine is often offered in a carafe. A full carafe contains one liter a demi-carafe contains half a liter a quart contains one-fourth of a liter.
Caraïbes: Caribbean, usually denotes chocolate from the Caribbean.
Caramelisé: cooked with high heat to brown the sugar and heighten flavor.
Carbonnade: braised beef stew prepared with beer and onions specialty of the North also refers to a cut of beef.
Cardamome: cardamon.
Carde: white rib, or stalk, portion of Swiss chard.
Cardon: cardoon large celery-like vegetable in the artichoke family, popular in Lyon, Provence, and the Mediterranean area.
Cargolade: a copious mixed grill of snails, lamb, pork sausage, and sometimes blood sausage, cooked over vine clippings specialty of Catalan, an area of southern Languedoc.
Carotte: carrot.
Carpe: carp.
Carpe à la juive: braised marinated carp in aspic.
Carré d’agneau: rack (ribs) or loin of lamb also crown roast.
Carré de porc: rack (ribs) or loin of pork also crown roast.
Carré de veau: rack (ribs) or loin of veal also crown roast.
Carrelet: see Plaice.
Carte, à la: menu (dishes, which are charged for individually, selected from a restaurant’s full list of offerings).
Carte promotionelle or conseillée: a simple and inexpensive fixed-price meal.
Carvi (grain de): caraway (seed).
Cary: curry.
Casher: kosher.
Casse-croûte: “break bread” slang for snack.
Casseron: cuttlefish.
Cassis (crème de): black currant (black currant liqueur).
Cassolette: usually a dish presented in a small casserole.
Cassonade: soft brown sugar demerara sugar.
Cassoulet: popular southwestern casserole of white beans, including various combinations of sausages, duck, pork, lamb, mutton, and goose.
Cavaillon: a town in Provence, known for its small, flavorful orange-fleshed melons.
Caviar d’aubergine: cold seasoned eggplant puree.
Caviar du Puy: green lentils from Le Puy, in the Auvergne.
Cébette: a mild, leek-like vegetable, sliced and eaten raw, in salads native to Provence, but seen occasionally outside the region.
Cebiche: seviche generally raw fish marinated in lime juice and other seasonings.
Cédrat: a variety of Mediterranean lemon.
Céleri (en branche): celery (stalk).
Céleri-rave: celeriac, celery root.
Céleri remoulade: popular first-course bistro dish of shredded celery root with tangy mayonnaise.
Cendre (sous la): ash (cooked by being buried in embers) some cheeses made in wine-producing regions are aged in the ash of burned rootstocks.
Cèpe: large, meaty wild boletus mushroom.
Cerdon: sparkling (pétillant) rosé wines made in the Bugey appellation in the southern Jura.
Céréale: cereal.
Cerf: stag, or male deer.
Cerfeuil: chervil.
Cerise: etccherry.
Cerise noire: black cherry.
Cerneau: walnut meat.
Cervelas: garlicky cured pork sausage now also refers to fish and seafood sausage.
Cervelle(s): brain(s), of calf or lamb.
Cervelle de canut: a soft, fresh herbed cheese known as “silkworker’s brains” specialty of Lyon.
Céteau(x): small ocean fish, solette or baby sole, found in the gulf of Gascony and along the Atlantic coast.
Cévenole, à la: Cevennes style garnished with chestnuts or mushrooms.
Chalutier: trawler any flat fish caught with a trawl.
Champêtre: rustic describes a simple presentation of a variety of ingredients.
Champignon: mushroom.
à la bague: parasol mushroom with a delicate flavor also called coulemelle, cocherelle, and grisotte.
des bois: wild mushroom, from the woods.
de Paris: most common cultivated mushroom.
sauvage: wild mushroom.
Champvallon, côtelette d’agneau: traditional dish of lamb chops baked in alternating layers of pota-toes and onions named for a village in northern Burgundy.
Chanterelle: prized pale orange wild mushroom also called girolle.
Chantilly: sweetened whipped cream.
Chaource: soft and fruity cylindrical cow’s-milk cheese, with a 50 percent fat content takes its name from a village in Champagne.
Chapeau: “hat” small round loaf, topped with a little dough hat.
Chapelure: bread crumbs.
Chapon: capon, or castrated chicken.
Chapon de mer: Mediterranean fish, in the rascasse or scorpion-fish family.
Charbon de bois, au: charcoal-grilled.
Charentais: variety of sweet cantaloupe, or melon, originally from the Charentes, on the Atlantic coast.
Charlotte: classic dessert in which a dish is lined with ladyfingers, filled with custard or other filling, and served cold in the hot version, the dish is lined with crustless white bread sautéed in butter, filled with fruit compote and baked. Also a potato variety.
Charolais: area of Burgundy light colored cattle producing high-quality beef also, firm white cylinder of cheese made with goat’s or cow’s milk, or a mixture of the two.
Chartreuse: dish of braised partridge and cabbage also herb and spiced-based liqueur made by the Chartreuse monks in the Savoie.
Chasseur: hunter also, sauce with white wine, mushrooms, shallots, tomatoes, and herbs.
Châtaigne: chestnut, smaller than marron, with multiple nut meats.
Chateaubriand: thick filet steak, traditionally served with sautéed potatoes and a sauce of white wine, dark beef stock, butter, shallots, and herbs, or with a béarnaise sauce.
Châtelaine, à la: elaborate garnish of artichoke hearts and chestnut purée, braised lettuce, and sautéed potatoes.
Chaud(e): hot or warm.
Chaud-froid: “hot-cold” cooked poultry dish served cold, usually covered with a cooked sauce, then with aspic.
Chaudrée: Atlantic fish stew, often including sole, skate, small eels, potatoes, butter, white wine, and seasoning.
Chausson: a filled pastry turnover, sweet or savory.
Chemise, en: wrapped with pastry.
Cheval: horse, horse meat.
Cheveux d’ange: “angel’s hair” thin vermicelli pasta.
Chèvre (fromage de): goat (goat’s-milk cheese).
Chevreau: young goat.
Chevreuil: young roe buck or roe deer venison.
Chevrier: small, pale green, dried kidney-shaped bean, a type of flageolet.
Chichi: doughnut-like, deep-fried bread spirals sprinkled with sugar often sold from trucks at open-air markets specialty of Provence and the Mediterranean.
Chicons du Nord: Belgian endive.
Chicorée (frisée): a bitter salad green (curly endive) also chicory, a coffee substitute.
Chicorée de Bruxelles: Belgian endive.
Chiffonnade: shredded herbs and vegetables, usually green.
Chinchard: also called saurel, scad or horse mackerel Atlantic and Mediterranean fish similar to mackerel.
Chipiron (à l’encre): southwestern name for small squid, or encornet (in its own ink).
Chipolata: small sausage.
Chips, pommes: potato chips.
Chocolat: chocolate.
amer: bittersweet chocolate, with very little sugar.
au lait: milk chocolate.
chaud: hot chocolate.
mi-amer: bittetsweet chocolate, with more sugar than chocolat amer.
noir: used interchangeably with chocolat amer.
Choix, au: a choice usually meaning one may choose from several offerings.
Chorizo: highly spiced Spanish sausage.
Choron, sauce: béarnaise sauce with tomatoes.
Chou: cabbage.
Chou de Bruxelles: brussels sprout.
Chou de mer: sea kale.
Chou de Milan: Savoy cabbage.
Chou-fleur: cauliflower.
Chou frisé: kale.
Chou-navet: rutabaga.
Chou-rave: kohlrabi.
Chou rouge: red cabbage.
Chou vert: curly green Savoy cabbage.
Choucas: jackdaw European blackbird, like a crow, but smaller.
Choucroute (nouvelle): sauerkraut (the season’s first batch of sauerkraut, still crunchy and slightly acidic) also main dish of sauerkraut, various sausages, bacon, and pork, served with potatoes specialty of Alsace and brasseries all over France.
Choux, pâte à: cream pastry dough.
Ciboule: spring onion, or scallion.
Ciboulette: chives.
Cidre: bottled, mildly alcoholic cider, either apple or pear.
Cigale de mer: “sea cricket” tender, crayfish-like, blunt-nosed rock lobster.
Cîteaux: creamy, ample disc of cow’s-milk cheese with a rust-colored rind made by the Cistercian monks at the Abbaye de Cîteaux in Burgundy.
Citron: lemon.
Citron, orange, or pamplemousse pressé(e): lemon, orange, or grapefruit juice served with a carafe of tap water and sugar for sweetening to taste.
Citron vert: lime.
Citronnelle: lemon grass, an oriental herb also lemon balm (mèlisse).
Citrouille: pumpkin, gourd. Also called courge, potiron, potimarron.
Cive: spring onion.
Civelle: spaghetti-like baby eel, also called pibale.
Civet: stew, usually of game traditionally thickened with blood.
Civet de lièvre: jugged hare, or wild rabbit stew.
Civet de tripes d’oies: a stew of goose innards, sautéed in fat with onions, shallots, and garlic, then cooked in wine vinegar and diluted with water, and thickened with goose blood from Gascony.
Clafoutis: traditional custard tart, usually made with black cherries specialty of the southwest.
Claire: oyster also a designation given to certain oysters to indicate they have been put in claires, or oyster beds in salt marshes, where they are fattened up for several months before going to market.
Clamart: Paris suburb once famous for its green peas today a garnish of peas.
Clémentine: small tangerine, from Morocco or Spain.
Clouté: studded with.
Clovisse: variety of very tiny clam, generally from the Mediterranean.
Cocherelle: parasol mushroom with a delicate flavor also called champignon à la bague, coulemelle, and grisotte.
Cochon (de lait): pig (suckling).
Cochonnaille(s): pork product(s) usually an assortment of sausages and/or pâtés served as a first course.
Coco blanc (rouge): type of small white (red) shell bean, both fresh and dried, popular in Provence, where it is a traditional ingredient of the vegetable soupe au pistou also, coconut.
Coco de Paimpol: Cream-colored shell bean striated with purple, from Brittany, in season from July to November the first bean in France to receive AOC.
Cocotte: a high-sided cooking pot (casserole) with a lid a small ramekin dish for baking and serving eggs and other preparations.
Coeur: heart.
Coeur de filet: thickest (and best) part of beef filet, usually cut into chateaubriand steaks.
Coeur de palmier: delicate shoots of the palm tree, generally served with a vinaigrette as an hors d’oeuvre.
Coffre: “chest” refers to the body of a lobster or other crustacean, or of a butchered animal.
Coiffe: traditional lacy hat sausage patty wrapped in caul fat.
Coing: quince.
Col vert: wild (“green-collared”) mallard duck.
Colbert: method of preparing fish, coating with egg and bread crumbs and then frying.
Colère, en: “anger” method of presenting fish in which the tail is inserted in the mouth, so it appears agitated.
Colin: hake, ocean fish related to cod known as merluche in the North, merluchon in Brittany, bardot or merlan along the Mediterranean.
Colombe: dove.
Colombo: a mixture of spices, like a curry powder, used to season shellfish, meat or poultry. Like curry, the mix may vary, but usually contains tumeric, rice powder, coriander, pepper, cumin, and fenugreek.
Colza: rape, a plant of the mustard family, colorful yellow field crop grown throughout France, usu-ally pressed into vegetable (rapeseed) oil.
Commander avant le repas, à: a selection of desserts that should be ordered when selecting first and main courses, as they require longer cooking.
Complet: filled up, with no more room for customers.
Compote: stewed fresh or dried fruit.
Compotier: fruit bowl also stewed fruit.
Compris: see Service (non) compris.
Comté: large wheel of cheese of cooked and pressed cow’s milk the best is made of raw milk and aged for six months, still made by independent cheesemakers in the Jura mountains.
Concassé: coarsely chopped.
Concombre: cucumber.
Conférence: a variety of pear.
Confiserie: candy, sweet, or confection a candy shop.
Confit: a preserve, generally pieces of duck, goose, or pork cooked and preserved in their own fat also fruit or vegetables preserved in sugar, alcohol, or vinegar.
Confiture: jam.
Confiture de vieux garçon: varied fresh fruits macerated in alcohol.
Congeler: to freeze.
Congre: conger eel a large ocean fish resembling a freshwater eel (anguille) often used in fish stews.
Conseillé: advised, recommended.
Consommation(s): “consumption” drinks, meals, and snacks available in a cafe or bar.
Consommé: clear soup.
Contre-filet: cut of sirloin taken above the loin on either side of the backbone, tied for roasting or braising (can also be cut for grilling).
Conversation: puff pastry tart with sugar glazing and an almond or cream filling.
Copeau(x): shaving(s), such as from chocolate, cheese, or vegetables.
Coq (au vin): mature male chicken (stewed in wine sauce).
Coq au vin jaune: chicken cooked in the sherry-like vin jaune of the region, with cream, butter and tarragon, often garnished with morels specialty of the Jura.
Coq de bruyère: wood grouse.
Coque: cockle, a tiny, mild-flavored, clam-like shellfish.
Coque, à la: served in a shell. See Oeuf à la coque.
Coquelet: young male chicken.
Coquillage(s): shellfish.
Coquille: shell.
Coquille Saint-Jacques: sea scallop.
Corail: coral-colored egg sac, found in scallops, spiny lobster, and crayfish.
Corb: a Mediterranean bluefish.
Coriandre: coriander either the fresh herb or dried seeds.
Corne d’abondance: “horn of plenty” dark brown wild mushroom, also called trompette de la mort.
Cornet: cornet-shaped usually refers to foods rolled conically also an ice cream cone, and a conic al pastry filled with cream.
Cornichon: gherkin tiny tart cucumber pickle.
Côte d’agneau: lamb chop.
Côte de boeuf: beef blade or rib steak.
Côte de veau: veal chop.
Côtelette: thin chop or cutlet.
Cotriade: a fish stew, usually including mackerel, whiting, conger eel, sorrel, butter, potatoes, and vinegar specialty of Brittany.
Cou d’oie (de canard) farci: neck skin of goose (of duck), stuffed with meat and spices, much like sausage.
Coulant: refers to runny cheese.
Coulemelle: parasol mushroom with a delicate flavor also called champignon à la bague, cocherelle, and grisotte.
Coulibiac: classic, elaborate, hot Russian pâté, usually layers of salmon, rice, hard-cooked eggs, mushrooms, and onions, wrapped in brioche.
Coulis: purée of raw or cooked vegetables or fruit.
Coulommiers: town in the Ile-de-France that gives its name to a supple, fragrant disc of cow’s-milk cheese, slightly larger than Camembert.
Courge (muscade): generic term for squash or gourd (bright orange pumpkin).
Courgette: zucchini.
Couronne: “crown” ring or circle, usually of bread.
Court-bouillon: broth, or aromatic poaching liquid.
Couscous: granules of semolina, or hard wheat flour also refers to a hearty North African dish that includes the steamed grain, broth, vegetables, meats, hot sauce, and sometimes chickpeas and raisins.
Couteau: razor clam.
Couvert: a place setting, including dishes, silver, glassware, and linen.
Couverture: bittersweet chocolate high in cocoa butter used for making the shiniest chocolates.
Crabe: crab.
Crambe: sea kale, or chou de mer.
Cramique: brioche with raisins or currants specialty of the North.
Crapaudine: preparation of grilled poultry or game bird with backbone removed.
Craquant: crunchy.
Craquelot: smoked herring.
Crécy: a dish garnished with carrots.
Crémant: sparkling wine.
Crème: cream.
aigre: sour cream.
anglaise: light egg-custard cream.
brûlée: rich custard dessert with a top of caramelized sugar.
caramel: vanilla custard with caramel sauce.
catalane: creamy anise flavored custard from the southern Languedoc.
chantilly: sweetened whipped cream.
épaisse: thick cream.
fleurette: liquid heavy cream.
fouettée: whipped cream.
fraîche: thick sour heavy cream.
pâtissière: custard filling for pastries and cakes.
plombières: custard filled with fresh fruits and egg whites.
Crêpe: thin pancake.
Crêpe Suzette: hot crêpe dessert flamed with orange liqueur.
Crépine: caul fat.
Crépinette: traditionally, a small sausage patty wrapped in caul fat today boned poultry wrapped in caul fat.
Cresson(ade): watercress (watercress sauce).
Crête (de coq): (cock’s) comb.
Creuse: elongated, crinkle-shelled oyster.
Crevette: shrimp.
Crevette grise: tiny soft-fleshed shrimp that turns gray when cooked.
Crevette rose: small firm-fleshed shrimp that turns red when cooked when large, called bouquet.
Crique: potato pancake from the Auvergne.
Criste marine: edible algae.
Croque au sel, à la: served raw, with a small bowl of coarse salt for seasoning tiny purple artichokes and cherry tomatoes are served this way.
Croque-madame: open-face sandwich of ham and cheese with an egg grilled on top.
Croque-monsieur: toasted ham and cheese sandwich.
Croquembouche: choux pastry rounds filled with cream and coated with a sugar glaze, often served in a conical tower at special events.
Croquette: ground meat, fish, fowl, or vegetables bound with eggs or sauce, shaped into various forms, usually coated in bread crumbs, and deep fried.
Crosne: small, unusual tuber with a subtle artichoke-like flavor known as a Chinese or Japanese artichoke.
Crottin de Chavignol: small flattened ball of goat’s-milk cheese from the Loire valley.
Croustade: usually small pastry-wrapped dish also regional southwestern pastry filled with prunes and/or apples.
Croûte (en): crust (in) pastry.
Croûte de sel (en): (in) a salt crust.
Croûtons: small cubes of toasted or fried bread.
Cru: raw.
Crudité: raw vegetable.
Crustacé(s): crustacean(s).
Cuillière (à la): (to be eaten with a) spoon.
Cuisse (de poulet): leg or thigh (chicken drumstick).
Cuissot, cuisseau: haunch of veal, venison, or wild boar.
Cuit(e): cooked.
Cul: haunch or rear usually of red meat.
Culotte: rump, usually of beef.
Cultivateur: “truck farmer” fresh vegetable soup.
Curcuma: turmeric.
Cure-dent: toothpick.

Damier: “checkerboard” arrangement of vegetables or other ingredients in alternating colors like a checkerboard also, a cake with such a pattern of light and dark pieces.
Darne: a rectangular portion of fish filet also a fish steak, usually of salmon.
Dariole: truncated cone or oval-shaped baking mold.
Dartois: puff pastry rectangles layered with an almond cream filling as a dessert, or stuffed with meat or fish as an hors-d’oeuvre.
Datte (de mer): date (date-shaped prized wild Mediterranean mussel).
Daube: a stew, usually of beef lamb, or mutton, with red wine, onions, and/or tomatoes specialty of many regions, particularly Provençe and the Atlantic coast.
Dauphin: cow’s-milk cheese shaped like a dauphin, or dolphin from the North.
Daurade: sea bream, similar to porgy, the most prized of a group of ocean fish known as dorade.
Décaféiné or déca: decaffeinated coffee.
Décortiqué(e): shelled or peeled.
Dégustation: tasting or sampling.
Déjeuner: lunch.
Demi: half also, an 8-ounce (250 ml) glass of beer also, a half-bottle of wine.
Demi-deuil: “in half mourning” poached (usually chicken) with sliced truffles inserted under the skin also, sweetbreads with a truffled white sauce.
Demi-glace: concentrated beef-based sauce lightened with consommé, or a lighter brown sauce.
Demi-sec: usually refers to goat cheese that is in the intermediate aging stage between one extreme of soft and fresh and the other extreme of hard and aged.
Demi-sel (beurre): lightly salted (butter).
Demi-tasse: small cup after-dinner coffee cup.
Demoiselle de canard: marinated raw duck tenderloin also called mignon de canard.
Demoiselles de Cherbourg: small lobsters from the town of Cherbourg in Normandy, cooked in a court-bouillon and served in cooking juices. Also, restaurant name for Breton lobsters weighing 300 to 400 grams (10 to 13 ounces).
Dentelle: “lace” a portion of meat or fish so thinly sliced as to suggest a resemblance. Also, large lace-thin sweet crêpe.
Dent, denté: one of a generic group of Mediterranean fish known as dorade, similar to porgy.
Dents-de-lion: dandelion salad green also called pissenlit.
Dés: diced pieces.
Désossé: boned.
Diable: “devil” method of preparing poultry with a peppery sauce, often mustard-based. Also, a round pottery casserole.
Dieppoise: Dieppe style usually white wine, mussels, shrimp, mushrooms, and cream.
Digestif: general term for spirits served after dinner such as Armagnac, Cognac, marc, eau-de-vie.
Dijonnaise: Dijon style usually with mustard.
Dinde: turkey hen.
Dindon(neau): turkey (young turkey).
Dîner: dinner to dine.
Diot: pork sausage cooked in wine, often served with a potato gratin specialty of the Savoie.
Discrétion, à: on menus usually refers to wine, which may be consumed--without limit--at the customer’s discretion.
Dodine: cold stuffed boned poultry.
Dorade: generic name for group of ocean fish, the most prized of which is daurade, similar to porgy.
Doré: browned until golden.
Dos: back also the meatiest portion of fish.
Doucette: see Mâche.
Douceur: sweet or dessert.
Douillon, duillon: a whole pear wrapped and cooked in pastry specialty of Normandy.
Doux, douce: sweet.
Doyenné de Comice: a variety of pear.
Dugléré: white flour-based sauce with shallots, white wine, tomatoes, and parsley.
Dur (oeuf): hard (hard-cooked egg).
Duxelles: minced mushrooms and shallots sautéed in butter, then mixed with cream.

Eau du robinet: tap water.
Eau de source: spring water.
Eau-de-vie: literally, “water of life” brandy, usually fruit-based.
Eau gazeuse: carbonated water.
Eau minérale: mineral water.
Echalote (gris): shallot (prized purplish shallot), elongated.
Echalote banane: banana-shaped onion.
Echine: pork shoulder, encompassing the blade bone and spare ribs.
Echourgnac: delicately flavored, ochre-skinned cheese made of cow’s milk by the monks at the Echourgnac monastery in the Dordogne.
Eclade de moules: mussels roasted beneath a fire of pine needles specialty of the Atlantic coast.
Ecrasé: crushed with fruit, pressed to release juice.
Ecrevisse: freshwater crayfish.
Effiloché: frayed, shredded.
Eglantine: wild rose jam specialty of Alsace.
Eglefin, égrefin, aiglefin: small fresh haddock, a type of cod.
Elzekaria: soup made with green beans, cabbage, and garlic specialty of the Basque region.
Embeurré de chou: buttery cooked cabbage.
Emincé: thin slice, usually of meat.
Emmental: large wheel of cooked and pressed cow’s-milk cheese, very mild in flavor, with large interior holes made in large commercial dairies in the Jura.
Emondé: skinned by blanching, such as almonds, tomatoes.
En sus: see Service en sus.
Enchaud: pork filet with garlic specialty of Dordogne.
Encornet: small illex squid, also called calmar in Basque region called chipiron.
Encre: squid ink.
Endive: Belgian endive also chicory salad green.
Entier, entière: whole, entire.
Entrecôte: beef rib steak.
Entrecôte maître d’hôtel: beef rib steak with sauce of red wine and shallots.
Entrée: first course.
Entremets: dessert.
Epais(se): thick.
Epaule: shoulder (of veal, lamb, mutton, or pork).
Épeautre: poor man’s wheat from Provence spelt.
Eperlan: smelt or whitebait, usually fried, often imported but still found in the estuaries of the Loire.
Epi de maïs: ear of sweet corn.
Epice: spice.
Epigramme: classic dish of grilled breaded lamb chop and a piece of braised lamb breast shaped like a chop, breaded, and grilled crops up on modern menus as an elegant dish of breaded and fried baby lamb chops paired with lamb sweetbreads and tongue.
Epinard: spinach.
Epine vinette: highbush cranberry.
Époisses: village in Burgundy that gives its name to a buttery disc of cow’s milk cheese with a strong, smooth taste and rust-colored rind.
Époisses blanc: fresh white Époisses cheese.
Equille: sand eel, a long silvery fish that buries itself in the sand eaten fried on the Atlantic coast.
Escabèche: a Provençal and southwestern preparation of small fish, usually sardines or rouget, in which the fish are browned in oil, then marinated in vinegar and herbs and served very cold. Also, raw fish marinated in lemon or lime juice and herbs.
Escalivada: Catalan roasted vegetables, usually sweet peppers, eggplant, and onions.
Escalope: thin slice of meat or fish.
Escargot: land snail.
Escargot de Bourgogne: land snail prepared with butter garlic, and parsley.
Escargot petit-gris: small land snail.
Escarole: bitter salad green of the chicory family with thick broad-lobed leaves, found in both flat and round heads.
Espadon: swordfish found in the gulf of Gascony, Atlantic, and Mediterranean.
Espagnole, à l’: Spanish style with tomatoes, peppers, onions, and garlic.
Esqueixada: in Catalan literally means “shredded” a shredded salt cod salad.
Estival: summer, used to denote seasonality of ingredients.
Estoficado: a purée-like blend of dried codfish, olive oil, tomatoes, sweet peppers, black olives, potatoes, garlic, onions, and herbs also called stockfish niçoise: specialty of Nice.
Estofinado: a purée-like blend of dried codfish, potatoes, garlic, parsley, eggs, walnut oil, and milk, served with triangles of toast specialty of the Auvergne.
Estouffade à la provençale: beef stew with onions, garlic, carrots, and orange zest.
Estragon: tarragon.
Etoffé: stuffed.
Etoile: star star-shaped.
Etouffé étuvé: literally “smothered” method of cooking very slowly in a tightly covered pan with almost no liquid.
Etrille: small swimming crab.
Express: espresso coffee.

Façon (à ma): (my) way of preparing a dish.
Fagot: “bundle” meat shaped into a small ball.
Faisan(e): pheasant.
Faisandé: game that has been hung to age.
Fait: usually refers to a cheese that has been well aged and has character---runny if it’s a Camembert, hard and dry if it’s a goat cheese also means ready to eat.
Fait, pas trop: refers to a cheese that has been aged for a shorter time and is blander also for a cheese that will ripen at home.
Falette: veal breast stuffed with bacon and vegetables, browned, and poached in broth specialty of the Auvergne.
Fanes: green tops of root vegetables such as carrots, radishes, turnips.
Far: Breton sweet or savory pudding-cakes the most common, similar to clafoutis from the Dordogne, is made with prunes.
Farci(e): stuffed.
Farigoule(tte): Provençal name for wild thyme.
Farine: flour.
complète: whole wheat flour.
d’avoine: oat flour.
de blé: wheat flour white flour.
de maïs: corn flour.
de sarrasin: buckwheat flour.
de seigle: rye flour.
de son: bran flour.
Faux-filet: sirloin steak.
Favorite d’artichaut: classic vegetable dish of artichoke stuffed with asparagus, covered with a cheese sauce, and browned.
Favou(ille): in Provence, tiny male (female) crab often used in soups.
Fenouil: fennel.
Fer à cheval: “horseshoe” a baguette that has that shape.
Féra, feret: salmon-like lake fish, found in Lac Léman, in the Morvan, in Burgundy, and in the Auvergne.
Ferme (fermier: fermière): farm (farmer) in cheese, refers to farm-made cheese, often used to mean raw-milk cheese in chickens, refers to free-range chickens.
Fermé: closed.
Fernkase: young cheese shaped like a flying saucer and sprinkled with coarsely ground pepper specialty of Alsace.
Feu de bois, au: cooked over a wood fire.
Feuille de chêne: oak-leaf lettuce.
Feuille de vigne: vine leaf.
Feuilletage (en): (in) puff pastry.
Feuilletée: puff pastry.
Féves (févettes): broad, fava, coffee, or cocoa beans (miniature beans) also, the porcelain figure baked into the Twelfth Night cake, or, galette des rois.
Fiadone: Corsican flan made from cheese and oranges.
Ficelle (boeuf à la): “string” (beef suspended on a string and poached in broth). Also, small thin baguette. Also, a small bottle of wine, as in carafe of Beaujolais.
Ficelle picarde: thin crêpe wrapped around a slice of ham and topped with a cheesy cream sauce specialty of Picardy, in the North.
Figue: fig.
Financier: small rectangular almond cake.
Financière: Madiera sauce with truffle juice.
Fine de claire: elongated crinkle-shelled oyster that stays in fattening beds (claires) a minimum of two months.
Fines herbes: mixture of herbs, usually chervil, parsley, chives, tarragon.
Flageolet: small white or pale green kidney-shaped dried bean.
Flamande, à la: Flemish style usually with stuffed cabbage leaves, carrots, turnips, potatoes, and bacon.
Flamber: to burn off the alcohol by igniting. Usually the brandies or other liqueurs to be flambéed are warmed first, then lit as they are poured into the dish.
Flamiche (au Maroilles): a vegetable tart with rich bread dough crust, commonly filled with leeks, cream, and cheese specialty of Picardy, in the North (filled with cream, egg, butter, and Maroilles cheese).
Flammekueche: thin-crusted savory tart, much like a rectangular pizza, covered with cream, onions, and bacon also called tarte flambée specialty of Alsace.
Flan: sweet or savory tart. Also, a crustless custard pie.
Flanchet: flank of beef or veal, used generally in stews.
Flagnarde, flaugnarde, flognarde: hot, fruit-filled batter cake made with eggs, flour, milk, and butter, and sprinkled with sugar before serving specialty of the southwest.
Flétan: halibut, found in the English Channel and North Sea.
Fleur (de sel): flower (fine, delicate sea salt, from Brittany or the Camargue).
Fleur de courgette: zucchini blossom.
Fleuron: puff pastry crescent.
Florentine: with spinach. Also, a cookie of nougatine and candied fruit brushed with a layer of chocolate.
Flûte: “flute” usually a very thin baguette also, form of champagne glass.
Foie: liver.
Foie blond de volaille: chicken liver also sometimes a chicken-liver mousse.
Foie de veau: calf’s liver.
Foie gras d’oie (de canard): liver of fattened goose (duck).
Foin (dans le): (cooked in) hay.
Fond: cooking juices from meat, used to make sauces. Also, bottom.
Fond d’artichaut: heart and base of an artichoke.
Fondant: “melting” refers to cooked, worked sugar that is flavored, then used for icing cakes. Also, the bittersweet chocolate high in cocoa butter used for making the shiniest chocolates. Also, puréed meat, fish, or vegetables shaped in croquettes.
Fondu(e): melted.
Fontainebleau: creamy white fresh dessert cheese from the Ile-de-France.
Forestière: garnish of wild mushrooms, bacon, and potatoes.
Fouace: a kind of brioche specialty of the Auvergne.
Foudjou: a pungent goat-cheese spread, a blend of fresh and aged grated cheese mixed with salt, pepper, brandy, and garlic and cured in a crock specialty of northern Provence.
Fougasse: a crusty lattice-like bread made of baguette dough or puff pastry often flavored with anchovies, black olives, herbs, spices, or onions specialty of Provence and the Mediterranean. Also, a sweet bread of Provence flavored with orange-flower water, oil, and sometimes almonds.
Fouchtrou: cow’s milk cheese from the Auvergne, made when there is not enough milk to make an entire wheel of Cantal.
Four (au): (baked in an) oven.
Fourme d’Ambert: cylindrical blue-veined cow’s-milk cheese, made in dairies around the town of Ambert in the Auvergne.
Fourré: stuffed or filled.
Foyot: classic sauce made of béarnaise with meat glaze.
Frais, fraîche: fresh or chilled.
Fraise: strawberry.
Fraise des bois: wild strawberry.
Framboise: raspberry.
Française, à la: classic garnish of peas with lettuce, small white onions, and parsley.
Frangipane: almond custard filling.
Frappé: usually refers to a drink served very cold or with ice, often shaken.
Frémi: “quivering” often refers to barely cooked oysters.
Friandise: sweetmeat, petit four.
Fricadelle: fried minced meat patty.
Fricandeau: thinly sliced veal or a rump roast, braised with vegetables and white wine.
Fricassée: classically, ingredients braised in wine sauce or butter with cream added currently denotes any mixture of ingredients--fish or meat--stewed ot sautéed.
Fricot (de veau): veal shoulder simmered in white wine with vegetables.
Frisé(e): “curly” usually curly endive, the bitter salad green of the chicory family sold in enormous round heads.
Frit(e): fried.
Frites: French fries.
Fritons: coarse pork rillettes or a minced spread which includes organ meats.
Fritot: small organ meat fritter, where meat is partially cooked, then marinated in oil, lemon juice, and herbs, dipped in batter and fried just before serving also can refer to any small fried piece of meat or fish.
Friture: fried food also a preparation of small fried fish, usually white-bait or smelt.
Froid(e): cold.
Fromage: cheese.
blanc: a smooth low-fat cheese similar to cottage cheese.
d’alpage: cheese made in mountain pastures during the prime summer milking period.
fort: pungent cheese.
frais: smooth, runny fresh cheese, like cottage cheese.
frais, bien égouté: well-drained fresh cheese.
maigre: low-fat cheese.
Fromage de tête: headcheese, usually pork.
Fruit confit: whole fruit preserved in sugar.
Fruits de mer: seafood.
Fumé: smoked.
Fumet: fish stock.

Galantine: classical preparation of boned meat or whole poultry that is stuffed or rolled, cooked, then glazed with gelatin and served cold.
Galette: round flat pastry, pancake, or cake can also refer to pancake-like savory preparations in Brittany usually a savory buckwheat crêpe, known as blé noir.
Galette bressane, galette de Pérouges: cream and sugar tart from the Bresse area of the Rhône-Alpes.
Galette des rois: puff pastry filled with almond pastry cream, traditional Twelfth Night celebration cake.
Galinette: tub gurnard, Mediterranean fish of the mullet family.
Gambas: large prawn.
Ganache: classically a rich mixture of chocolate and crème fraîche used as a filling for cakes and chocolate truffles currently may also include such flavorings as wild strawberries and cinnamon.
Garbure: a hearty stew that includes cabbage, beans, and salted or preserved duck, goose, turkey or pork specialty of the southwest.
Gardiane: stew of beef or bull (toro) meat, with bacon, onions, garlic, and black olives served with rice specialty of the Camargue, in Provence.
Gargouillau: pear cake or tart specialty of northern Auvergne.
Garni(e): garnished.
Garniture: garnish.
Gasconnade: roast leg of lamb with garlic and anchovies specialty of the southwest.
Gaspacho: a cold soup, usually containing tomatoes, cucumber, onions, and sweet peppers originally of Spanish origin.
Gâteau: cake.
basque: a chewy sweet cake filled with pastry cream or, historically, with black cherry jam also called pastiza specialty of the Basque region.
breton: a rich round pound cake specialty of Brittany.
Opéra: classic almond sponge cake layered with coffee and chocolate butter cream and covered with a sheet of chocolate seen in every pastry shop window.
Saint-Honoré: classic cake of choux puffs dipped in caramel and set atop a cream-filled choux crown on a pastry base.
Gaude: thick corn-flour porridge served hot, or cold and sliced, with cream.
Gaufre: waffle.
Gave: southwestern term for mountain stream indicates fish from the streams of the area.
Gayette: small sausage patty made with pork liver and bacon, wrapped in caul fat and bacon.
Gelée: aspic.
Gendarme: salted and smoked herring.
Genièvere: juniper berry.
Génoise: sponge cake.
Gentiane: gentian a liqueur made from this mountain flower.
Germiny: garnish of sorrel. Also, sorrel and cream soup.
Germon: albacore or long-fin tuna.
Gésier: gizzard.
Gibassier: round sweet bread from Provence, often flavored with lemon or orange zest, orange-flower water, and/or almonds. Also sometimes called fougasse or pompe à l’huile.
Gibelotte: fricassée of rabbit in red or white wine.
Gibier: game, sometimes designated as gibier à plume (feathered) or gibier à poil (furry).
Gigot (de pré salé): usually a leg of lamb (lamb grazed on the salt meadows along the Atlantic and Normandy coasts).
Gigot de mer: a preparation, usually of large pieces of monkfish (lotte) oven-roasted like a leg of lamb.
Gigue (de): haunch (of) certain game meats.
Gillardeau: prized oyster raised in Normandy and finished in claires, or fattening beds on the Atlantic coast.
Gingembre: ginger.
Girofle: clove.
Girolle: prized pale orange wild mushroom also called chanterelle.
Givré orange givré: frosted orange sherbet served in its skin.
Glace: ice cream.
Glacé: iced, crystallized, or glazed.
Gnocchi: dumplings made of choux paste, potatoes, or semolina.
Goret: young pig.
Gougère: cheese-flavored choux pastry.
Goujon: small catfish generic name for a number of small fish. Also, preparation in which the central part of a larger fish is coated with bread crumbs, then deep fried.
Goujonnette: generally used to describe a small piece of fish, such as sole, usually fried.
Gourmandise(s): weakness for sweet things (sweetmeats or candies).
Gousse d’ail: clove of garlic.
Gousse de vanille: vanilla bean.
Goût: taste.
Goûter (le): to taste, to try (children’s afternoon snack).
Graine de moutarde: mustard seed.
Graine de lin: Flax seed
Graisse: fat.
Graisserons: crisply fried pieces of duck or goose skin cracklings.
Grand crème: large or double espresso with milk.
Grand cru: top-ranking wine.
Grand veneur: “chief huntsman” usually a brown sauce for game, with red currant jelly.
Granité: a type of sherbet a sweetened, flavored ice.
Grappe (de raisins): cluster bunch (of grapes).
Gras (marché au): fatty (market of fattened poultry and their livers).
Gras-double: tripe baked with onions and white wine.
Gratin: crust formed on top of a dish when browned in broiler or oven also the dish in which such food is cooked.
Gratin dauphinois: baked casserole of sliced potatoes, usually with cream, milk, and sometimes cheese and/or eggs.
Gratin savoyard: baked casserole of sliced potatoes, usually with bouillon, cheese, and butter.
Gratiné(e): having a crusty, browned top.
Gratinée lyonnaise: bouillon flavored with port, garnished with beaten egg, topped with cheese, and browned under a broiler.
Grattons, grattelons: crisply fried pieces of pork, goose, or duck skin cracklings.
Gratuit: free.
Grecque, à la: cooked in seasoned mixture of oil, lemon juice, and water refers to cold vegetables, usually mushrooms.
Grelette, sauce: cold sauce with a base of whipped cream.
Grelot: small white bulb onion.
Grenade: pomegranate.
Grenaille: refers to small, bite-size new potato of any variety.
Grenadin: small veal scallop.
Grenouille (cuisse de): frog (leg).
Gressini: breadsticks, seen along the Côte-d’Azur.
Gribiche, sauce: mayonnaise with capers, cornichons, hard-cooked eggs, and herbs.
Grillade: grilled meat.
Grillé(e): grilled.
Griotte: shiny slightly acidic, reddish black cherry.
Grisotte: parasol mushroom with a delicate flavor also called champignon à la bague. cocherelle. and coulemelle.
Grive: thrush.
Grondin: red gurnard, a bony ocean fish, a member of the mullet family, used in fish stews such as bouillabaisse.
Groin d’âne: “donkey’s snout” Lyonnais name for a bitter winter salad green similar to dandelion greens.
Gros sel: coarse salt.
Groseille: red currant.
Gruyère: strictly speaking, cheese from the Gruyère area of Switzerland in France, generic name for a number of hard, mild, cooked cheeses from the Jura, including Comté, Beaufort, and Emmental.
Gyromite: group of wild mushrooms, or gyromitra, known as false morels.

Hachis: minced or chopped meat or fish preparation.
Haddock: small fresh cod that have been salted and smoked.
Hareng: herring, found in the Atlantic, the English Channel (the best between Dunkerque and Fécamp), and the mouth of the Gironde river.
Hareng à l’huile: herring cured in oil, usually served with a salad of warm sliced potatoes.
Hareng baltique, bismark: marinated herring.
Hareng bouffi: herring that is salted, then smoked.
Hareng pec: freshly salted young herring.
Hareng roll-mop: marinated herring rolled around a small pickle.
Hareng saur: smoked herring.
Haricot: bean.
beurre: yellow bean.
blancs (à la Bretonne): white beans, usually dried (white beans in a sauce of onions, tomatoes, garlic, and herbs).
de mouton: stew of mutton and white beans (also called halicots).
gris: green string bean mottled with purplish black also called pélandron: a specialty of the Côte-d’Azur.
rouge: red kidney bean also, preparation of red beans in red wine.
sec: dried bean.
vert: green bean, usually fresh.
Hâtelet, attelet: decorative skewer currently used to mean meat or fish cooked on a skewer.
Herbes de Provence: mixture of thyme, rosemary, summer savory, and bay leaf, often dried and blended.
Hirondelle: swallow.
Hochepot: a thick stew, usually of oxtail specialty of Flanders, in the north.
Hollandaise: sauce of butter, egg yolks, and lemon juice.
Homard (à l’Amoricaine, à l’Américaine): lobster (a classic dish of many variations, in which lobster is cut into sections and browned, then simmered with shallots, minced onions, tomatoes, Cognac, and white wine served with a sauce of the reduced cooking liquid, enriched with butter).
Hongroise, à la: Hungarian style usually with paprika and cream.
Hors-d’oeuvre: appetizer can also refer to a first course.
Hortillon: picturesque market garden plot built between crisscrossed canals on the outskirts of Amiens, a city in the north.
Huile: oil.
d’arachide: peanut oil.
de colza: rapeseed oil.
de maïs: corn oil.
de noisette: hazelnut oil.
de noix: walnut oil.
de pépins de raisins: grapeseed oil.
de sésame: sesame oil.
de tournesol: sunflower oil.
d’olive (extra vierge): olive oil (extra virgin, or the first cold pressing).
Huître: oyster.
Hure de porc or de marcassin: head of pig or boar: usually refers to headcheese preparation.
Hure de saumon: a salmon “headcheese,” or pâté, prepared with salmon meat, not actually the head.
Hysope: hyssop fragrant, mint-like thistle found in Provence, used in salads and in cooking.

Ile flottante: “floating island” most commonly used interchangeably with oeufs à la neige, poached meringue floating in crème anglaise classically, a layered cake covered with whipped cream and served with custard sauce.
Impératrice, à l’: usually a rice pudding dessert with candied fruit.
Impériale: variety of plum. Also, a large bottle for wine, holding about 4 quarts (4 liters).
Impériale, à l’: classic haute cuisine garnish of mussels, cockscombs, crayfish, and other extravagant ingredients.
Indienne, à l’: East Indian style, usually with curry powder.
Infusion: herb tea.
Isman bayaldi, imam bayaldi: “the priest fainted” in Turkish a dish of eggplant stuffed with sautéed onions, tomatoes, and spices served cold.

Jalousie: “venetian blind” classic small, latticed, flaky pastry filled with almond paste and spread with jam.
Jambon: ham also refers to the leg, usually of pork, but also of poultry.
à l’os: ham with the bone in.
blanc: lightly salted, un-smoked or very lightly smoked ham, served cooked sold, cold, in charcuteries as jambon de Paris, glacé, or demi-sel.
cru: salted or smoked ham that has been cured but not cooked.
cuit: cooked ham.
d’Auvergne: raw, dry, salt-cured smoked ham.
de Bayonne: raw, dry salt-cured ham, very pale in color.
de Bourgogne: see jambon persillé.
de montagne: any mountain ham, cured according to local custom.
de Paris: pale, lightly salted, cooked ham.
de Parme: Italian prosciutto from Parma, air-dried and salt-cured ham, sliced thin and served raw.
de pays: any country ham, cured according to local custom.
de poulet: boned stuffed chicken leg.
de Westphalie: German Westphalian ham, raw, cured, and smoked.
de York: smoked English-style ham, usually poached.
d’oie (or de canard): breast of fattened goose (or duck), smoked, salted, or sugar cured, somewhat resembling ham in flavor.
fumé: smoked ham.
persillé: cold cooked ham, cubed and preserved in parsleyed gelatin, usually sliced from a terrine a specialty of Burgundy.
salé: salt-cured ham.
sec: dried ham.
Jambonneau: cured ham shank or pork knuckle.
Jambonnette: boned and stuffed knuckle of ham or poultry.
Jardinière: refers to a garnish of fresh cooked vegetables.
Jarret (de veau, de porc, de boeuf): knuckle (of veal or pork), shin (of beef).
Jerez: refers to sherry.
Jésus de Morteau: plump smoked pork sausage that takes its name from the town of Morteau in the Jura distinctive because a wooden peg is tied in the sausage casing on one end traditionally, the sausage eaten at Christmas, hence its name also called saucisson de Morteau.
Jeune: young.
Jonchée: rush basket in which certain fresh sheep’s- or goat’s-milk cheeses of Poitou (along the Atlantic coast) are contained thus, by extension, the cheese itself.
Joue: cheek.
Julienne: cut into slivers, usually vegetables or meat.
Jurançon: district in the Béarn, the area around Pau in southwestern France, known for its sweet and spicy white wine.
Jus: juice.

Kataifi (also kataif): thin strands of vermicelli-like dough, used in Green and Middle Eastern pastries and in some modern French preparations.
Kaki: persimmon.
Kari: variant spelling of cary.
Kiev: deep-fried breast of chicken stuffed with herb and garlic butter.
Kir: an aperitif made with crème de cassis (black currant liqueur) and most commonly dry white wine, but sometimes red wine.
Kir royal: a Kir made with Champagne.
Kirsch: eau-de-vie of wild black cherries.
Knepfla: Alsatian dumpling, sometimes fried.
Kougelhoph, hougelhof, kouglof, kugelhoph: sweet crown-shaped yeast cake, with almonds and rai-sins specialty of Alsace.
Kouigh-amann: sweet, buttery pastry from Brittany.
Kummel: caraway seed liqueur.

Lactaire: the edible lactaire pallidus mushroom, also called sanguine. Apricot-colored, with red, blood colored juices when raw.
Laguiole: Cantal cheese from the area around the village of Laguiole, in southern Auvergne, still made in rustic huts.
Lait: milk.
demi-écremé: semi-skimmed milk.
écremé: skimmed milk.
entier: whole milk.
ribot: from Brittany, buttermilk, served with crêpes.
stérilizé: milk heated to a higher temperature than pasteurized milk, so that it stays fresh for several weeks.
Laitance: soft roe (often of herring), or eggs.
Laitier: made of or with milk also denotes a commercially made product as opposed to fermier, meaning farm made.
Lait ribot: fermented milk from Brittany, similar to cultured buttermilk.
Laitue: lettuce.
Lamelle: very thin strip.
Lamproie (à la bordelaise): lamprey eel, ocean fish that swim into rivers along the Atlantic in springtime (hearty stew of lamprey eel and leeks in red wine).
Lançon: tiny fish, served fried.
Landaise, à la: from the Landes in southwestern France classically a garnish of garlic, pine nuts, and goose fat.
Langouste: clawless spiny lobster or rock lobster sometimes called crawfish, and mistakenly crayfish.
Langoustine: clawed crustacean, smaller than either homard or langouste, with very delicate meat. Known in British waters as Dublin Bay prawn.
Langres: supple, tangy cylindrical cow’s-milk cheese with a rust-colored rind named for village in Champagne.
Langue (de chat): tongue (“cat’s tongue” thin, narrow, delicate cookie often served with sherbet or ice).
Languedocienne: garnish, usually of tomatoes, eggplant, and wild cèpe mushrooms.
Lapereau: young rabbit.
Lapin: rabbit.
Lapin de garenne: wild rabbit.
Lard: bacon.
Larder: to thread meat, fish, or liver with strips of fat for added moisture.
Lardon: cube of bacon.
Larme: “teardrop” a very small portion of liquid.
Laurier: bay laurel or bay leaf.
Lavaret: lake fish of the Savoie, similar to salmon.
Léger (légère): light.
Légume: vegetable.
Lentilles (de Puy): lentils (prized green lentils from the village of Puy in the Auvergne).
Lieu jaune: green pollack, in the cod family a pleasant, inexpensive small yellow fish often sold under name colin found in the Atlantic.
Lieu noir: pollack, also called black cod in the cod family a pleasant, inexpensive fish found in the English Channel and the Atlantic.
Lièvre (à la royale): hare (cooked with red wine, shallots, onions, and cinnamon, then rolled and stuffed with foie gras and truffles).
Limaces à la suçarelle: snails cooked with onions, garlic, tomatoes, and sausage specialty of Pro-vence.
Limaçon: land snail.
Limande: lemon sole, also called dab or sand dab, not as firm or prized as sole, found in the English Channel, the Atlantic, and, rarely, in the Mediterranean.
Lingot: type of kidney-shaped dry white bean.
Lisette: small maquereau, or mackerel.
Livarot: village in Normandy that gives its name to an elastic and pungent thick disc of cow’s-milk cheese with reddish golden stripes around the edge.
Lotte: monkfish or angler fish, a large firm-fleshed ocean fish.
Lotte de rivière (or de lac): fine-fleshed river (or lake) fish, prized for its large and flavorful liver. Not related to the ocean fish lotte, or monkfish.
Lou magret: breast of fattened duck.
Loup de mer: wolf fish or ocean catfish name for sea bass in the Mediterranean.
Louvine: Basque name for striped bass, fished in the Bay of Gascony.
Lucullus: a classic, elaborate garnish of truffles cooked in Madeira and stuffed with chicken forcemeat.
Lumas: name for land snail in the Poitou-Charentes region along the Atlantic coast.
Luzienne, à la: prepared in the manner popular in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, a Basque fishing port.
Lyonnaise, à la: in the style of Lyon often garnished with onions.

Macaron: macaroon, small cookie of almonds, egg whites, and sugar.
Macaronade: a rich blend of wild and domestic mushrooms and chunks of foie gras, smothered in fresh pasta specialty of the southwest. Also, macaroni with mushrooms, bacon, white wine, and Parmesan cheese an accompaniment to a beef stew, or daube specialty of Provence.
Macédoine: diced mixed fruit or vegetables.
Mâche: dark small-leafed salad green known as lamb’s lettuce or corn salad. Also called doucette.
Mâchon: early morning snack of sausage, wine, cheese, and bread also, the café that offers the snack particular to Lyon.
Macis: mace, the spice.
Madeleine (de Commercy): small scalloped-shaped tea cake made famous by Marcel Proust (the town in the Lorraine where the tea cakes are commercialized).
Madère: Madeira.
Madrilène, à la: in the style of Madrid with tomatoes. Classically a garnish of peeled chopped tomatoes for consommé.
Magret de canard (or d’oie): breast of fattened duck (or goose).
Maigre: thin, non-fatty giant seabass from Mediterranean and Atlantic.
Maïs: corn.
Maison, de la: of the house, or restaurant.
Maître d’hôtel: headwaiter. Also, sauce of butter, parsley and lemon.
Maltaise: orange-flavored hollandaise sauce.
Malvoisie, vinaigre de: vinegar made from the malvasia grape, used for the sweet, heavy Malmsey wine.
Mandarine: tangerine.
Mange-tout: “eat it all” a podless green runner bean a sweet pea a snow pea. Also, a variety of apple.
Mangue: mango.
Manière, de: in the style of.
Maquereau: mackerel lisette is a small mackerel.
Mara de Bois: small fragrant strawberry, like a cross between a domestic and wild strawberry.
Maraîchèr(e) (à la): market gardener or truck farmer (market-garden style usually refers to a dish or salad that includes various greens).
Marbré: striped sea bream, Mediterranean fish that is excellent grilled.
Marc: eau-de-vie distilled from pressed grape skins and seeds or other fruits.
Marcassin: young boar. At one year, a wild boar will weight 40 kg, a domesticated boar 120 kg.
Marchand de vin: wine merchant. Also, sauce made with red wine, meat stock, and chopped shallots.
Marée la: literally “the tide” usually used to indicate seafood that is fresh.
Marennes: flat-shelled green-tinged plate oyster. Also the French coastal village where flat-shelled oysters are raised.
Marinade: seasoned liquid in which food, usually meat, is soaked for several hours. The liquid seasons and tenderizes at the same time.
Mariné: marinated.
Marjolaine: marjoram. Also, multilayered chocolate and nut cake.
Marmelade: traditionally a thick purée of fruit, or sweet stewed fruit today purée of vegetable, or stewed vegetables.
Marmite: small covered pot also a dish cooked in a small casserole.
Maroilles: village in the north that gives its name to a strong-tasting, thick, square cow’s-milk cheese with a pale brick-red rind.
Marquise (au chocolat): mousse-like (chocolate) cake.
Marron (glacé): large (candied) chestnut.
Matelote (d’anguilles): freshwater fish (or eel) stew.
Matignon: a garnish of mixed stewed vegetables.
Mauviette: wild meadow lark or skylark.
Médaillon: round piece or slice, usually of fish or meat.
Mélange: mixture or blend.
Méli-mélo: an assortment of fish and/or seafood.
Melon de Cavaillon: small canteloupe-like melon from Cavaillon, a town in Provence known for its wholesale produce market.
Ménagère, à la: “in the style of the housewife” usually a simple preparation including onions, pota-toes, and carrots.
Mendiant, fruits du: traditional mixture of figs, almonds, hazelnuts, and raisins, whose colors suggest the robes of the mendicant friars it is named after.
Menthe: mint.
Merguez: small spicy sausage.
Merlan: whiting.
Merle: blackbird.
Merlu: hake, a member of the codfish family often sold improperly in Paris markets as colin found in the English Channel, Atlantic, and Mediterranean.
Mérou: a large grouper, an excellent tropical or near-tropical fish, generally imported from North Africa but sometimes found in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
Merveille: hot sugared doughnut.
Mesclum, mesclun: a mixture of at least seven multi-shaded salad greens from Provence.
Mets: dish or preparation.
Mets selon la saison: seasonal preparation according to the season.
Méture: corn bread from the Basque region.
Meule: “millstone” name for wheel of cheese in the Jura.
Meunière, à la: “in the style of the miller’s wife” refers to a fish that is seasoned, rolled in flour, fried in butter and served with lemon, parsley and hot melted butter.
Meurette: in, or with, a red wine sauce. Also, a Burgundian fish stew.
Mi-cru: half raw.
Mi-cuit: half cooked.
Miche: a large round country-style loaf of bread. Also, Basque name for aniseed cake-like bread.
Mie: interior or crumb of the bread (see Pain de mie).
Miel: honey
Mignardise: see Petit-four.
Mignon de canard: see Demoiselle de canard.
Mignonette: small cubes, usually of beef. Also refers to coarsely ground black ot white pepper.
Mijoté(e) (plat): simmered (dish or preparation).
Mille-feuille: refers to puff pastry with many thin layers usually a cream-filled rectangle of puff pastry, or a Napoleon.
Mimosa: garnish of chopped hard-cooked egg yolks.
Minute (à la): “minute” something quickly grilled or fried in butter with lemon juice and parsley (prepared at the last minute).
Mique: generally a large breaded dumpling, poached and served with stews and meats specialty of the Southwest.
Mirabeau: garnish of anchovies, pitted olives, tarragon, and anchovy butter.
Mirabelle: small sweet yellow plum. Also, colorless fruit brandy or eau-de-vie, made from yellow plums.
Mirepoix: cubes of carrots and onions or mixed vegetables, usually used in braising to boost the flavor of a meat dish.
Miroir: “mirror” a dish that has a smooth glaze currently a fruit mousse cake with a layer of fruit glaze on top.
Miroton (de): slice (of). Also, stew of meats flavored with onions.
Mitonnée: a simmered, soup-like dish.
Mode de, à la: in the style of.
Moëlle: beef bone marrow.
Mogette, mojette, mougette: a kind of dried white bean from the Atlantic coast.
Moka: refers to Coffee coffee-flavored dish.
Mollusque: mollusk.
Mont blanc: rich classic pastry of baked meringue, chestnut purée, and whipped cream.
Montagne, de la: from the mountains.
Montmorency: garnished with cherries historically a village known for its cherries, now a suburb of Paris.
Morbier: supple cow’s-milk cheese from the Jura a thin sprinkling of ashes in the center gives it its distinctive black stripe and light smoky flavor.
Morceau: piece or small portion.
Morille: wild morel mushroom, dark brown and conical.
Mornay: classic cream sauce enriched with egg yolks and cheese.
Morue: salt cod also currently used to mean fresh cod, which is cabillaud.
Morvandelle, jambon à la: in the style of the Morvan (ham in a piquant creamy sauce made with white wine, vinegar, juniper berries, shallots, and cream).
Morvandelle, râpée: grated potato mixed with eggs, cream, and cheese, baked until golden.
Mosaïque: “mosaic” a presentation of mixed ingredients.
Mostèle: forkbeard mostelle small Mediterranean fish of the cod family.
Mouclade: creamy mussel stew from the Poitou-Charentes on the Atlantic Coast, generally flavored with curry or saffron.
Moufflon: wild sheep.
Moule: mussel. Also a mold.
Moule de bouchot: small, highly prized cultivated mussel, raised on stakes driven into the sediment of shallow coastal beds.
Moule de Bouzigues: iodine-strong mussel from the village of Bouzigues, on the Mediterranean coast.
Moule d’Espagne: large, sharp-shelled mussel, often served raw as part of a seafood platter.
Moule de parques: Dutch cultivated mussel, usually raised in fattening beds or diverted ponds.
Moules marinière: mussels cooked in white wine with onions, shallots, butter, and herbs.
Moulin (à poivre): mill (peppermill) also used for oil and flour mills.
Mourone: Basque name for red bell pepper.
Mourtayrol, mourtaïrol: a pot-au-feu of boiled beef, chicken, ham, and vegetables, flavored with saf-fron and served over slices of bread specialty of the Auvergne.
Mousse: light, airy mixture usually containing eggs and cream, either sweet or savory.
Mousseline: refers to ingredients that are usually lightened with whipped cream or egg whites, as in sauces, or with butter, as in brioche mousseline.
Mousseron: tiny, delicate, wild mushroom.
Moutarde (à l’ancienne, en graines): mustard (old-style, coarse-grained).
Mouton: mutton.
Muge: grey mullet.
Mulard: breed of duck common to the southwest, fattened for its delicate liver, for foie gras.
Mulet: the generic group of mullet, found in the English Channel, Atlantic, and Mediterranean.
Munster: village in Alsace that gives its name to a disc of soft, tangy cow’s-milk cheese with a brick red rind and a penetrating aroma the cheese is also sometimes cured with cumin seeds.
Mûre (de ronces): blackberry (bush).
Muscade: nutmeg.
Muscat de Hambourg: variety of popular purple table grape, grown in Provence.
Museau de porc (or de boeuf): vinegared pork (or beef) muzzle.
Myrtille: bilberry (bluish black European blueberry).
Mystère: truncated cone-shaped ice cream dessert. Also, dessert of cooked meringue with ice cream and chocolate cake.

Nage (à la): “swimming” aromatic poaching liquid (served in).
Nantua: sauce of crayfish, butter, cream, and, traditionally truffles also garnish of crayfish.
Nappé: covered, as with a sauce.
Natte: woven loaf of bread.
Nature: refers to simple, unadorned preparations.
Navarin: lamb or mutton stew.
Navarraise, à la: Navarre-style, with sweet peppers, onions, and garlic.
Navet: turnip.
Navette: “little boat” small pastry boats.
Nèfle: medlar also called Japanese loquat tart fruit that resembles an apricot and taste like a mango.
Neufchâtel: white, creamy, delicate (and often heart-shaped) cow’s-milk cheese, named for village in Normandy where it is made.
Newburg: lobster preparation with Madeira, egg yolks, and cream.
Nivernaise, à la: in the style of Nevers with carrots and onions.
Noilly: a vermouth-based sauce.
Noisette: hazelnut also refers to small round piece (such as from a potato), generally the size of a ha-zelnut, lightly browned in butter. Also, center cut of lamb chop. Also, dessert flavored with hazelnuts.
Noix: general term for nut also, walnut. Also, nut-size, typically une noix de beurre, or lump of butter.
Noix de veau: round fillet of veal
Non compris: see Service (non) compris.
Nonat: small river fish in Provence, usually fried. Also known as poutine.
Normande: in the style of Normandy sauce of seafood, cream, and mushrooms. Also refers to fish or meat cooked with apple cider or Calvados or dessert with apples, usually served with cream.
Note: another word for addition, bill or tab.
Nougat: candy of roasted almonds, egg whites, and honey specialty of Montélimar.
Nougat glacé: frozen dessert of whipped cream and candied fruit.
Nouilles: noodles.
Nouveau, nouvelle: new or young.
Nouveauté: a new offering.

Oeuf: egg.
à la coque: soft-cooked egg.
brouillé: scrambled egg.
dur: hard-cooked egg.
en meurette: poached egg in red wine sauce.
mollet: egg simmered in water for 6 minutes.
poché: poached egg.
sauté à la poêle or oeuf sur le plat: fried egg.
Oeufs à la neige: “eggs in the snow” sweetened whipped egg whites poached in milk and served with vanilla custard sauce.
Offert: offered free or given.
Oie: goose.
Oignon: onion.
Oiselle: sorrel.
Olive noire (verte): black olive (green olive).
Olives cassées: fresh green olives cured in a rich fennel-infused brine specialty of Provence.
Olive de Nyons: wrinkled black olive, first olive in France to receive AOC. Also used for oil.
Omble (ombre) chevalier: lake fish, similar to salmon trout, with firm, flaky flesh varying from white to deep red. Found in lakes in the Savoie.
Omelette norvegienne: French version of Baked Alaska a concoction of sponge cake covered with ice cream and a layer of sweetened, stiffly beaten egg whites, then browned quickly in the oven.
Onglet: cut similar to beef flank steak also cut of beef sold as biftek and entrecôte, usually a tough cut, but better than flank steak.
Oreille de porc: cooked pig’s ear served grilled, with a coating of egg and bread crumb.
Oreillette: thin, crisp rectangular dessert fritters, flavored with orange-flower water specialty of Pro-vence.
Orge (perlé): barley (pearl barley).
Orientale, à l’: general name for vaguely Eastern dishes cooked with saffron, tomatoes, and sweet red peppers.
Origan: oregano.
Ortie: nettle.
Oseille: sorrel.
Osso bucco à la niçoise: sautéed veal braised with tomatoes, garlic, onions, and orange zest spe-cialty of the Mediterranean.
Ostréiculteur: oyster grower.
Oursin: sea urchin.
Oursinade: creamy sea urchin soup.
Ouvert: open.

Pageot: a type of sea bream or porgy. The finest is pageot rouge, wonderful grilled. Pageot blanc is drier and needs to be marinated in oil before cooking.
Paillarde (de veau): thick slice (of veal) also, piece of meat pounded flat and sauteéed.
Pailles (pommes): fried potato sticks.
Paillette: cheese straw, usually made with puff pastry and Parmesan cheese.
Pain: bread. Also, loaf of any kind.
aux cinq céréales: five-grain bread.
aux noix (aux noisettes): bread, most often rye or wheat, filled with walnuts (hazelnuts).
aux raisins: bread, most often rye or wheat, filled with raisins.
azyme: unleavened bread, matzoh.
bis: brown bread.
brié: very dense, elongated loaf of unsalted white bread specialty of Normandy.
complet: bread made partially or entirely from whole-wheat flour, with bakers varying proportions according to their personal tastes.
cordon: seldom-found regional country loaf decorated with a strip of dough.
d’Aix: variously shaped sourdough loaves, sometimes like a sunflower, other times a chain-like loaf of four linked rounds.
de campagne: country loaf can vary from a white bread simply dusted with flour to give it a rustic look (and fetch a higher price) to a truly hearty loaf that may be a blend of white, whole wheat, and perhaps rye flour with bran added. Comes in every shape.
Décoré: decorated.
de fantaisie: generally any odd or imaginatively shaped bread. Even baguette de campagne falls into this category.
de Gênes: classic almond sponge cake.
de mie: rectangular white sandwich loaf that is nearly all mie (interior crumb) and very little crust. It is made for durability, its flavor and texture developed for use in sandwiches. Unlike most French breads, it contains milk, sugar, and butter, and may contain chemical preservatives.
d’épices: spice bread, a specialty of Dijon.
de seigle: bread made from 60 to 70 percent rye flour and 30 to 40 percent wheat flour.
de son: legally a dietetic bread that is quality controlled, containing 20 percent bran mixed with white flour.
grillé: toast.
paillé: country loaf from the Basque region.
sans sel: salt-free bread.
viennois: bread shaped like a baguette, with regular horizontal slashes, usually containing white flour, sugar, powdered milk, water, and yeast.
Paleron: shoulder of beef.
Palette: upper shoulder of pork.
Palestine: classically a garnish of Jerusalem artichokes.
Palmier: palm leaf-shaped cookie made of sugared puff pastry.
Palmier, coeur de: heart of palm.
Palombe: wood or wild pigeon, or dove.
Palourde: prized medium-size clam.
Pamplemousse: grapefruit.
Pan bagna: large round bread roll, split, brushed with olive oil, and filled with a variable mixture including anchovies, onions, black olives, green peppers, tomatoes, and celery cafe specialty from Nice.
Panaché: mixed now liberally used menu term to denote any mixture.
Panade: panada, a thick mixture used to bind forcemeats and quenelles, usually flour and butter based, but can also contain fresh or toasted bread crumbs, rice, or potatoes. Also refers to soup of bread, milk, and sometimes cheese.
Panais: parnsip.
Pané(e): breaded.
Panisse: a thick fried pancake of chickpea flour, served as accompaniment to meat specialty of Provence.
Pannequet: rolled crêpe, filled and/or covered with sweet or savory mixture.
Panoufle: Generally discarded belly flap from saddle of lamb, veal, and beef sometimes grilled.
Pantin: small pork pastry.
Papeton: eggplant, fried, puréed, and cooked in a ring mold specialty of Provence.
Papillon: “butterfly” small crinkle-shelled creuse oyster from the Atlantic coast.
Papillote, en: cooked in parchment paper or foil wrapping.
Paquet (en): (in) a package or parcel.
Parfait: a dessert mousse also, mousse-like mixture of chicken, duck, or goose liver.
Parfum: flavor.
Paris-Brest, gâteau: classic, large, crown-shaped choux pastry filled with praline butter cream and topped with chopped almonds.
Parisienne, à la: varied vegetable garnish which generally includes potato balls that have been fried and tossed in a meat glaze.
Parmentier: dish with potatoes.
Passe Crassane: flavorful variety of winter pear.
Passe-Pierre: edible seaweed.
Pastèque: watermelon.
Pastis: anise-flavored alcohol that becomes cloudy when water is added (the most famous brands are Pernod and Ricard). Also, name for tourtière, the flaky prune pastry from the southwest.
Pastiza: see gâteau basque.
Pata Négra (jambon): prized ham from Spain, literally “black feet.”
Patagos: clam.
Pâte: pastry or dough.
brisée: pie pastry
d’amande: almond paste.
sablée: sweeter, richer, and more crumbly pie dough than pâte sucrée, sometimes leavened.
sucrée: sweet pie pastry.
Pâté: minced meat that is molded, spiced, baked, and served hot or cold.
Pâtes (fraîches): pasta (fresh).
Patte blanche: small crayfish no larger than 2 1/2 ounces (75 g).
Patte rouge: large crayfish.
Pauchouse, pochouse: stew of river fish that generally includes tanche (tench), perche (perch), brochet (pike), and anguille (eel) specialty of Burgundy
Paupiette: slice of meat or fish, filled, rolled, then wrapped served warm.
Pavé: “paving stone” usually a thick slice of boned beef or calf’s liver. Also, a kind of pastry.
Pavé d’Auge: thick, ochre colored square of cow’s-milk cheese that comes from the Auge area of Normandy.
Pavot (graine de): poppy (seed).
Paysan(ne) (à la): country style (garnish of carrots, turnips, onions, celery and bacon).
Peau: skin.
Pèbre d’ail: see Poivre d’âne.
Pêche: peach. Also, fishing.
Pêche Alexandra: cold dessert of poached peaches with ice cream and puréed strawberries.
Pêche Melba: poached peach with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce.
Pêcheur: “fisherman” usually refers to fish preparations.
Pélandron: see haricot gris.
Pélardon: small flat, dried, pungent disc of goat’s milk cheese specialty of the Languedoc.
Pèlerine: another name for scallop or coquille Saint-Jacques.
Péptie (au chocolat): nugget (chocolate chip).
Pequillo: small red Spanish pepper, usually stuffed with salt cod purée.
Perce-pierre: samphire, edible seaweed.
Perche: perch.
Perdreau: young partridge.
Perdrix: partridge.
Périgourdine, à la, or Périgueux: sauce, usually with truffles and foie gras, named for the Périgord in southwestern France.
Persil (plat): parsley (flatleaf).
Persillade: blend of chopped parsley and garlic.
Persillé: “parsleyed” describes certain blue-veined cheeses. See also Jambon persillé.
Pet de nonne: “nun’s fart” small, dainty beignets, or fried pastry.
Pétale: “petal” very thin slice.
Petit-beurre: popular tea cookie made with butter.
Petit déjeuner: breakfast.
Petit-four (sucré or salée): tiny cake or pastry (sweet or savory) in elegant restaurants, served with cocktails before dinner or with coffee afterward also called mignardise.
Petit-gris: small land snail.
Petit-pois: small green pea.
Petit salé: salt-cured portions of lean pork belly, often served with lentils.
Petite marmite: earthenware casserole the broth served from it.
Pétoncle: tiny scallop, similar to American bay scallop.
Pibale: tiny eel, also called civelle.
Picholine, pitchouline: a variety of green olive, generally used to prepare olives casseés specialty of Provence.
Picodon (méthode Dieulefit): small disc of goat’s-milk cheese, the best of which (qualified as méthode Dieulefit) is hard, piquant, and pungent from having soaked in brandy and aged a month in earthenware jars specialty of northern Provence.
Pièce: portion, piece.
Piech: poached veal brisket stuffed with vegetables, herbs, and sometimes rice, ham, eggs, or cheese specialty of the Mediterranean.
Pied de cheval: “horse’s foot” giant Atlantic coast oyster.
Pied de mouton: meaty cream-colored wild mushroom. Also, sheep’s foot.
Pieds et paquets: “feet and packages” mutton tripe rolled and cooked with sheep’s feet, white wine, and tomatoes specialty of Provence and the Mediterranean.
Pierre-Qui-Vire: “stone that moves” a supple, tangy, flat disc of cow’s-milk cheese with a reddish rind, made by the Benedictine monks at the Abbaye de la Pierre-Qui Vire in Burgundy.
Pigeon (neau): pigeon or squab (young pigeon or squab).
Pignons: pine nuts, found in the cones of pine trees growing in Provence and along the southwestern Atlantic coast.
Pilau, pilaf: rice sautéed with onion and simmered in broth.
Pilchard: name for sardines on the Atlantic coast.
Piment: red pepper or pimento.
Piment (or poivre) de Jamaïque: allspice.
Piment d’Espelette: slender, mildly hot chile pepper from Espelette, a village in the Basque region.
Piment doux: sweet pepper.
Pimenté: hot, peppery, spicy.
Pimpernelle: salad burnet, a salad green with a somewhat bitter taste.
Pince: claw. Also, tongs used when eating snails or seafood.
Pineau des Charentes: sweet fortified wine from the Cognac region on the Atlantic coast, served as an aperitif.
Pintade(au): (young) guinea fowl.
Pipérade: a dish of pepper onions, tomatoes, and often ham and scrambled eggs specialty of the Basque region.
Piquant(e): sharp or spicy tasting.
Piqué: larded studded.
Piquenchagne, picanchagne: a pear tart with walnut or brioche crust specialty of the Bourbonnais, a province in Auvergne.
Pissaladière: a flat open-face tart like a pizza, garnished with onions, olives, and anchovies specialty of Nice.
Pissenlit: dandelion green.
Pistache: pistachio nut.
Pistil de safran: thread of saffron.
Pistou: sauce of basil, garlic, and olive oil specialty of Provence. Also a rich vegetable, bean, and pasta soup flavored with pistou sauce.
Pithiviers: a town in the Loire valley that gives its name to a classic large puff pastry found filled with almond cream. Also, lark pâté.
Plaice: a small, orange-spotted flounder or fluke, a flat ocean fish also known as plie franch or carrelet. Found in the English Channel.
Plat cuisiné: dish containing ingredients that have cooked together, usually in a sauce.
Plat du jour: today’s special.
Plat principal: main dish.
Plate: flat-shelled oyster.
Plateau: platter.
Plateau de fruits de mer: seafood platter combining raw and cooked shell-fish usually includes oys-ters, clams, mussels, langoustines, periwinkles, whelks, crabs, and tiny shrimp.
Plates côtes: part of beef ribs usually used in pot-au feu.
Pleurote: very soft-fleshed, feather-edged wild mushrooms also now being cultivated commercially in several regions of France.
Plie: see Plaice.
Plombière: classic dessert of vanilla ice cream, candied fruit, kirsch, and apricot jam.
Pluche: small sprig of herbs or plants, generally used for garnish.
Poché: poached.
Pochouse: see Pauchouse.
Poêlé: pan-fried.
Pogne: brioche flavored with orange-flower water and filled with fruits specialty of Romans-sur--Isère, in the Rhône-Alpes.
Point(e) (d’asperge): tip (of asparagus).
Point (à): ripe or ready to eat, the perfect moment for eating a cheese or fruit. Also, cooked medium rare.
Poire: pear.
Poire William’s: variety of pear colorless fruit brandy, or eau-de-vie, often made from this variety of pear.
Poireau: leek.
Pois (chiche): pea (chickpea).
Poisson: fish.
d’eau douce: freshwater fish.
de lac: lake fish.
de mer: ocean fish.
de rivière: river fish.
de roche: rock fish.
fumé: smoked fish.
noble: refers to prized, thus expensive, variety of fish.
Poitrine: breast (of meat or poultry).
Poitrine demi-sel: unsmoked slab bacon.
Poitrine d’oie fumée: smoked goose breast.
Poitrine fumée: smoked slab bacon.
Poivrade: a peppery brown sauce made with wine, vinegar, and cooked vegetables and strained before serving.
Poivre: pepper.
d’ain: Provençal name for wild savory. Also, small goat cheese covered with sprigs of savory. Also known as pèbre d’ail and pèbre d’ase.
en grain: peppercorn.
frais de Madagascar: green peppercorn.
gris: black peppercorn.
moulu: ground pepper.
noir: black peppercorn.
rose: pink peppercorn.
vert: green peppercorn.
Poivron (doux): (sweet bell) pepper.
Pojarski: finely chopped meat or fish shaped like a cutlet and fried.
Polenta: cooked dish of cornmeal and water, usually with added butter and cheese also, cornmeal.
Pommade (beurre en): usually refers to a thick, smooth paste (creamed butter).
Pomme: apple.
Pommes de terre: potatoes.
à l’anglaise: boiled.
allumettes: “match-sticks” fries cut into very thin julienne.
boulangère: potatoes cooked with the meat they accompany. Also, a gratin of sliced potatoes, baked with milk or stock and sometimes flavored with onions, bacon, and tomatoes.
darphin: grated potatoes shaped into a cake.
dauphine: mashed potatoes mixed with choux pastry, shaped into small balls and fried.
dauphinoise: a gratin of sliced potatoes, baked with milk and/or cream, garlic, cheese, and eggs.
duchesse: mashed potatoes with butter, egg yolks, and nutmeg, used for garnish.
en robe des champs, en robe de chambre: potatoes boiled or baked in their skin potatoes in their jackets.
frites: French fries.
gratinées: browned potatoes, often with cheese.
lyonnaise: potatoes sautéed with onions.
macaire: classic side dish of puréed potatoes shaped into small balls and fried or baked in a flat cake.
mousseline: potato purée enriched with butter, egg yolks, and whipped cream.
paillasson: fried pancake of grated potatoes.
pailles: potatoes cut into julienne strips, then fried.
Pont-Neuf: classic fries.
sarladaise: sliced potatoes cooked with goose fat and (optionally) truffles.
soufflées: small, thin slices of potatoes fried twice, causing them to inflate so they resemble little pillows.
sous la cèndre: baked under cinders in a fireplace.
vapeur: steamed or boiled potatoes.
Pommes en l’air: caramelized apple slices, usually served with boudin noir (blood sausage).
Pompe à l’huile, pompe de Noël: see Gibassier.
Pompe aux grattons: bread containing cracklings.
Pont l’Evêque: village in Normandy that gives its name to a very tender, fragrant square of cow’s-milk cheese.
Porc (carré de): pork (loin).
Porc (côte de): pork (chop).
Porcelet: young suckling pig.
Porchetta: young pig stuffed with offal, herbs, and garlic, and toasted seen in charcuteries in Nice.
Porto (au): (with) port.
Portugaise: elongated, crinkle-shell oyster.
Pot-au-feu: traditional dish of beef simmered with vegetables, often served in two or mote courses today chefs often use it to mean fish poached in fish stock with vegetables.
Pot bouilli: another name for pot-au-feu.
Pot-de-crème: individual classic custard dessert, often chocolate.
Potage: soup.
Potée: traditional hearty meat soup, usually containing pork, cabbage, and potatoes.
Potimarron: see Citrouille.
Potiron: see Citrouille.
Potjevleisch: a mixed meat terrine, usually of veal, pork, and rabbit specialty of the North.
Poularde: fatted hen.
Poule au pot: boiled stuffed chicken with vegetables specialty of the city of Béarn in the southwest.
Poule d’Inde: turkey hen.
Poule faisane: female pheasant.
Poulet (rôti): chicken (roast).
basquaise: Basque-style chicken, with tomatoes and sweet peppers.
de Bresse: high-quality chicken raised on farms to exacting specifcations, from the Rhône-Alpes.
de grain: corn-fed chicken.
fermier: free-range chicken.
Poulette: tiny chicken.
Pouligny-Saint-Pierre: village in the Loire valley that gives its name to a goat’s-milk cheese shaped like a truncated pyramid with a mottled, grayish rind and a smooth-grained, ivory-white interior.
Poulpe: octopus.
Pounti: (also spelled pounty) a pork meat loaf that generally includes Swiss chard or spinach, eggs, milk, herbs, onions, and prunes specialty of the Auvergne.
Pousse-en-claire: oysters that have been aged and fattened in claire, or oyster beds, for four to eight months.
Pousse-pierre: edible sea weed also called sea beans.
Poussin: baby chicken.
Poutargue, boutargue: salted, pressed, and flattened mullet roe, generally spread on toast as an appetizer specialty of Provence and the Mediterranean.
Poutine: see Nonat.
Praire: small clam.
Pralin: ground caramelized almonds.
Praline: caramelized almonds.
Pré-salé (agneau de): delicately salted lamb raised on the salt marshes of Normandy and the Atlantic coast.
Presskoph: pork headcheese, often served with vinaigrette specialty of Alsace.
Primeur(s): refers to early fresh fruits and vegetables, also to new wine.
Printanière: garnish of a variety of spring vegetables cut into dice or balls.
Prix fixe: fixed-price menu.
Prix net: service included.
Profiterole(s): classic chou pastry dessert, usually puffs of pastry filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with hot chocolate sauce.
Provençale: in the style of Provence usually includes garlic, tomatoes, and/or olive oil.
Prune (d’ente): fresh plum (variety of plum grown in the famed Agen region of the southwest).
Pruneau: prune.
Puits d’amour: “wells of love” classic small pastry crowns filled with pastry cream.

Quasi (de veau): standing rump (of veal).
Quatre épices: spice blend of ground ginger, nutmeg, white pepper, and cloves.
Quatre-quarts: “four quarters” pound cake made with equal weights of eggs, flour, butter, and sugar.
Quenelle: dumpling, usually of veal, fish, or poultry.
Quetsche: small purple Damson plum.
Queue (de boeuf): tail (of beef oxtail).
Quiche lorraine: savory custard tart made with bacon, eggs, and cream.

Râble de lièvre (lapin): saddle of hare (rabbit).
Raclette: rustic dish, from Switzerland and the Savoie, of melted cheese served with boiled potatoes, tiny pickled cucumbers, and onions also, the cheese used in the dish.
Radis: small red radish.
Radis noir: large black radish, often served with cream, as a salad.
Rafraîchi: cool, chilled, or fresh.
Ragoût: stew usually of meat.
Raie (bouclée): skate or ray, found in the English Channel, Atlantic, and Mediterranean.
Raifort: horseradish.
Raisin: grape raisin.
de Corinthe: currant.
de Smyrne: sultana.
sec: raisin.
Raïto: red wine sauce that generally includes onions, tomatoes, garlic, herbs, olives, and capers, usually served warm over grilled fish specialty of Provence.
Ramequin: small individual casserole. Also, a small tart. Also, a small goat’s-milk cheese from the Bugey, an area in the northern Rhône valley.
Ramier: wood or wild pigeon.
Râpé: grated or shredded.
Rascasse: gurnard, or scorpion fish in the rockfish family an essential ingredient of bouillabaisse, the fish stew of the Mediterranean.
Ratafia: liqueur made by infusing nut or fruit in brandy.
Ratatouille: a cooked dish of eggplant, zucchini, onions, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and olive oil, served hot or cold specialty of Provence.
Ratte: small, bite-size potatoes, often used for purées.
Ravigote: classic thick vinaigrette sauce with vinegar, white wine, shallots, and herbs. Also, cold mayonnaise with capers, onions, and herbs.
Raviole de Royans: tiny ravioli pasta filled with goat cheese, from the Rhône-Alpes.
Ravioli à la niçoise: square or round pasta filled with meat and/or swiss chard and baked with grated cheese.
Reblochon: smooth, supple, creamy cow’s-milk cheese from the Savoie in the Alps.
Réglisse: licorice.
Reine-Claude: greengage plum.
Reinette, reine de: fall and winter variety of apple, deep yellow with a red blush.
Religieuse, petite: “nun” a small version of a classic pastry consisting of two choux puffs filled with chocolate, coffee, or vanilla pastry cream, placed one on top of another, and frosted with chocolate or coffee icing to resemble a nun in her habit.
Rémoulade (céleri): sauce of mayonnaise, capers, mustard, herbs, anchovies, and gherkins (dish of shredded celery root with mayonnaise).
Repas: meal.
Rhuharbe: rhubarb.
Rhum: rum.
Rigotte: small cow’s-milk cheese from the Lyon region.
Rillettes (d’oie): minced spread of pork (goose) can also be made with duck, fish, or rabbit.
Rillons: usually pork belly, cut up and cooked until crisp, then drained of fat also made of duck, goose, or rabbit.
Ris d’agneau (de veau): lamb (veal) sweetbreads.
Rissolé: browned by frying, usually potatoes.
Riz: rice.
à l’impératrice: cold rice pudding with candied fruit.
complet: brown rice.
de Camargue: nutty, fragrant rice grown in the Camargue, the swampy area just south of Arles in Provence.
sauvage: wild rice.
Rizotto, risotto: creamy rice made by stirring rice constantly in stock as it cooks, then mixing in other ingredients such as cheese or mushrooms.
Robe des champs, robe de chambre (pommes en): potatoes boiled or baked in their skin potatoes in their jackets.
Rocamadour: village in southwestern France which gives its name to a tiny disc of cheese, once made of pure goat’s or sheep’s milk, now generally either goat’s milk or a blend of goat’s and cow’s milk. Also called cabécou.
Rognonnade: veal loin with kidneys attached.
Rognons: kidneys.
Rollot: spicy cow’s-milk cheese with a washed ochre-colored rind, in small cylinder or heart shape from the North.
Romanoff: fruit, often strawberries, macerated in liqueur and topped with whipped cream.
Romarin: rosemary.
Rondelle: round slice--of lemon, for example.
Roquefort: disc of blue veined cheese of raw sheep’s milk from southwestern France, aged in village of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon.
Roquette: rocket or arugula, a spicy salad green.
Rosé: rare used for lamb, veal, duck, or liver. Also, rose-colored wine.
Rosette (de boeuf): large dried pork (beef) sausage, from area around Lyon.
Rôti: roast meat roast.
Rouelle: slice of meat or vegetable cut at an angle.
Rouennaise (canard à la): in the style of Rouen (classic dish of duck stuffed with its liver in a blood-thickened sauce).
Rouget barbet, rouget de roche: red mullet, a prized, expensive rock-fish, with sweet flesh and red skin its flavorful liver is reserved for sauces.
Rouget grondin: red gurnard, a large, common rockfish, less prized than rouget barbet. A variety of galinette. An ingredient in bouillabaisse.
Rougette: a small red-leafed butterhead lettuce, specialty of Provence.
Rouille: mayonnaise of olive oil, garlic, chile peppers, bread, and fish broth usually served with fish soups, such as bouillabaisse.
Roulade: meat or fish roll, or rolled-up vegetable soufflé larger than a paupiette, and often stuffed.
Roulé(e): rolled.
Roussette: dogfish, also called salmonette because of its pinkish skin, found on the Atlantic coast. Good when very fresh.
Roux: sauce base or thickening of flour and butter.
Rove: breed of goat also small round of Provençal soft goat’s cheese, fragrant with wild herbs.
Royale, à la: “royal-style” rich classic preparation, usually with truffles and a cream sauce.
Rumsteck: rump steak.

Sabayon, zabaglione: frothy sweet sauce of egg yolks, sugar, wine, and flavoring that is whipped while being cooked in a water bath.
Sabodet: strong, earthy pork sausage of pig’s head and skin, served hot specialty of Lyon.
Safran: saffron.
Saignant(e): cooked rare, for meat, usually beef.
Saindoux: lard or pork fat.
Saint-Germain: with peas.
Saint-Hubert: poivrade sauce with chestnuts and bacon added.
Saint Jacques, coquille: sea scallop.
Saint-Marcellin: small flat disc of cow’s-milk cheese (once made of goat’s milk) made in dairies in the Isère, outside Lyon. The best is well aged and runny. Found in Paris, the Lyons area, and northern Provence.
Saint-Nectaire: village in the Auvergne that gives its name to a supple, thick disc of cow’s-milk cheese with a mottled gray rind.
Saint-Pierre: John Dory, a prized mild, flat, white ocean fish. Known as soleil and Jean Doré in the North, and poule de mer along the Atlantic coast.
Saint-Vincent: moist, buttery, thick cylinder of cow’s-milk cheese from Burgundy with a rust-colored rind similar to Époisses, but aged a bit longer, therefore stronger.
Sainte-Maure: village in the Loire valley that gives its name to a soft, elongated cylinder of goat’s-milk cheese with a distinctive straw in the middle and a mottled, natural blue rind.
Salade: salad also, a head of lettuce.
folle: mixed salad, usually including green beans and foie gras.
lyonnaise: green salad with cubed bacon and soft-cooked eggs, often served with herring and anchovies, and/or sheep’s feet and chicken livers specialty of Lyon also called saladier lyonnais.
niçoise: salad with many variations, but usually with tomatoes, green beans, anchovies, tuna, potatoes, black olives, capers, and artichokes.
panachée: mixed salad.
russe: cold mixed salad of peas and diced carrots and turnips in mayonnaise.
verte: green salad.
Saladier (lyonnais): see Salade lyonnaise.
Salé: salted.
Salers: Cantal-type cheese, made in rustic cheese-making houses only when the cows are in the Auvergne’s mountain pastures, from May to September.
Salicorne: edible seaweed, sea string bean often pickled and served as a condiment.
Salmis: classic preparation of roasted game birds or poultry, with sauce made from the pressed carcass.
Salpicon: diced vegetables, meat, and/or fish in a sauce, used as a stuffing, garnish, or spread.
Salsifis: salsify, oyster plant.
Sandre: pickerel, perch-like river fish, found in the Saône and Rhine.
Sang: blood.
Sanglier: wild boar.
Sangue: Corsican black pudding usually with grapes or herbs.
Sanguine: “blood” orange, so named for its red juice.
Sansonnet: Starling or thrush.
Sar, sargue: blacktail, a tiny flat fish of the sea bream family best grilled or baked.
Sarcelle: teal, a species of wild duck.
Sardine: small sardine. Large sardines are called pilchards. Found year-round in the Mediterranean, from May to October in the Atlantic.
Sarladaise: as prepared in Sarlat in the Dordogne with truffles.
Sarrasin: buckwheat.
Sarriette: summer savory. See poivre d’ain.
Saucisse: small fresh sausage.
Saucisse chaude: warm sausage.
Saucisse de Francfort: hot dog.
Saucisse de Strasbourg: redskinned hot dog.
Saucisse de Toulouse: mild country-style pork sausage.
Saucisson: most often, a large air-dried sausage, such as salami, eaten sliced as a cold cut when fresh, usually called saucisson chaud, or hot sausage.
Saucisson à l’ail: garlic sausage, usually to be cooked and served warm.
Saucisson d’Arles: dried salami-style sausage that blends pork, beef and gentle seasoning a specialty of Arles, in Provence.
Saucisson de campagne: any country-style sausage.
Saucisson de Lyon: air-dried pork sausage, flavored with garlic and pepper and studded with chunks of pork fat.
Saucisson de Morteau: see Jésus de Morteau.
Saucisson en croûte: sausage cooked in a pastry crust.
Saucisson sec: any dried sausage, or salami.
Sauge: sage.
Saumon (sauvage): salmon (“wild,” to differentiate from commercially raised salmon).
Saumon d’Ecosse: Scottish salmon.
Saumon de fontaine: small, commercially raised salmon.
Saumon fumé: smoked salmon.
Saumon norvégien: Norwegian salmon.
Saumonette: see Roussette.
Saupiquet: classic aromatic wine sauce thickened with bread.
Sauté: browned in fat.
Sauvage: wild.
Savarin: yeast-leavened cake shaped like a ring, soaked in sweet syrup.
Savoie (biscuit de): sponge cake.
Savoyarde: in the style of Savoy, usually flavored with Gruyère cheese.
Scarole: escarole.
Schieffele, schieffala, schifela: smoked pork shoulder, served hot and garnished with pickled turnips or a potato and onion salad.
Sec (sèche): dry or dried.
Seiche: cuttlefish.
Seigle (pain de): rye (bread).
Sel gris: salt, unbleached sea salt.
Sel marin: sea salt.
Sel (gros): coarse salt.
Selle: saddle (of meat).
Selles-sur-Cher: village in the Loire valley identified with a small, flat, truncated cylinder of goat’s-milk cheese with a mottled blueish-gray rind (sometimes patted with powdered charcoal) and a pure-white interior.
Selon grosseur (S.G.): according to size, usually said of lobster or other seafood.
Selon le marché: according to what is in season or available.
Selon poid (S.P.): according to weight, usually said of seafood.
Semoule: semolina or crushed wheat. Also used in France as a savory garnish, particularly in North African dishes such as couscous.
Serpolet: wild thyme.
Service: meal, mealtime, the serving of the meal. A restaurant has two services if it serves lunch and dinner a dish en deux services, like canard pressé. is served in two courses.
Service (non) compris: service charge (not) included in the listed menu prices (but invariably included on the bill).
Service en sus: service charge to be made in addition to menu prices. Same as service non compris.
Simple: simple, plain, unmixed. Also, a single scoop of ice cream.
Smitane: sauce of cream, onions, white wine, and lemon juice.
Socca: a very thin, round crêpe made with chickpea flour, sold on the streets of Nice and eaten as a snack.
Soissons: dried or fresh white beans, from the area around Soissons, northeast of Paris.
Soja (pousse de): soy bean (soy bean sprout).
Soja, sauce de: soy sauce.
Solette: small sole.
Sommelier: wine waiter.
Sorbet: sherbet.
Sot l’y laisse: Poultry oysters translates literally as the 'fool leaves it there'
Soubise: onion sauce.
Soufflé: light, mixture of puréed ingredients, egg yolks, and whipped egg whites, which puffs up when baked sweet or savory, hot or cold.
Soumaintrain: a spicy, supple flat disc of cow’s-milk cheese with a red-brown rind from Burgundy.
Soupir de nonne: “nun’s sighs” fried choux pastry dusted with confectioners’ sugar. Created by a nun in an Alsatian abbey. Also called pet de nonne.
Souris: “mouse” muscle that holds the leg of lamb to the bone lamb shanks.
Spätzel, spaetzle, spetzli: noodle-like Alsatian egg and flour dumpling, served poached or fried.
Spoom: wine or fruit juice mixed with egg whites, whipped, and frozen to create a frothy iced dessert.
Steak-frites: classic French dish of grilled steak served with French-fried potatoes.
Stockfish, stocaficada, estoficada, estoficado, morue plate: flattened, dried cod found in southern France. Also, a purée-like blend of dried codfish, olive oil, tomatoes, sweet peppers, black olives, potatoes, garlic, onions, and herbs specialty of Nice. Sometimes served with pistou.
Strasbourgeoise, à la: ingredients typical of Strasbourg including sauerkraut, foie gras, and salt pork.
Succès à la praline: cake made with praline meringue layers, frosted with meringue and butter cream.
Sucre: sugar.
Supion, supioun, suppion: cuttlefish.
Suprême: a veal- or chicken-based white sauce thickened with flour and cream. Also, a boneless breast of poultry or a filet of fish.

Table d’hôte: open table or board. Often found in the countryside, these are private homes that serve fixed meals and often have one or two guest rooms as well.
Tablette (de chocolat): bar (of chocolate).
Tablier de sapeur: “fireman’s apron” tripe that is marinated, breaded, and grilled specialty of Lyon.
Tacaud: pour or whiting-pour, a small, inexpensive fish found in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, usually fried.
Tagine: spicy North African stew of veal, lamb, chicken, or pigeon, and vegetables.
Talmouse: savory pastry triangle of cheese-flavored choux dough baked in puff pastry.
Tamié: Flat disc of cheese, made of cow’s milk at the Trappist monastery in the Savoie village of Tamié. Similar to Reblochon.
Tanche: tench, a river fish with a mild, delicate flavor often an ingredient in matelote and pauchouse, freshwater fish stews.
Tapenade: a blend of black olives, anchovies, capers, olive oil, and lemon juice, sometimes with rum or canned tuna added specialty of Provence.
Tarama: carp roe, often made into a spread of the same name.
Tarbas: variety of large white bean, usually dried.
Tartare (de poisson): traditionally chopped raw beef, seasoned and garnished with raw egg, capers, chopped onion, and parsley (today, a popular highly seasoned raw fish dish).
Tarte: tart open-face pie or flan, usually sweet.
Tarte encalat: name for cheesecake in the Auvergne.
Tarte flambée: thin-crusted savory tart, much like a rectangular pizza, covered with cream, onions, and bacon specialty of Alsace also called Flammekueche.
Tarte Tatin: caramelized upside-down apple pie, made famous by the Tatin sisters in their hotel in Lamotte-Beuvron, in the Sologne a popular dessert, seen on menus all over France.
Tartine: open-face sandwich buttered bread.
Tasse: cup a coffee or tea cup.
Telline: a tiny violet-streaked clam, the size of a fingernail, seen in Provence and the Camargue generally seared with a bit of oil in a hot pan to open the shells and seasoned with parsley and garlic.
Tendre: tender.
Tendron: cartilaginous meat cut from beef or veal ribs.
Teurgoule: a sweet rice pudding with cinnamon specialty of Normandy.
Terrine: earthenware container used for cooking meat, game, fish, or vegetable mixtures also the pâté cooked and served in such a container. It differs from a pâté proper in that the terrine is actually sliced out of the container, while a pâté has been removed from its mold.
Tête de veau (porc): head of veal (pork), usually used in headcheese.
Tétragone: spinach-like green, found in Provence.
Thé: tea.
Thermidor (homard): classic lobster dish lobster split lengthwise, grilled, and served in the shell with a cream sauce.
Thon (blanc) (germon): tuna (white albacore).
Thon rouge: bluefin tuna.
Thym: thyme.
Tian: an earthenware gratin dish also vegetable gratins baked in such a dish from Provence.
Tiède: lukewarm.
Tilleul: linden tree linden-blossom herb tea.
Timbale: small round mold with straight or sloping slides also, a mixture prepared in such a mold.
Tomates à la provençale: baked tomato halves sprinkled with garlic, parsley, and bread crumbs.
Tomme: generic name for cheese, usually refers to a variety of cheeses in the Savoie also, the fresh cheese used to make Cantal in the Auvergne.
Tomme arlésienne: rectangular cheese made with a blend of goat’s and cow’s milk and sprinkled with summer savory also called tomme de Camargue a specialty of the Languedoc and Arles, in Provence.
Tomme fraîche: pressed cake of fresh milk curds, used in the regional dishes of the Auvergne.
Topinambour: Jerusalem artichoke.
Torréfiée: roasted, as in coffee beans and chocolate.
Toro (taureau): bull meat found in butcher shops in the Languedoc and Pays Basque, and some-times on restaurant menus.
Torteau au fromage: goat cheese cheesecake from the Poitou-Charentes along the Atlantic coast a blackened, spherical loaf found at cheese shops throughout France once a homemade delicacy, today prepared industrially.
Tortue: turtle.
Toucy: village in Burgundy that gives its name to a local fresh goat cheese.
Tourain, tourin, tourrin: generally a peasant soup of garlic, onions (and sometimes tomatoes), and broth or water, thickened with egg yolks and seasoned with vinegar specialty of the southwest.
Tournedos: center portion of beef filet, usually grilled or sautéed.
Tournedos Rossini: sautéed tournedos garnished with foie gras and truffles.
Touron: marzipan loaf, or a cake of almond paste, often layered and flavored with nuts or candied fruits and sold by the slice specialty of the Basque region.
Tourte (aux blettes): pie (common Niçoise dessert pie filled with Swiss chard, eggs, cheese, raisins, and pine nuts). Also, name for giant rounds of country bread found in the Auvergne and the southwest.
Tourteau: large crab.
Tourtière: shallow three-legged cooking vessel, set over hot coals for baking. Also, southwestern pas-try dish filled with apples and/or prunes and sprinkled with Armagnac.
Train de côtes: rib of beef.
Traiteur: caterer delicatessen.
Tranche: slice.
Trappiste: name given to the mild, lactic cow’s-milk cheese made in a Trappist monastery in Echourgnac, in the southwest.
Travers de porc: spareribs.
Trévise: radicchio, a bitter red salad green of the chicory family.
Tripes à la mode de Caen: beef tripe, carrots, onions, leeks, and spices, cooked in water, cider, and Calvados (apple brandy) specialty of Normandy.
Triple crème: legal name for cheese containing more than 75 percent butterfat, such as Brillat-Savarin.
Tripoux: mutton tripe.
Tripoxa: Basque name for sheep’s or calf’s blood sausage served with spicy red Espelette peppers.
Trompettes de la mort: dark brown wild mushroom, also known as “horn of plenty.”
Tronçon: cut of meat or fish resulting in a piece that is longer than it is wide generally refers to slices from the largest part of a fish.
Trouchia: flat omelet filled with spinach or Swiss chard specialty of Provence.
Truffade: a large layered and fried potato pancake made with bacon and fresh Cantal cheese spe-cialty of the Auvergne.
Truffe (truffé): truffle (with truffles).
Truffes sous la cendre: truffles wrapped in pastry or foil, gently warmed as they are buried in ashes.
Truite (au bleu): trout (a preferred method of cooking trout, not live, as often assumed, but rather in a “live condition.” The trout is gutted just moments prior to cooking, but neither washed nor scaled. It is then plunged into a hot mixture of vinegar and water, and the slimy lubricant that protects the skin of the fish appears to turn the trout a bluish color. The fish is then removed to a broth to finish its cooking.)
de lac: lake trout.
de mer: sea trout or brown trout.
de rivière: river trout.
saumoneé: salmon trout.
Ttoro: fish soup from the Basque region. Historically, the liquid that remained after poaching cod was seasoned with herbs and used to cook vegetables and potatoes. Today, a more elaborate version includes the addition of lotte, mullet, mussels, conger eel, langoustines, and wine.
Tuile: literally, “curved roofing tile” delicate almond-flavored cookie.
Tulipe: tulip-shaped cookie for serving ice cream or sorbet.
Turban: usually a mixture or combination of ingredients cooked in a ring mold.
Turbot(in): turbot (small turbot), prized flatfish found in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

Vache: cow.
Vacherin: dessert of baked meringue, with ice cream and whipped cream. Also a strong, supple winter cheese encircled by a band of spruce, from the Jura.
Vallée d’Auge: area of Normandy. Also, garnish of cooked apples and cream or Calvados and cream.
Vanille: vanilla.
Vapeur, à la: steamed.
Varech: seaweed.
Veau: veal.
Velouté: classic sauce based on veal, chicken, or fish stock, thickened with a roux of butter and flour also, variously seasoned classic soups thickened with cream and egg yolks.
Ventre: belly or stomach.
Ventrèche: pork belly. American clam.
Verdure (en): garnish of green vegetables.
Verdurette: herb vinaigrette.
Vernis: large fleshy clam with small red tongue and shiny varnish-like shell.
Verjus: the juice of unripe grapes, used to make a condiments used much like vinegar in sauces.
Véronique, à la: garnish of peeled white grapes.
Vert-pré: a watercress garnish, sometimes including potatoes.
Verveine: lemon verbena, herb tea.
Vessie, en: cooked in a pig’s bladder (usually chicken).
Viande: meat.
Vichy: with glazed carrots. Also, a brand of mineral water.
Vichyssoise: cold, creamy leek and potato soup.
Viennoise: coated in egg, breaded, and fried.
Vierge (sauce): “virgin” term for the best quality olive oil, from the first pressing of the olives (sauce of olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, tomatoes, and fresh herbs.)
Vieux (vielle): old.
Vieux Lille: thick, square cheese named for the old part of the north’s largest city, made in the same way as Maroilles, with cow’s milk, only salted more, then aged six months until stinking ripe. Also called vieux puant, or “old stinker.”
Vin jaune: an amber yellow wine made in the Jura with late harvested grapes. Stored in oak casks, it can last up to a century.
Vinaigre (vieux): vinegar (aged).
Vinaigre de xérès: sherry vinegar.
Vinaigrette: oil and vinegar dressing.
Viognier: increasingly popular white grape of the Rhône, used for the famed Condrieu .
Violet or figue de mer: unusual iodine-strong, soft-shelled edible sea creature, with a yellowish in-terior. A delicacy along the Mediterranean, particularly in Marseille.
Violet de Provence: braid of plump garlic, a specialty of Provence and the Côte-d’Azur.
Violette: violet its crystallized petals are a specialty of Toulouse.
Viroflay: classic garnish of spinach for poached or soft-cooked eggs.
Vive or vipère de mer: weever a small firm-fleshed ocean fish used in soups, such as bouillabaisse, or grilled. The venomous spine is removed before cooking.
Vol-au-vent: puff pastry shell.
Volonté (à): at the customer’s discretion.
Vonnaissienne, à la: in the style of Vonnas, a village in the Rhône-Alpes. Also, crêpes made with potatoes.

Waterzooi: Flemish chicken stew cooked with aromatic herbs and vegetables in a sauce of cream and chicken broth.

Xérès (vinaigre de): sherry (vinegar).

Yaourt: yogurt.
Yuzu: A pungent, fragrant citrus fruit used in East Asian cooking, particularly Japanese.


How Does It Work:

We are only accepting preorders for this meal.

1) Email [email protected] or call 706-549-3450.

2) Tell us your order and what time you’d like to arrive. We’ll take 15 minute intervals between 10:30am and 1pm to stagger pick-ups.

3) We’ll take payment in advance so you can just grab & go!


Al Fiori - new and recommended

A brief summary of a recent meal a few friends had at newly opened Al Fiori, in the Setai Hotel:

Al Fiori is another Michael White restaurant, of Marea and Osteria Morini fame It opened to the public about two weeks ago. The restaurant is located in the similarly brand new Setai Hotel, part of a small luxe chain of hotels. The NY Setai is located at 36th and Fifth Avenue, a neighborhood in which one would not expect to find such a hotel. If the area around Koreatown is undergoing a renaissance its the first I am hearing of it. Al Firoi is on the second floor of the Setai.

Our meal was delicious. Great, knowledgeable service, good menu, nice wine list, pretty and large room, well spaced tables. It seemed that the restaurant was holding back tables during this opening period since only half the tables were filled, yet it is difficult to obtain a reservation. Front staff are welcoming and polite. When we were led to our table and seated, there were likely four or five staff persons simply there to greet us and or watch real customers sit.

I believe the menu is available on line. Food wise, Al Firori is similar to Marea, mostly Italian seafood, or at least that seems to be White's strong point. I thought the food similar to Marea, where we also have had an excellent meal. Price was it is not inexpensive but, for a hotel restaurant, the prices are in line with other places and, I think, perhaps a bit less than Marea. Portions, like Marea, are on the small side. And the restaurant has the same unwelcome "recommendation" that you order three courses to make a meal. Charge me a few dollars more and let me eat just two courses please.

A lobster veloute (I would call it a light bisque) made with a chestnut puree and with small bits of lobster and truffle at the bottom of the bowl was excellent. Light, flavorful, perfect. Best I have had in quite awhile. Other apps were a beautiful composed salad, blue crab with grapefruit, seared scallops and risotto. Main dishes were mostly pastas and fish for us. All were excellent. The pasta with sepia and bread crumbs, like the one at Marea was flavorful and light. It was not a terribly large portion. The friendly wine steward came up with a good recommendation when asked to pick something in a specific price range. Desserts looked good, the petit fours were very good.

All in all a good new edition to the Italian dining scene. Yes, the location is odd (though the view over looking Fifth Ave is nice), and it is in a hotel but, the food is very good, service on the ball and the restaurant itself very comfortable. Good place for friends to meet, a business meeting or for a comfortable meal. Less of a "scene" than Marea, though that may change.


DINING OUT A Restaurant Francais as It's Meant to Be

ANOTHER very good restaurant has opened in what has turned out to be a banner year for dining out. Tartine in Westport is memorable both for its superb French food and reasonable prices for the value received (a rarity these days, especially in a restaurant francais).

The tiny dining room itself is charming: cozy, unassuming, prettily decorated. There are no pyrotechnics at Tartine in looks or menu, just (just!) expertly cooked and carefully served French specialties.

Success seemed almost guaranteed with our first starter: foie gras with poached Armagnac prunes. A large portion of seared Hudson Valley duck liver (letter-perfect pink) rested on a bed of frisee, surrounded by poached prunes, plump and bursting with aromatic brandy -- an exquisite juxtaposition of flavors and textures.

An appetizer this good would have been the high point of many a meal, but it was followed by a dish every bit as sublime: sauteed boneless trout amandine, a whole, butterflied fish with tail, served with fluffy basmati rice. Buttery, almond-accented, this was more appealing than any trout we have had in years. The finale was a lemon tart (adorned with lemon sorbet and a stick of candied lemon peel) that was so tangy it raised a meal already memorable to a crescendo.

We thought we had lucked into all the house triumphs at one sitting, but over several visits, we sampled most of the short menu, and discovered new delights. One lunch, it was jumbo sea scallops seared, served with goat cheese risotto and saffron oil. The browned scallops matched bite-for-bite a delectably cheese-rich arborio-rice risotto dotted with diced red peppers and mushrooms. Certain dishes, like the scallops, are listed under hors d'oeuvres on the dinner menu, but the food was so rich and portions so generous they really could double as entrees. In fact, many starters, at from $11 to $16, are substantial enough to be entrees.

Then there was filet of sole Veronique, sauteed along with a handful of split white grapes. The firm, fresh-tasting fish came with spinach, waffle-patterned potato chips and a crisp polenta wedge. As a prelude, we enjoyed warm grilled Camembert served with sausage slices, toast and an arugula salad with pear.

The soup du jour one day was country vegetable, a delicate puree of turnips, zucchini, onions and tomato. It was topped with a slice of toasted bread spread with melted Gruyere. Delicious!

There were few missteps, but one was duck confit served with a salad of apple slivers, walnuts and baby greens. One lunch the duck was dry, stringy, sparse and tasteless. At a later dinner we decided to try again. This time it was a perfect confit: falling-off-the-bone moist, juicy and full of flavor.

Two desserts weren't up to Tartine's heights either: a dry chocolate chestnut cake and ho-hum profiteroles. Other desserts were ambrosial, notably the poire Belle Helene, which sinfully combined vanilla bean ice cream, poached pear, intense dark chocolate sauce and whipped cream. A velvety smooth chocolate mousse, ethereal creme brulee and warm caramelized tart tatin, with vanilla ice cream in a creme anglaise embossed by raspberry coulis, were all first-rate.

Dinner for two, three courses apiece, came to $71, before tax, gratuity and drinks. The concise French-California wine list is well-chosen. Prices per-bottle begin at $25.

Tartine, snuggled into a petite shopping complex off the Post Road, keeps a low profile. But this delightful restaurant is so special it's a secret meant to be shared.

7 Sconset Square, Westport

ATMOSPHERE An intimate, romantic setting with soft lighting from alabaster sconces, well-spaced tables with fresh flowers, pink walls with mirrors and copper pots. Noise level: Quiet.

SERVICE Friendly, knowledgeable and well-trained.

RECOMMENDED DISHES Salade Tartine, foie gras with poached Armagnac prunes, country vegetable soup, moules marinieres, warm Camembert with sausage, sauteed filet of sole Veronique, coquille St.-Jacques, baby roast chicken, sauteed boneless trout, potato-crusted striped bass, rack of veal, duck breast in sour cherry sauce, poire Belle Helene, chocolate mousse, lemon tart.


AL BIERNAT’S is offering featured cocktails and a red velvet pancake dish. 4217 Oak Lawn Ave. and 5251 Spring Valley Road, Dallas.

AMBERJAX FISH MARKET GRILLE is serving a couples menu with roses and drink specials. 3011 Gulden Lane, Dallas.

BABB BROTHERS BBQ & BLUES is serving dinner for two for $40. Jerry Don Branch will perform. 3015 Gulden Lane, Dallas.

B&B BUTCHERS & RESTAURANT is offering a prix fixe take-out menu for two for $130 with optional flowers by Cityview Florist & Gifts. Feb. 13-16, with a 24-hour notice for the take-out package and a 48-hour notice for the take-out package and flower arrangement.

BOURBON & BANTER at The Statler is offering a $50 package that includes a photo and message added to two drinks of choice and almond macaroons. 1914 Commerce St., Dallas.

BUTCHER BLOCK is serving dinner for two for $70. Call 469-709-8622 for reservations. 4930 Belt Line Road, Dallas.

CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN is offering a prix fixe menu for two Feb. 12-16 for $35. Guests can order pizzas on heart-shaped crispy thin crust for no additional charge Feb. 11-16. Locations in Dallas, Frisco, Grapevine and Plano.

THE CAPITAL GRILLE is offering complimentary Veuve Clicquot Brut or rosé and hand-dipped chocolate covered strawberries. Feb. 13-14. Locations in Dallas and Fort Worth.

CARRABBA’S is serving a four-course surf-and-turf dinner for two Feb. 10-16 for $60. Locations in Dallas, Hurst and Plano.

COWBOY CHICKEN is giving away free cobbler to guests on Valentine’s Day. Locations in Allen, Dallas, Denton, Carrollton, Forney, Fort Worth, Frisco, Irving, Plano, Sherman and Wylie.

DALLAS CHOP HOUSE is offering a three-course menu Feb. 14. $75 per person optional wine pairings are $35. 1717 Main St., Dallas.

DALLAS FISH MARKET is serving a three-course menu Feb. 14. $75 per person optional wine pairings are $35. 1501 Main St., Dallas.

DALLAS PROPER is hosting a Galentine’s Day bash Feb. 13 from 6 to 9 p.m. with a three-course light bite menu for $20.20 per person. Valentine’s day specials include half-off appetizers and cocktails Feb. 14 from 5 to 10 p.m. 2918 N. Henderson Ave., Dallas.

DODIE’S CAJUN DINER AT THE HARBOR is offering a week-long prix fixe menu for two through Feb. 16. Sandy Bates will perform live music Feb. 14 from 5 to 9 p.m. $54.99 for two. 2067 Summer Lee, Rockwall.

EDDIE V’S is serving complimentary Chambord truffles and a glass of Moet & Chandon Imperial Brut or rose. Feb. 13. Two locations in Dallas and Fort Worth.

FAIRMONT DALLAS is hosting a Paw-lentine’s Pop Up with homemade dog treats and desserts for humans for sale. Feb. 13 from 7 to 9 a.m. and noon to 2 p.m. and Feb. 14 from 7 to 9 a.m. and noon to 5:30 p.m. 1717 N. Akard St., Dallas.

FISH CITY GRILL is serving a prix fixe menu for two for $49.99 on Feb. 13-16. Locations in Allen, Dallas, Flower Mound, Garland, Richardson, Southlake, Mansfield and Las Colinas.

FLEMING’S PRIME STEAKHOUSE & WINE BAR PLANO is offering a prix fixe menu and an all-inclusive Wine Dine Sparkle experience Feb. 12-15. 7250 Dallas Parkway, Plano.

FLYING SAUCER ADDISON is re-releasing its Valentine’s glass Feb. 12 at 6 p.m. Social Hour is from 4 to 7 p.m. 14999 Montfort Drive, Dallas.

GARDEN CAFE is hosting a poetry night with a three-course menu from Chef Mark Wooten. Bring your favorite poem to read and a bottle of wine no corking fee. $40 per person. Feb. 14 at 7:30 p.m. poetry readings begin at 9 p.m. 5310 Junius St., Dallas.

GREENVILLE AVENUE PIZZA COMPANY is serving heart-shaped pizzas with heart-shaped pepperonis (can substitute with any topping), plus a jar of kisses, all for $25. The special offer is available Feb. 14, dine-in or carry-out. 1923 Greenville Ave. and 1145 Peavy Road, Dallas.

GRILL 19 at Coyote Ridge Golf Club is offering a four-course meal with optional wine pairings. $99 per couple, $48 per person wine pairings start at $15 per person. Call 972-395-0786, ext. 111, for reservations. 1640 W. Hebron Parkway, Carrollton.

HALF SHELLS is serving a prix fixe menu for two for $49.99 on Feb. 13-16. Locations in Dallas and Plano.

HERMAN MARSHALL WHISKEY DISTILLERY is serving a four-course prix fixe menu by Ian Tate of the Lake House for a Valentine’s pop up Feb. 14 from 7 to 10 p.m. $85 per person. 803 Shepherd Drive, Garland.

HOULIHAN’S RESTAURANT + BAR is offering a special menu for two for $50 per couple and featured cocktails for $5. Feb. 14-16. 660 Town Center Blvd., Garland.

JASPER’S UPTOWN is hosting a Galentine’s Day event Feb. 13 from 5 to 7 p.m. featuring drinks and complimentary wine and light bites. The Valentine’s Day menu is $80 per person. 4511 McKinney Ave., Dallas.

LOCKHART SMOKE HOUSE is offering a Valentine’s Day specials: a Tomahawk steak for two for $70 and a rack of lamb chops for $50 per couple. Two locations in Dallas and Plano.

THE MANSION RESTAURANT is offering a four-course tasting dinner Feb. 13-15 for $150 per person. Table reservations are $75 on Feb. 13-14. 2821 Turtle Creek Blvd., Dallas.

MAPLE LEAF DINER is offering half-price glasses and bottles of wine and chicken fried filet mignon. 12817 Preston Road, Dallas.

MEDDLESOME MOTH is offering a la carte dinner specials in addition to the regular menu. Feb. 14 beginning at 3 p.m. 1621 Oak Lawn Ave., Dallas.

MEXICAN BAR COMPANY is serving a five-course menu for $120 per couple. The Rockin’ en Español event will be held from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. 6121 W. Park Blvd., Plano.

MI DIA FROM SCRATCH is featuring an off-menu dish: Lobster Two Ways for $44. Locations in Flower Mound, Grapevine and Plano.

MOMO ITALIAN KITCHEN is serving a three-course menu for $80 per couple with two complimentary glasses of sparkling wine Feb. 13-15. Call 972-234-6800 for reservations. 8989 Forest Lane, Dallas.

NORTH ITALIA is offering a $60 prix fixe menu. Two locations in Dallas and Plano.

OPEN PALETTE at Sheraton Dallas is offering special menu items and a featured cocktail. Feb. 14 from 5 to 10 p.m. 400 N. Olive St., Dallas.

PERLE ON MAPLE is serving a four-course prix fixe menu for $95 per person. Feb. 14 from 5 to 10 p.m. 2927 Maple Ave., Dallas.

PUNCH BOWL SOCIAL is offering the Shot Through the Heart specialty punch. 2600 Main St., Dallas.

PYRAMID RESTAURANT & BAR at Fairmont Dallas is offering specials in addition to its regular menu. Call 214-720-5249 for reservations. 1717 N. Akard St., Dallas.

SAUCE PIZZA AND WINE is offering a $25 meal for two with salad, pizza and two glasses of wine. Locations in Dallas, Irving and Prosper.

SEA BREEZE FISH MARKET & GRILL is serving a prix fixe menu. $80 per person optional wine pairings are $20. Call 972-473-2722 for reservations. 4017 Preston Road, Plano.

SEVY’S GRILL is serving a four-course meal for $69.95 per person. 8201 Preston Road, Dallas.

SHELL SHACK is serving a special seafood platter for two with a bottle of champagne for $88.99. Locations in Arlington, Dallas, Denton, Fort Worth, Mesquite and Plano.

SOULMAN’S BAR-B-QUE is serving dinner for two for $26.99. Dine in or take out. Locations in Allen, Cedar Hill, Dallas, Forney, Garland, Hurst, Lewisville, Mansfield, Mesquite, Rockwall, Royse City and Wylie.

STAMPEDE66 BY STEPHAN PYLES is serving a three-course prix fixe menu for two on Feb. 14-15. $110 per couple wine pairings are $30 per person. Call 469-675-0800 for reservations. 777 Watters Creek Blvd., Allen.

SUSHI MARQUEE is offering three different dinners for two: Omakase, $150 Steak and Seafood, $150 and Wagyu, $200. 3625 The Star Blvd., Frisco.

TEI-AN is serving a tasting menu for $150 per person and a Omakase menu for $350 per person.

THIRSTY LION GASTROPUB & GRILL is offering Valentine’s Day menu specials Feb. 14. Locations in Irving and Euless.

3ELEVEN KITCHEN & COCKTAILS is hosting a singles party from Feb. 14 from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. $10 general admission $25 party package. 311 N. Market St., Dallas.

TNT/TACOS AND TEQUILA is serving a Fajitas for Two special with a bottle of sparkling wine and an order of its Chocolate Volcano for $50. 2800 Routh St., Dallas.

TORO TORO PAN LATIN STEAKHOUSE is serving a four-course menu with optional wine pairing Feb. 14. $75 per person wine pairings are $35. 200 Main St., Fort Worth.

UCHIBĀ and UCHI DALLAS are offering Omakase menus for two. Uchibā’s menu is $140, and Uchi’s menu is $185. Call 214-855-5454 for reservations. 2817 Maple Ave., Dallas.

VIDORRA is offering the Love-a-Rita cocktail, served with a complimentary Queso Blanco. 2642 Main St., Dallas.

WATERPROOF at The Statler is offering G.H. Mumm Champagne and chocolate covered strawberries for $150 per couple. 1914 Commerce St., Dallas.

WICKED BUTCHER at the Sinclair Hotel is offering a three-course prix fixe menu. $75 per person optional wine pairings are $35. 512 Main St., Fort Worth.


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