Good Grub

From SCRIBO EDITION, French publisher of bilingual gastronomic dictionaries since 1989

THE A-Z OF COOKING VERBS

Pocket Dictionary
for cooks and pastry cooks
French-English/English-French

TEST YOURSELF !

• How would you translate a stew?
• Hint: the French use 6 different terms according to the food that is stewed.
• What is the technique to spatchcock a whole chicken?
• Hint: something has to be removed so that you can open up the chicken flat, like a book.
• What is the French translation for Blind-baking a pastry crust?
• Hint: The English cook ‘blind’ ; the French cook ‘à blanc’.

If you have no clue how to answer the above, then you definitely need The A-Z of Cooking Verbs.

BOTH A DICTIONARY AND A FRENCH TRAINING MANUAL

• The A-Z of Cooking Verbs offers cooks and bakers the vocabulary and phrases that are essential in translating recipes.
• Students in catering schools will use the dictionary to learn the definitions of the cooking vocabulary in French and in English.
• Their teachers will discover resources for numerous thematic lessons in cooking vocabulary.

A MINE OF INFORMATION
In a compact, easy to use format The A-Z of Cooking Verbs covers a large panorama:
1. The 450 verbs most frequently used in cooking and baking.
2. Definitions for specific French terms (chiqueter, luter, lever un filet de viande, abaisser une pâte, etc.).
3. Practical examples of translations in the context of recipes.
4. Linguistic variations British English/American English.
5. Verb derivatives: adjectives, adverbs, nouns (Ice, ice-cold, iced, icing; Cook, cooked, cooker, cookery, cooking,cookware, etc.). For common names which are not derived from a verb, The A-Z of Cooking Verbs is best used with its complement, the pocket gastronomic dictionary The A-Z of French Food, in which you will find all ingredient related terms (meat, fish, vegetables, etc.), along with the explanation of all the dishes, preparations and ingredients of traditional and regional French cuisine.

Author : Geneviève de Temmerman.
Format : 9 x 19 cm ; 144 pages.
For sale at www.scribo.fr from 8th June and international bookshops.
Price : 34 euros (dispatching included).

Tags: cooking, cooking dictionary, cooking terms, English, French, Scribo

A dramatic shift in farm subsidies by French President Nicolas Sarkozy looks set to bring healthier foods to consumers in France. Now food campaigners are asking when Prime Minister Gordon Brown plans to do the same for UK citizens.

This week the French government announced that from next year it would snatch back 20 per cent of the billions of euros paid in subsidies to big grain producers and give it instead to livestock graziers, hill farmers and organic producers. The surprise move will bring real health benefits to French consumers, who are already among the healthiest and longest-living in Europe.

The small farms in line for the extra cash have one thing in common – they all raise livestock the natural way by grazing them on fresh pasture. Research evidence is now accumulating that meat and dairy foods produced this way are rich in the nutrients which protect against today’s most intractable
diseases.

These health-boosting nutrients include a range of antioxidants including vitamin E, which protects against diabetes, heart disease and cancer; omega-3 fatty acids, which protect against heart disease; and a substance called CLA, a powerful cancer fighter.

Over the past 20 years levels of these nutrients have fallen in western diets leading to a big increase in degenerative diseases, including type 2 diabetes now reaching epidemic proportions.

One of the reasons for this loss of nutrients is the growing trend for beef and dairy farmers to take their animals off their natural pastures and feed them on cheap grain in concrete yards. Thanks to EU grain subsidies Britain’s surplus of pesticide-ridden cereals is now so big that more than half of it has to be fed to livestock.

This is not only damaging to the animals and the consumers who will eventually eat the foods, it is also harmful to the environment and the health of the planet. The bold French move to strip away some of the cereal subsidies will give a boost to the nation’s health, say food campaigners.

Graham Harvey – author of The Carbon Fields which spells out the health benefits of pasturefed foods – has welcomed President Sarkozy’s action. He said: “Once more the French, who are the longest living people in Europe, have been prepared to put human health before the profits of big corporations. It’s the global pesticide companies who benefit most from subsidies to cereal growers.

“And once more the British government is failing to protect the nation’s health by standing up for consumers against powerful interest groups. As Britain faces an epidemic of obesity and diabetes that threatens to overwhelm the NHS, the politicians fail to make the connection with falling food standards.

“The answer’s obvious. If you want to live to a ripe old age, the best advice is to move to the other side of the Channel.”

Books by Graham Harvey:

The Carbon Fields: How Our Countryside Can Save Britain

The Killing of the Countryside Winner of the BP Natural World Book Prize

Tags: EU, farmer, farming, farms, food, France, French, health, organic, pasture