In this lesson, you will take a look at common used culinary terms.
Cookery professionals use a lot of specialist culinary terms. Many terms come from other languages, especially French, and are now everyday hospitality language. These terms generally refer to the type of food.
When you work in food service, you need to understand what these terms mean so you can describe them to customers when required and communicate effectively with kitchen staff. It also adds to your image as a professional and knowledgeable service worker.
You may already know some culinary terms. Can you explain the following?
Canapé
Vol-au-vent
Hors d'oeuvre
Crouton
Canapé, pronounced 'kan ah pay', is a French term meaning sofa or couch. It refers to a small (bite-sized) piece of bread, toast or cracker on which a savoury topping sits. The topping may be meat, fish, seafood, vegetable, pâté or egg, decoratively garnished. Canapés are served hot or cold as an appetiser, usually with drinks.
Carpaccio, pronounced 'kah pah chee oh', is an Italian term meaning paper thin slices of raw beef fillet. They are dressed with a small amount of mayonnaise with mustard in it.
These days the term carpaccio is also used to describe very thin slices of other raw ingredients, such as fish, served with a dressing.
Compote is a French term referring to a preparation of fresh or dried fruit, that has been slowly cooked, either whole or in pieces, in a sugar syrup. The fruit retains its shape. It may be served either chilled or slightly warm. In English, we call compote 'stewed fruit'.
Concasse, or concassé, is a French term meaning coarsely chopped or crushed. For example, tomato concasse.
Crêpe, pronounced 'krehp' is a French term for a large, thin, very light pancake made with wheat or buckwheat flour. The plural is crêpes. Crêpes may be used for savoury or sweet dishes. Savoury crêpes are rolled around a thick filling and sometimes topped with a sauce. Sweet crêpes are either sprinkled with sugar or filled. They are served warm or sometimes flamed.
A crouton is a small piece or cube of bread that has been lightly browned until crisp, either by toasting, lightly sautéing in butter or oil, or drying in the oven. Croutons are used to garnish soups, salads and other dishes.
Farce is a French term meaning a stuffing or forcemeat.
The term 'flan' has more than one culinary meaning.
The most widely used meaning is an open (no pastry lid), round, straight-sided tart.
The pastry base is usually baked blind for filling later. Fillings may be sweet or savoury. Sweet fillings are often custard and/or fruit. Savoury fillings include meat, fish, cheese or savoury custard.
Flan also refers to a Spanish and Portuguese baked custard coated with caramel, like a crème caramel
Frappé, pronounced 'frap ay', is a French term meaning chilled or put on ice. It is used to describe food and drinks that are served chilled or on crushed ice.
Hors d'oeuvre, pronounced 'or dur vrah', is a French term that literally means 'outside the work' (meal). It refers to small savoury appetisers served before a meal. They are usually one or two bite-sized and may be hot or cold. A canapé could be an hors d'oeuvre
When flavour is extracted from an ingredient by soaking it in a liquid, the liquid becomes an infusion. The solid parts of the ingredient are then strained off. For example, tea is an infusion of tea leaves in hot water.
Julienne is a vegetable cut. It describes long, thin, match-stick strips approximately 4 cm long. They are mainly used as a garnish, either raw, blanched or cooked.
Pâté, pronounced 'pah tay', is a French term for a meat paste made from a variety of meats, such as liver and belly pork, and seasonings. There should be equal amounts of lean meat and fat. Pâté may be satiny-smooth and spreadable or coarsely textured.
Petits fours, pronounce 'peh tee faw', is a French term for small, bite-sized, sweet items served at the end of a meal. For example, tiny decorated cakes, small fancy biscuits, and chocolates.
Ragout, pronounced 'rah goo', is a French term meaning a thick, stew of meat, poultry, game, fish or vegetables. The ingredients are a regular size and shape and cooked in a thickened liquid, generally well flavoured with herbs and seasonings. They may or may not be browned before cooking.
Soufflé, pronounced 'sue flay', is a French word for a light, airy baked dish. Stiffly beaten egg whites are folded into a thick base.
The air trapped in the egg white foam causes the soufflé to rise in the heat of the oven. It should rise well above the rim of the straight-sided soufflé dish it is baked in.
A soufflé should be served as soon as it is removed from the oven because the air begins to escape immediately and it begins to collapse. Soufflés may be savoury or sweet.
A cold soufflé is not a true soufflé. It is actually a gelatine-based mousse put in a soufflé dish with a paper collar extending above the rim. When the mousse is set, the collar is removed and it looks like a soufflé.
A terrine is a rectangular deep sided heat-proof dish with a lid.
Foods cooked in a terrine are often given the same name. Thus, terrine also refers to a påté cooked in a terrine dish. The dish is often lined with streaky bacon.
Terrines are usually made with mixed meats but may also be made with fish, seafood and vegetables. They are baked, covered, in a bain marie. Typically, they are served cold in slices.
Vol-au-vent is a French term for a round or oval puff pastry case with the centre half cut out, creating a hollow. After baking, it is filled with a cooked savoury mixture. Vol-au-vents are served as appetisers.
Culinary service terms are specialist words referring to how the food is served or the style of the menu. Like the culinary terms in the previous section, many of them are French.
A la carte is a French term meaning 'from the menu'. It refers to dishes that are prepared to order and individually priced on the menu.
Such dishes are usually more expensive than a fixed menu.
Bain-marie, (pronounced 'bahn mah ree'), is the French term for water bath.
It is a dish containing boiling or hot water in which other dishes are stood for cooking or to keep them warm without reaching too high a temperature.
A meal where a selection of dishes, hot and/or cold, are set out on a table.
Diners make their own selection.
A buffet may be self-service or served. A buffet is used for large formal or small informal gatherings.
Du jour is French for 'of the day'. The term is used to describe something made for the particular day, which is not on the regular menu.
For example, 'plat du jour' is the special or featured dish of the day.
Table d’hôte, (pronounced tabluh-doht) is a French term meaning the 'host's table'.
It refers to a fixed price menu with a fixed number of courses, possibly with some choice of dishes in each course.