Cooking - French

Talking about Meal Preparation

When discussing how to prepare a dish in French, use action verbs to describe each step. For example, to say you boil water or grill meat, use the following structures:

• Faire bouillir de l'eau is "to boil water."
• Use cuire or faire cuire for general cooking or baking, like cuire le pain (bake the bread) or faire cuire la viande (cook the meat).
• When simmering, use faire frémir as in faire frémir la sauce.
• For grilling, use faire grillé — for example, faire grillé le poisson.
• Mélanger (to mix), remuer (to stir), and rincer (to rinse) often describe actions with ingredients: mélanger les légumes, remuer la soupe, rincer les fruits.
• To cover food, use recouvrir, as in recouvrir le plat de fromage.
• When it's time to serve, say servir, like servir le dîner.
• Use vérifier when you want to check cooking progress: vérifier la cuisson.

Example sentences: - Il faut remuer la sauce régulièrement. - Tu dois faire cuire le gâteau à 180°C. - Je vais rincer les légumes avant de les mélanger.

Describing the Kitchen and Utensils

To talk about things in the kitchen, use nouns for spaces and tools.

Your kitchen is la cuisine. Major appliances include le four (the oven), le four à micro-ondes (microwave), and le frigo (fridge). Smaller equipment includes la casserole (saucepan), la poêle (frying pan), la planche à découper (cutting board), le couteau (knife), la cuillère (spoon), la tasse (cup), and le plat (serving dish or baking dish).

Other useful tools: - la spatule (spatula), for flipping or mixing - le pinceau (brush), for spreading sauces or butter - l'éponge (sponge), for cleaning - le goupillon (bottle brush), for cleaning bottles or narrow containers - le grill (the grill) for grilling food - le évier (sink) for washing - la soucoupe (saucer), useful for serving with cups - la théière (teapot) for making tea

Example sentences: - Le couteau est sur la planche à découper. - Je mets la casserole sur le four. - Où est la spatule pour remuer la sauce ?

Describing Common Ingredients

To talk about the foods you cook with, use basic ingredient vocabulary. You might buy le beurre (butter), le fromage (cheese), les fruits (fruits), les légumes (vegetables), le pain (bread), la viande (meat), le poisson (fish), les pâtes (pasta), le yaourt (yogurt), le gâteau (cake), or le cake (a type of loaf cake).

Example sentences: - Je mélange le beurre et le fromage dans la poêle. - Les légumes sont frais. - Il faut un peu de pain pour accompagner la soupe.

Describing Common Food and Meals

Use specific terms for meals and general words for eating times:

• Le petit déjeuner is breakfast.
• Le déjeuner is lunch.
• Le dîner is dinner.
• Le repas refers to any meal.

These words help you organize your day and talk about when or what you eat.

Example sentences: - Le repas du soir est le dîner. - J’aime prendre un yaourt au petit déjeuner. - Nous préparons le déjeuner ensemble.

In France, mealtime traditions are important and meals are often social events, especially le dîner. The sequence of dishes and fresh ingredients matter in daily cooking.