French Culinary Terms & Techniques

In the modern kitchen, French cooking significantly influences international cuisine. Every day, countries including England and America recreate sauces and dishes that originate from France. Likewise, many cooking and baking styles, such as pastry arts, sautéing, poaching, and flambéing, are popular among professional chefs. French cooking techniques have long inspired chefs and home cooks in Western countries. From traditional French sauces to French cooking styles, menus in global restaurants and education in culinary schools draw on the skills mastered and developed by world-famous French chefs.

The French cuisine that we know today is the accumulation of various techniques and cooking methods originating from France that continue to play a pivotal role in how professional chefs organize, prepare, cook, season, and present dishes. French cuisine and cooking techniques can be traced back to the 14th century. Encompassing a range of methods and ingredients, pioneering chefs, including François Pierre La Varenne, began creating sauces, such as béchamel. La Varenne, in particular, had an influential role in establishing French cuisine and making French food distinct from other cuisines, such as Italian, in the 1600s.

From the 1700s onwards, chefs such as Marie-Antoine Carême, Georges Auguste Escoffier, and Paul Bocuse created recipes for roux – butter and flour cooked together to thicken sauces – and the classic Espagnole sauce. They also paved the way for classical, seasonal, regional, and haute French cuisine. The French approach was codified by the legendary French chef Georges Auguste Escoffier in the twentieth century. Chef Escoffier was using the methods of his predecessor, Marie-Antoine Carême, who outlined the concepts of haute-cuisine. 

The work of early French chefs continues to play a vital role in French cuisine, with many of their early recipes and cooking methods still widely used.

Classic Dishes using French culinary techniques:

Ratatouille: Originating from Provence, Ratatouille is a vibrant vegetable stew that celebrates the bounty of the garden. Techniques Involved: Precision chopping, Layering flavors through sautéing and simmering.

Quiche Lorraine: Quiche Lorraine is a savory pie from the Lorraine region of France, featuring a creamy filling of cheese, bacon, and eggs.Techniques Involved: Pastry making, Blind baking, Custard preparation.

Coq au Vin: Coq au Vin is a rustic French dish where chicken is slow-cooked in red wine with mushrooms and onions. Techniques Involved: Braising, Deglazing, Slow cooking.

French Onion Soup: A comforting soup made with caramelized onions, beef broth, and topped with melted cheese and toasted bread. Techniques Involved: Caramelizing, Broth simmering, Cheese melting.

Crème Brûlée: Crème Brûlée is a classic French dessert featuring a creamy custard base topped with a layer of hardened caramelized sugar. Techniques Involved: Custard making, Water bath baking, Sugar caramelizing.

French Culinary Terms

In the French kitchen, there are numerous terms used to describe cooking and food preparation methods. Here are some:

Mise en place

Mise en place means “everything in its place” and is a food preparation technique during which a chef prepares, measures, weighs, and assembles all ingredients they require to make a meal before they start cooking. You should have all your ingredients measured, chopped, and ready to go, as well as all the tools and equipment you need within easy reach. This will save you time and stress, and allow you to focus on the cooking process. In addition to easing the cooking process, mise en place guarantees that all components are gathered, reducing the risk of missing elements.

Mise en place is not only a practical technique, but also a philosophical one. It reflects the French attitude towards cooking: meticulous, disciplined, and respectful of the ingredients. The term was coined by Georges Auguste Escoffier, the legendary French chef who revolutionized the culinary world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He created the modern kitchen brigade system, standardized recipes, and codified the principles of French cuisine.

Knife Skills

There are different types of knife cuts that are used in French cuisine, such as julienne (thin strips), brunoise (small dice), chiffonade (thin ribbons), and concassé (rough chop). These cuts not only affect the appearance and texture of your food, but also the cooking time and flavor release. For example, a finely diced onion will cook faster and release more flavor than a coarsely chopped one. You should practice your knife skills regularly and use a sharp knife to achieve precise and consistent cuts.

Knife work is also an art form in French cuisine. It reflects the creativity and elegance of the chef, as well as the respect for the ingredients. One such example of this elegance is with the knife cut called tourne (to turn), which refers to a technique of cutting vegetables into uniform shapes, such as barrels or footballs. This technique was developed by Antonin Carême, another influential French chef who was known as the “king of chefs and the chef of kings”. He was famous for his elaborate and extravagant dishes, such as pièces montées (edible sculptures made of sugar or pastry).

The differences between these various cuts can be subtle, but they’re important distinctions in French cuisine!

Julienne: A food preparation method, to cut vegetables into small, uniform matchsticks. These cook quickly and evenly and are perfect for a light sautée. The batonnet is similar in shape to the julienne, but it’s a bit shorter and thicker. Learning to julienne is the first step to achieving the fine dice in mirepoix.

Brunoise: a fine dice, often used in sauces as their small size releases flavor quickly. A small dice is a slightly larger cube than a brunoise.

Chiffonade: A popular way to prepare salad greens such as spinach, kale, lettuce, and herbs such as mint, chiffonade is a fine slicing technique. A popular French cooking technique, chiffonade is a method of cutting herbs and leafy vegetables into fine strips. To do this, stack leaves on top of each other, and roll tightly. Then slice perpendicular to the roll for long, thin ribbons. Chiffonade transforms leafy, delicate greens or herbs into delicate ribbons for garnishing.

Cooking Techniques

These are just some of the basic French cooking techniques that you can use to create amazing dishes at home. Of course, there are many more techniques that you can learn and explore, such as roasting, frying, steaming, blanching, stewing, confit-ing... the list goes on!

Sautéing: Derived from sauter, the French word for jump, sautéing is a cooking method where ingredients like vegetables are quickly pan-fried over medium to high heat on the stovetop in a thin coating of fat like olive oil or butter, usually in a shallow, wide pan. The food should be cut into small pieces or thin slices, and stirred or tossed frequently to prevent burning. Sautéing is great for vegetables, meats, poultry, fish, and seafood. It creates a nice browning effect and enhances the flavor of the food.

Flambéing: This is a dramatic technique that involves adding alcohol to a hot pan and igniting it to create a flame. The alcohol burns off quickly, leaving behind a rich and complex flavor. Flambéing is often used for desserts, such as Crêpes Suzette or Bananas Foster, but it can also be used for savory dishes, such as Steak Diane or Coq au Vin. Always remove the pan from the heat source before adding alcohol. Tilt the pan away from you to ignite the fumes, not the liquid.

Poaching: Poaching is a moist-heat cooking method that involves submerging food in liquid, such as water, stock, milk, or wine, typically without using fat. This is a gentle way to cook food by simmering it in a liquid. The liquid should be kept at a low temperature, just below boiling point, to avoid toughening or drying out the food. Poaching is ideal for delicate foods, such as eggs, fish, chicken, and fruit. It preserves the natural flavor and moisture of the food. The poaching liquid should be flavorful.

There are three poaching methods: shallow poaching, submersion poaching, and par-poaching. All poaching methods are great for gently cooking delicate foods like fish, eggs, meat, vegetables, and fruit. Sous-vide is a variant of poaching, in which proteins are sealed in a plastic bag and cooked for specific periods in temperature-controlled water to achieve a precise level of doneness.

Broiling and grilling: These are similar techniques that involve cooking food over or under direct heat. Similar to grilling, broiling is a technique that exposes food to direct radiant heat. Unlike baking and roasting, which employ indirect hot air to thoroughly cook food throughout, broiling uses high heat from a direct flame to quickly cook food surfaces. Broiling is what creates that bubbling, crisp crust of Gruyère atop a French onion soup, or the glassy, caramelized surface of a crème brûlée. Broiling and grilling are suitable for meats, poultry, fish, seafood, vegetables, and cheese. They create a charred and smoky flavor and texture.

Braising: Braising is a cooking method where food is cooked on low heat in a covered pot to unlock flavor. While vegetables can be braised, the technique is most often used for meat. After a quick sear to brown the outsides and render an initial layer of flavorful fat, the meat continues to cook in a seasoned liquid over low heat for a number of hours, depending on the cut. Braising is perfect for tough cuts of meat, such as beef chuck or lamb shank. It transforms them into succulent and flavorful dishes. Coq au vin and boeuf bourguignon—chicken or beef braised in red wine—are famous examples of French foods that are made with this technique.

Baking: This is a dry-heat method that involves cooking food in an oven. Baking is mostly used for breads, pastries, cakes, pies, quiches, casseroles, gratins, and soufflés. Baking creates a golden crust and a soft interior.

Confit: Confit is a time-honored tradition used by home cooks and chefs to salt and slowly cook an ingredient in fat. A confit is a technique traditionally used to preserve meats by cooking them in their own fat. The best-known example is duck confit. The term “confit” can be used to describe any ingredient, including vegetables, that has been slow-cooked in fat at a low temperature.

En papillote: A great deal of modern cooking terminology is in French, which can make simple concepts sound complicated. Cooking “en papillote” sounds complex, but it simply means to cook “in paper.” This technique involves tucking the food into a packet of parchment paper before baking it in the oven. This technique uses built-up steam inside the folded piece of parchment paper (or aluminum foil), which gently cooks lighter proteins like halibut, trout, chicken breast, pork chops and vegetables. Herbs, spices, citrus fruit, vegetables, and butter are often added as well to enhance the protein's taste, delivering a mouth-watering and succulent finish.

The packet not only keeps the food moist but contains the natural juices to keep the flavor from running away. This simple cooking method requires little added fat since the steam remains inside the packet and adds moisture. The tricky parts of cooking en papillote? Creating a tight seal on your parchment, and cutting your veggies and aromatics to size so they’ll finish cooking at the same time as the protein.

Flambéing: Flambéing is a cooking technique that introduces the flammable properties of alcohol to a dish, mostly desserts. A sauce or pan liquid is brought to very high heat and used to ignite the alcohol, which burns off in a matter of moments, leaving only the essence of its dominant flavor. Americans may be familiar with this technique thanks to desserts like Bananas Foster and Cherries Jubilee. The French may know it best from Crêpes Suzette, which features a sauce of butter and citrus juices set alight with a citrus liqueur tableside.

The Foundational Mirepoix:

Many culinary traditions have a core aromatic profile that comes up again and again as the basis for various dishes. In French cuisine, it’s the mirepoix (originating from the 1800s), a finely diced blend of two parts onion, one part celery, and one part carrots, lightly cooked in butter or olive oil. Sweat the vegetables over low heat in butter or oil until they are soft but not browned. To make the perfect mirepoix, you must cook your veggies slowly in order to release the flavors without browning or caramelizing them.

The French are far from the only chefs to have a foundational aromatic blend! In Cantonese cooking, you’ll find many recipes start with scallions, ginger, and garlic. The Italians have the soffritto, with the same veggies as mirepoix, but cooked in olive oil. In Cajun and Creole cuisine, the “Holy Trinity” of green bell pepper, onion, and celery forms the basis for étouffée, gumbo, and jambalaya.

The Perfect Roux

As a starting point for many of the Mother Sauces (see below) the roux is an indispensable French cooking technique. A perfect roux helps to thicken a liquid, stock, or sauce–adding thickness without lumps. The ingredients for a roux couldn’t be simpler, made from equal parts flour and fat—often butter. The trick is in the heat, the movement, and the timing. A roux should be cooked over medium heat, stirring frequently, until it’s just the right color. The only difference between a blonde roux, brown roux, and dark roux is in the timing. Leave it on the heat too long and you can go beyond your desired color. White roux for creamy sauces, blonde roux for gravies, and dark roux for gumbos and stews.

Five Mother Sauces

The five “mother sauces” in French cuisine form the basis of dozens of additional sauces (often called “small sauces” or “secondary sauces”). When one knows how to make these, a whole world of sauces opens up! These sauces and the secondary sauces can be found on pastas, proteins, vegetables, and much more.

The four original mother sauces were béchamel, velouté, espagnole, and tomate. These were selected by legendary French chef Marie-Antoine Carême, the man who developed the concept of haute cuisine. Later, hollandaise was added to the lineup by Auguste Escoffier himself.

Béchamel

The first of five mother sauces in French cooking, béchamel sauce is famous for being used in lasagne, baked pasta dishes, and pies. White in color, this creamy sauce is a roux of flour and butter with milk added in and cooked until thickened.

Velouté

A white stock (chicken, veal, or vegetables) flavored with mirepoix and thickened with a blonde roux. A smooth sauce with a creamy texture, which creates a delicious silky sauce that can be drizzled over meat and vegetables.

Espagnole

A popular type of demi-glace, Espagnole sauce is a flavorful brown sauce (veal or beef) flavored with mirepoix and thickened with a roux. Like other mother sauces used in French cooking, Espagnole sauce is usually used with sauces, stews, and soups for additional flavoring. Basic Espagnole: 2 cups beef stock, 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour, 1 cup mirepoix (onions, carrots, celery), 1/2 cup tomatoes, diced, 1 bay leaf.

Hollandaise

Hollandaise is a famous sauce often served in Western countries with eggs to create dishes such as Eggs Benedict and royale. Yellow in color, traditional hollandaise sauce is a mixture of egg yolk, butter, and lemon juice. Nowadays, you may find hollandaise mixed with other ingredients, such as mustard, for additional flavor.

Tomate

A classic in French cooking, tomato sauce is an all-around sauce that is mixed and served with vegetables, chicken, fish, poultry, and other meats. Made from rendered pork, aromatic veggies, tomatoes, stock, and ham bone for flavor. It is created using diced, cooked, or puréed tomatoes. Tomato sauce varies in texture depending on how it's prepared. Some chefs like the texture of chopped tomatoes, while others opt for a smooth consistency.

Flavorful Déglacer

Much of French cooking comes down to simplicity. Rather than adding additional ingredients or seasonings for extra flavor, French cooking classes teach students to work with what they have. One way to do that is with the method of déglacer, translating to deglazing. The French culinary technique of déglacer enriches and enhances the flavor of traditional French dishes.

To deglaze is to release the browned juices and fats from the bottom of your pan by adding a bit of stock, water, or wine and heating to a low simmer. As the liquid heats, scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to release the stuck bits. Deglazing pulls the concentrated flavors and fats from the pan which can then be re-used for a delicious pan sauce or demi-glace to pour over the protein that you’ve just cooked! You may also use déglacer techniques to season soup, gravies, and stews.

Bouquet garni (bouquet of herbs for flavoring)

Translating to garnished bouquet in English, bouquet garni is a traditional French cooking technique to add flavor, in which chefs create and submerge an assortment of herbs tied together in a dish during cooking to enhance dishes such as soups and stews. Bouquet garni can also be used in the base for stews, sauces and stocks.

But they’re not meant to be eaten. So how can you remove individual ingredients from the greater whole? The answer is the bouquet garni, a common method of adding a “garnish bouquet” to a dish that lets you take it out after cooking.

There are two prime methods of creating the bouquet. With stemmed and leafy herbs like rosemary, thyme, and bay leaf, the herbs are tied together in a bundle with a bit of kitchen twine. For dried herbs and small pieces like peppercorns, the pieces are tied up into a square of cheesecloth that can be removed after cooking. This is a perfect way to get peppercorn flavor in your dish without biting into one!

Coulis

In the traditional French kitchen, coulis emerged as a French style that saw home cooks and chefs pour juices from meat and poultry over a plate before serving a meal. Nowadays, coulis is best known for being a French cooking technique that sees professional chefs and home cooks puree fruits and vegetables into a smooth texture.

When made with fruit, coulis is sweet and can be found drizzled over classic French desserts or a modern French pastry. Vegetable coulis can accompany a range of meat and vegetable dishes.

Demi-Glace

If you’ve dined at a French restaurant, you’ve likely sampled demi-glace before. A brown sauce or stock formed from meats while cooking, demi-glace enriches the flavor of many dishes featuring steak, duck, pork, and chicken.

Essential Ingredients

Butter: Butter is more than just a cooking fat in French cuisine; it's an ingredient that imparts a luxurious mouthfeel and complex flavor to dishes. For baking, use room-temperature butter for better incorporation into the dough. When making sauces, add cold butter at the end to achieve a velvety texture.

Fresh Herbs: Fresh herbs like thyme, rosemary, and tarragon are the aromatic soul of French cooking, elevating even the simplest dishes. Thyme and rosemary are excellent for roasting meats and vegetables. Tarragon pairs well with chicken and fish, and is a key ingredient in Béarnaise sauce.

Cheese: Cheese is a culinary chameleon in French cuisine, appearing in everything from appetizers to desserts. Brie: Ideal for creamy textures; look for a soft, bloomy rind. Brie can be baked for a gooey appetizer or incorporated into creamy sauces. Roquefort: A pungent blue cheese; ensure it has rich, blue veining. Roquefort is excellent for adding a sharp contrast in salads or as a finish for steaks.

Wine: Wine serves as both a cooking ingredient and a meal companion, adding complexity and depth to sauces, stews, and braises. White wines: Choose a crisp, dry white like Chardonnay for poultry and seafood. Red wines: Opt for a robust red like Bordeaux for red meat dishes. Deglaze pans with wine to capture all the flavorful bits stuck to the bottom. Reduce wine to concentrate its flavors when making sauces.

Garlic and Onions: Garlic and onions are the aromatic foundation of many French dishes, providing a flavor base for sauces, stews, and sautés. Garlic: Opt for plump, firm bulbs with tight, unbroken skin. For a subtle garlic flavor, use whole cloves. For intense flavor, mince or grate garlic. Onions: Choose firm onions with a shiny, papery skin. Slowly caramelize onions over low heat for soups and sauces.