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THE COOKTIONARY®

Cooking In France?  It’s a piece of cake with the Cooktionary!

A Wonderful Christmas Present for anyone living in France

THE COOKTIONARY a - Z

Contains a translation of over 6000 French gastronomic, culinary & household words—words used in recipes, cookery magazines & food advertising, on packaging, household equipment & restaurant menus.

THE COOKTIONARY COMPANION

The second book in the series delves deeper into the Anglo-French store cupboard and sorts its contents into manageable sections.

Headings include Breads, Charcuterie, Cheeses, Fish, Garnishes, Herbs, Meat cuts, Mushrooms, Sauces, Seafood, Spices, Wines & many others.

THE COOKTIONARY FOR KIDS

Specially designed to help youngsters choose meals for themselves when in France.  Full of food words (translated both ways and with phonetic pronunciations), it will enable them to translate the menu into English and find their favourite food in French.

Games to play between meals, on those long journeys across France, will pass the time and help them learn lots of everyday French words. A list of weirdly-named foods will amuse all the family.

To find out more about the Cooktionary or to place your order, Click on this advertisement

COOKTIONARY

Franglivres,

3 rue des Alouettes

60113 Monchy-Humières,

France

E-mail: the.cooktionary@orange.fr

COOKTIONARY is a Registered Trade Mark

Gee Greville is author of  THE COOKTIONARY (A FRENCH DICTIONARY FOR COOKS).

THE COOKTIONARY A - Z contains over 6000 French gastronomic, culinary & household words translated into English

www.thecooktionary.com

French Etiquette - and more kitchen vocabulary

No 2 in our series of Gee's Gastronomic Titbits - by Gee Greville

In Britain, one asks a shop assistant for help by saying, "Excuse me, please …".  In France, this gets a brusque retort.  I now realize that you can be as politically incorrect as you like to a French person, as long as you begin with "Bonjour" !

In Britain, everyone shouts "Cheers" and thrusts glasses into the air.  In France, one must be standing up, clink glass-to-glass and look each 'clinker' in the eye 

In Britain, we sometimes shake hands when introduced, sometimes kiss a friend or relative, but mostly just say "Oh, Hello".  In France, one ALWAYS shakes hands UNLESS kissing is appropriate (and this is not necessarily evident !) – an American told me, recently, how surprised she was when her Parisian butcher came from behind the counter to give her two 'smackers' when she went to his shop for the third time !  And kissing is not just the 'Hello' symbol, it has to be done all over again on departure.

All these variations go to show how splendidly different we actually are – and Vivre la différence !  However, there is one area that really gets my goat – QUEUING !  How is it that, with the necessity to say a polite Bonjour to all present on entering a waiting room, bakery shop or railway carriage, a whole nation can be so totally uncontrolled when it comes to waiting one's turn to get on the bus, be served at the cheese counter or, worst of all, buy stamps at the post office ?  It still pains me hugely, but I have become truly French in this regard.   Or, at least, I have lost much of my British reserve.   I now dodge the 'wait behind' yellow line, I no longer try to stare 'pushers' in the eye and I certainly have no pity for pregnancy, pushchairs or pensioners.  I challenge anyone who comes from behind and I make my way determinedly to the front – with varying success, bien sûr !

Then there's the tu–vous problem.  I was told by a French friend that the best (i.e. safest) way was to vous everyone – anyway, at first.  All very well, except that one then gets into the vous habit and, if French conjugations are well in the past, it can be very difficult to make the tu conversion when necessary.  I've also had some very strange looks from small children who assume I must be mentally deficient (as well as foreign) !  Of course, in time, one gets a bit more relaxed about it, but I still have to concentrate very hard to remember if I have already tu-ed the chap sitting opposite me at table !  There is, of course, the little 'can we be familiar' ritual of on peut se tutoyer, non ? but I never feel it's for me to make the first move.  And then, once you do, they get all upset if you lapse into a vous phase.  Ah, well – I'm here to stay, so they'll have to get used to me !

CULINARY VOCABULARY : (20 words translated French-English)

KITCHEN EQUIPMENT:

Araignée à friture  Skimmer-spoon   

Batterie de cuisine  Pots & pans   

Billes en céramique  Beans for blind baking

Coquetier  Egg cup     

Corne  Bowl scraper     

Cul-de-poule  Round-bottomed metal bowl

(for whisking, etc.)  

Douilles  Piping shapes     

Entonnoir  Funnel      

Fouet  Whisk     

Gaufreuse  Pastry wheel

Jeu de sets de table  Set of place mats

Kit sommelier  Barman’s set

Louche  Ladle

Manique  Pan holder

Pichet  Pitcher, Large jug

Pinces  Tongs

Robot  Food processor

Sablier  Egg timer

Théière  Teapot

Tournebroche  Spit

Food Shopping in French - No 1 in our series of Gee's Gastronomic Titbits

Also by Gee Greville: