Vintcent's French Food Dictionary

Jacket text for Vintcent's French Food Dictionary

This dictionary of food has been written for all those English-speaking visitors to France who choose to cook for themselves. It is not a book of recipes, nor does it describe any dishes or courses that you will be offered in a restaurant or café.

Many people rent a house, villa or apartment, or stay in a mobile home, caravan or tent, when having a holiday or touring through France, and they enjoy the pleasures of self-catering in a country where so much good food is so plentiful.

Most visitors will use recipes written in English, and many will be bewildered by the variety of different names of the meat, fish and vegetables in the supermarkets, shops and market stalls. French cuts of meat are often dissimilar to those we are used to buying in the UK, and very often the shop assistants or stall holders do not speak English. Anyone who makes an obvious effort to ask for their purchases in the national language will receive much more help from the local people than otherwise.

In some cases, there is more than one name for the same thing, because they are called different names in different regions. For example, the fish that we call 'sea bass' in English is known as 'loup de mer' along the coast of France that borders the Mediterranean, and 'barr' along the Atlantic coast.

Cheeses and wines have been kept to a minimum because there are so many of each available throughout that lovely country that this small guide would become far too big and cumbersome to carry round the shops with you, which would defeat the object of having a small, portable reference aid to food shopping.

Also, there are many reference books on those two items that describe the cheeses and wines in great detail, region by region. The basic essentials needed for cooking are the only ones that have been included.

At the back of the book I have put some helpful tips for use when buying such items as sliced meat or ham when you may want the slices to be thicker or thinner, or, for harder or softer cheese for example. A table of comparative heat settings between gas and electric ovens is shown, along with a guide to pronunciation.

France has a lot to offer, and the people are generally helpful and polite. Regular use of the magic phrases 's'il vous plaît' and 'merçi' will work wonders, and help to cement the entente cordiale.

Happy shopping.

Chapter headings for Vintcent's French Food Dictionary

Meat, Game and Poultry
Fruit and Vegetables
Fish and Shellfish
Dairy and Bakery
Wines and Spirits
Grocery and Spices

in English-French then French-English


Helpful Information
- Liquid measures
- Solid measures
- Weights
- Temperatures
- Useful adjectives
- Containers, hardware and cooking aids
- Check-out and paying
- Cooking verbs
- Cleaning & hygiene
- First aid
- Common phrases