I mean France is only a few miles from England yet it seems that with regard to cuisine Americans use more French terms than the British or Irish do.
Filet - Fillet
Entrée - Starter
Filet mignon - fillet steak
etc.
(Bonus question: why is soup typically served with crackers in the US? I just don’t get it!)
The term is French, but in American English, “entree” refers to the main dish, not the starter, which is usually called an “appetizer.”
I’ve only seen that in diners or family restaurants. In fact, I can’t think of the last time I had soup with crackers. I suppose it’s there to help fill you up and make the soup course feel more substantial.
Also, remember that you guys use French-derived terms like “courgette” and “aubergine,” while we use the Germanic or English equivalents, so I’m not sure whether the assumption in your OP holds up or not.
It generally isn’t. The main exception is clam chowder, which is served with oyster crackers. Some diners give Saltines with tomato soup and the like, but upscale restaurants never do it.
In the US, there was a time where French cuisine was considered the best, so I’m sure restaurant owners used French terms to give it an aura of class.
That’s true. I didn’t think of the counter-examples when writing the OP.
Sous-vide comes to mind. I’m honestly surprised we didn’t dub it temp-o-matic vacu-pak.
Someone remarked to me just today that the British seem to favor English-sounding terms more than Americans do, for whatever reason. This stretches to all sorts of terms, like preferring lift over elevator and way out over exit. I don’t know if this is true or not, but it seems consistent with what you’re talking about. It seems that the British indicator doesn’t follow this rule, but maybe it wouldn’t, since the American turn signal derives from Latin, as does the British term, so neither term fits the mold.
Your American chain restaurants are more likely to offer crackers with soup all the time, but as others have said, crackers are generally considered to be comme on fait with clam chowder. Personally I like crackers in tomato soup, but in general, I can do without them in my soup, too.
The French use croutons, which are similar to crackers.
Also, re: courgettes, we use the Italian Zucchini, which I always found strange.
:smack: Whoops. Should’ve spent a second to think about that one.
My family grew up with crackers and soup. Usually Ritz crackers, but tomato soup was oyster crackers. Dunno why. I’m out of the habit, but that’s more because I rarely eat soup anymore and even more rarely think to buy crackers.
Two words: Julia Childs.
That’s all I’ve got.
any chance it’s a holdover from the norman invasion? after all it’s why we eat pork and beef instead of pig and cow.
The English tend to use slices of white bread in a similar way. But not in restaurants.
Here in a a restaurant, soup will pretty much invariably come with either a white roll or brown bread.
Because we are more culturally sophisticumated.
You also have to factor in that, until recently, most US chefs trained in France, whereas most British chefs trained in Albania.
Crackers with soup add a dimension. Tomato soup, chili or New England clam chowder (which, as mentioned above are probably the most common times you’ll see them) add a crunchiness texture, a different sort of saltiness. Same logic as adding cheese or chopped onions to chili, I suppose.
As for the original q… I’d say using terms like “entree” or “filet mignon” in the US is the Haagen-Dazs theory at place. Stuff that sounds foreign must be elegant if they went to all the trouble of importing it.
To a US ear, pate “just sounds better” than goose liver.
Very important point. In America, it goes appetizer/soup/salad – entree – dessert.
And when we get away from dining, we find an even more jumbled arena. I don’t think this is fairly classified as an “American” phenomenon:
napkin - serviette
packet - sachet
comforter - duvet
day care - creche
Not all pate is goose liver and not all goose liver is pate. And not all pate is pate; sometimes it’s terrine.
And there’s also “cilantro,” which we use for the cardamom leaf.
Coriander leaf, not cardamom.
:smack: Of course.
Funnily enough, I only found this out the other day. I was wondering what this Cilantro was that Americans seemed to use in every dish, plain ole coriander.