french and english terms

[scoobydj]

i'm teaching english to french cooks and need help to translate terms such as 'send up' 'pick up' or 'faire marcher' and 'dresser'
Any ideas?

[Mezzaluna]

Hi scoobydj, and welcome to Chef Talk. I'm going to move your query to the Cooking Questions forum, as the Welcome Forum is only for introducing yourself. We have a number of francophones here who will be great resources for your question, I'm sure. They'll be more likely to find your question if I move it.

I encourage you to use the search function to find information; check out the archives; and feel free to browse and post as the spirit moves you.

Please do stop in at the Welcome Forum to introduce yourself to us. We'd be happy to know more about you.

Mezzaluna
Welcome Forum moderator

[84RHONDA]

Kimmie might have a field day with this, but I'll give it a whirl.

"send up", i'm assuming you mean to "send the food upstairs", I believe I would say "envoyer en haut" ---> phonetically it would be "an voy yeah en o"

"pick up", again since I'm not a chef I'm only guessing where you would use the term in your kitchen. Assumin that it's for "pick up orders only", I would say "pour emporter"

Kimmie would prolly help you the best, sorry can't be much help.

[davewarne]

Hi,

My training was in a French oriented kitchen. We used the timeless commands as in a real large hotel kitchen with an Aboyer or Barker calling out the orders to the chefs. The system had three commands.
1. 'En Command' + the dish and the number of portions
which meant these items had been ordered by the waiter. This was to allow the chef time to order up/send for anything needed from the cold store/larder.
2. 'A Commencer' + ( as above )
which meant start the cooking process.
3. 'Envoyer' + (as above)
easy... send it up.

The chef ( de partie) was expected to listen out for the orders that were meant for him and to carry it all in his head. He was also expected to acknowledge the order each time with 'Oui, Chef!'
The Aboyer was a senior, experienced member of the kitchen and was expected to know how long each dish took to prepare so he could arrange to get the entire order to the hotplate at the same time. No mean feat. And woe betide you if you got behind.

Very fast and very noisy. Don't know if it is still like it now.

Dave