Haute Cuisine and Haute Couture

‘Café’ is just one among many French words from the world of eating and drinking which have now established themselves in regular English usage. We use the French terms ‘gourmet’, ‘gourmande’ and ‘bon viveur’, for those who relish the delights of the table. No doubt the French preeminence in the world of what we call ‘haute cuisine’ (‘high-class cookery’) is responsible for this influence of the French language. At the restaurant we study the à la carte’ (‘according to the list’) menu, from which we are free to select as we choose, and the ‘table d’hôte’ (literally ‘the host’s table’) menu which contains a series of courses planned by the establishment at a quoted price. The first course may be called the ‘hors d’ œuvre’ (‘outside the work’) and is supposed to consist of preparatory appetizers. If the word ‘starters’ seems now to be replacing ‘hors d’oeuvre’, other French expression at the table seem to hold their own. There are dishes such as ‘pâté de foie gras’ (‘pâté of fat liver’), and a beefsteak cut from between the ribs is called ‘entrecôte’. Our sweet dishes include a ‘soufflé’. They also include a ‘sorbet’ and, accustomed as we are to adapting our pronunciation to suit the French, we give the word the French treatment, though in fact it comes from Turkish and is really the same word as ‘sherbert’.

We may add that the expression ‘crème de la crème’ (‘cream of the cream’) takes us right out of the restaurant. It stands for the very best of the best. Our inherited respect for the French as social superior of taste applies beyond the dining-room. Just as we speak of ‘haute cuisine’ so also we use the expression ‘haute couture’ for high-class dressmaking, another sphere of French preeminence. We used to call high society the ‘haut monde’ (‘the high world’) and the world of fashion the ‘beau monde’ (‘the beautiful world’). We still preserve the French pronunciation of ‘boudoir’, ‘massage’ and ‘coiffure’. The French language therefore, having the cachet or prestige of the upper class, comes in useful for veiling unmentionable items and practices in delicate terminology. When women want new underwear, they seek it in the ‘lingerié department. Their undress is their ‘negligée’ or their ‘déshabillé’. We describe a woman’s low-cut garment that exposes the bosom as ‘décolleté’. A comparable delicacy no doubt stands behind the now established practice of referring to hotel rooms that are fully equipped with washing and toilet facilities as ‘en suite’ (literally ‘in sequence’).

Дата добавления: 2015-07-10