Explaining Dishes
Structures Describing foods Past Participles used as adjectives Complete the words in column 2. ...
Structures
Describing foods
Past Participles used as adjectives
Complete the words in column 2.
Notes:
- Roast does not take -ed. Sautee can take -ed. Would you like roast chicken and saute/sauteedpotatoes?
- These words change their spelling:
- chop - chopped
- shred - shredded
- fry - fried
The Passive Form
When the waiter and waitress explain a dish, they usually talk only about the food, not about the chefs. In other words, the passive form is often used to describe how things are made.
- The chefs cook the beef in wine.
The beef is cooked in wine.
- They poach the cod in milk.
The cod is poached in milk.
PRACTICE
Rewrite the following sentences using the passive form.
- They flavor the soup with herbs.
- They stuff the heart with bread, onions, and nuts.
- They flavor the chicken with melon.
- They serve the smoked salmon with brown bread and butter.
- They garnish the soup with small pieces of fried bread.
- They fry the vegetables in oil.
- They poach the poussins in wine.
- They fill the pancakes with cream cheese.
- They flavor the dumplings with herbs.
- They stuff the tomatoes with fried ham and onion.
- They serve the shrimps on a bed of lettuce.
- We make French dressing from oil and vinegar.
- The restaurant serves lunch from 12 to 3.
- The barman makes dry martinis from gin and vermouth.
- The wine waiter opens the wine at the table.
- The chef makes mornay sauce from flour, milk, butter, cheese and seasoning.
- The waiters bring the dishes from the kitchen on trays.
Quantifiers
Uncountable ingredients
Countable ingredients
PRACTICE
Choose phrases from B in the chart below to explain the following dishes to customers. Here is the information you need:
Tortilla
Tortilla: a sort of omelet
Main ingredients: eggs and potatoes
Additional ingredients: onion (just a little)
Preparation: slice potatoes, chop onion
Method of cooking: fry in oil
Accompaniment: serve with green salad.
Ratatouille
Ratatouille: a sort of vegetables stew.
Main ingredients: tomatoes, aubergines, green peppers, courgettes.
Additional ingredients: oil, butter, garlic.
Preparation: slice main ingredients.
Method of cooking: saute and then stew slowly in the oven.
Accompaniment: serve with boiled potatoes or rice.
Look at the following menu from Saigon Palace Restaurant. Work in groups of three or four. Some of you will be customers ordering foods, and the other will be the waiter/waitress taking down the orders.
Vocabulary
Food ingredients and recipes
Ingredients
Put the following words into the correct types of ingredients.
turkey - mustard - beans - kidney - herbs - margarine - rice - salmon - lobster - pheasant – lamp
Cooking Verbs
Match the verbs on the left with the definitions on the right.
French in English
A lot of words come from other languages, especially French in the language of restaurant. Complete these sentences using the words provided.
French words and phrases
a la mode
a la carte
bouquet garni
brut
chambre
chateau
chef de cuisine
cordon bleu
de luxe
digestif
en pension
hors-d'oeuvre
maitre d'hotel
nouvelle cuisine
plat du jour
plongeur
sauté
soupcon
table d'hote
traiteur
vinaigrette
- I like champagne, but this one is rather sweet for me. I prefer ________.
- I'm glad you enjoyed the meal. Would you like a ________?
- Here's the menu. We also have a ________ which is mackerel in white wine with spring onions.
- My first job in the kitchen was as a ________. Nowadays we have a dishwashing machine.
- We serve the salad with a simple ________.
- I usually have the set menu, but this is a special occasion. Let's go ________.
- I love apple pie ________ - it's the combination of hot and cold that I find irresistible.
- This is an excellent red, bottled on the ________.
- The restaurant has improved enormously since Larry Duval became the ________.
- We're investing a lot of money to create a restaurant which offers a genuinely ________ service.
- Add some ground chili, but not too much. Just a ________.
- Red wine should normally be served ________.
- If you want to have dinner in the hotel, we have special ________ price which is very economical.
- We ________ the mushrooms in butter with garlic and black pepper.
- A real ________ chef can make very good money in London.
- There's the ________ which is a set price of $18.90 for three courses.
- They complained to the ________ about the service they had received.
- We use a ________ to flavor the soup.
- I'm not crazy about ________ - I'm usually still hungry after I finish dinner.
- While we were looking at the menu, we were served Atlantic prawns with mayonnaise and an endive salad as an ________.
- Almost everything is prepared in our own kitchen except that we use a ________ for patisserie.
Pre-reading
Discuss the questions with your friends.
- What kinds of food should be included in a menu? In what order?
- How many kinds of menu do you know? What are they?
- How is a menu formatted?
- What are the basic rules for organizing a menu?
Reading
THE MENU
Offering the right varieties, combinations, and preparations of foods is a basic requirement for a restaurant's commercial success, but what will work for each restaurant differs from case to case. The reading selection below gives you a basic insight of a menu composition.
The Classical Menu Structure
A successful menu depends upon composition-the right combination of foods, prepared perfectly. So claimed Antonin Careme (1784-1833), the French chef who is considered the founder of classical cuisine. A table d'hote or a part menu is a predetermined succession of courses, offered at a set price. Today the a la carte menu, from which guests choose from a variety of courses and foods at different prices, is also popular.
The classical French menu contains thirteen courses. Today, a menu of this size is hardly ever offered. But even today's shorter menus follow the structure of the classical French menus as far as succession of courses is concerned. They always start with something light to stimulate the appetite, build up to the main course, and then become lighter toward the end of the meal.
The Thirteen Courses of the Classic Menu for French Cuisine
The following examples of five-course, four-course, and three-course menus illustrate that even today's short menus follow the same sequence based on the classical thirteen-course French menu. The individual courses, however, have been merged in many cases. The original main course consisted of an entire, uncarved poultry, meat, or game animal - a whole prime rib of beef, for example. Today the entree has merged with the main course. The vegetable, at one time a separate course, today is served as a side dish with the main course. Cold appetizers are always served before the soup. Hot appetizers are served after the soup.
4-course Menu
4-course Menu
In many cases, especially in restaurants serving haute cuisine, the a part or table d'hote menu is beautifully handwritten to emphasize the traditional character of the restaurant. In less fancy restaurants, a modern variant that is similar but simpler is often used: the blackboard, on which are written recommendations concerning the day's specialties.
In general, however, the table d'hote or a part menu, which changes daily or cyclically, is prepared in-house (on a typewriter or computer) and duplicated as necessary. A separate menu listing the daily specials might also be prepared.
In many restaurants the table d'hotel or a part menu and the daily specials contain only a fraction of what is offered. Often an a la carte menu, from which the guests can select an array of dishes that are always available, is also provided. If an a la carte menu is offered, the other menus are inserted in or clipped to its folder. The daily menus may also be placed at every seat, but in most establishments they are offered by the service staff along with the regular a la carte menu.
Cold and warm dishes are listed separately.
Appetizers, soups, seafood, and main courses are listed in separate groups.
In every group the lighter dishes are listed before the richer ones.
Salads should be highlighted.
If offered, low-calorie foods should be specially indicated, and the number of calories should be provided.
Every dish should be described clearly and simply, in an appetizing way, without being too flowery.
House specialties and seasonal items should correspond to the season and should change accordingly. Use a clip-on menu or special insert to attract attention to them.
The dessert selection should be listed on a separate attractive card. The menu should inform the guests that such a card is available.
The numbering of menu items can save time and confusion, especially with many of the new computerized cash registers. Numbering, however, discourages communication between guests and the service staff and thus does not help promote sales. For an easy compromise, place one numbered menu at the register or where orders are relayed to the kitchen so you can punch in the guest's order by number; the guest, however, orders the actual foods with words, not numbers.
Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
- _________ Antonin Careme was the first to design the short menu.
- _________ Game is the cold course in the traditional menu.
- _________ Soup is sometimes absent from the modern short menu.
- _________ Vegetable used to be served separately in the thirteen-course menu.
- _________ Customers are served a cold appetizer after the soup.
- _________ Customers can choose different dishes from a table d'hotel menu.
- _________ Light courses are often presented before rich ones in a menu.
- _________ Depending on different seasons, restaurant menus may present a variety of dessert.
- _________ Menu items are often numbered only when the restaurant has a cash register.
- _________ The communication problem with menu numbering is that customers order foods and drinks while the waiter/waitress has to note down the number.
Vocabulary
Fill in the blanks with NO MORE THAN three words taken from the text.
A successful menu is composed with a right combination of foods which are well-_________.The _________, which is rarely _________, has around 13 courses. Instead, many restaurants nowadays offer _________ with _________ or five dishes in the structures of the classical ones. They often commence with some _________ foods and recess with something even _________ at the end. Customers can also _________ individual courses at their expectations when having a short menu. The order of the food served is not strictly maintained.
A menu can be _________, sometimes on a _________ to place a strong emphasis on the special feature of the restaurant. The _________ is mostly typed to show the day's specialities. Customers can also find it convenient to choose foods by looking at _________ available at their tables.
Speaking
Discuss the questions with your friends.
- According to you, what other factors constitute a successful menu?
- Compare the thirteen-course menu with any menu that you know.
- If you were going to run a restaurant, what elements would you include in the menu?
What structures do you use to describe foods to customers?
