"A lot of essential French cooking terms people are familiar with, like sauté or mise en place, have basically been borrowed wholesale and mean exactly what the French originals mean. But dining habits at restaurants can be more regional than the French cooking school professionalism behind the scenes. The way menus are structured between French and English or American restaurants are one of those differences."
"There are actually a number of different types of menus available at many French restaurants, and the one just called menu (le menu), is a fixed-price menu for a multi-course meal that includes a small handful of options for each course. In English, this is often referred to as a prix fixe menu, but in France the term prix fixe has a wider meaning outside of dining and is not really a culinary term."
"Because it's a combo meal, menu options are usually a little cheaper than ordering dishes separately. However, while the savings of a fixed-price meal are appealing, you won't be seeing everything the restaurant serves on a French menu. For that, you need to ask for the "a la carte" menu. This is similar to what Americans think of as a normal menu, with appetizers and main courses listed separately and prices for each one."
Many English cooking terms derive from French, but restaurant menu structures can differ between French and Anglo-American dining. Le menu denotes a fixed-price, multi-course meal with a small set of choices per course and one posted price; restaurants may offer several menus at different price points and upscale establishments may list more courses. The phrase prix fixe exists in French but has broader uses outside dining. Fixed-price menus typically cost less than ordering separately. To see every dish and individual prices, request the à la carte menu, which lists appetizers and mains with separate prices.
Read at Tasting Table
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]