French banquet likely to test Chinese diners
With its unusual cutlery, bizarre names and complex etiquette, French haute cuisine is as daunting as it is appealing to Chinese diners, despite the Asian country鈥檚 own proud culinary tradition.
Today, more than 40 restaurants in China will offer six-course menus highlighting French ingredients as part of a worldwide gastronomic and diplomatic fightback in the face of ever-increasing competition.
The French ambassador in Beijing will receive 160 guests and Paris鈥檚 consulates in Hong Kong and Shanghai will also put on dinners.
But French chefs have to educate their audiences in China more than elsewhere.
The biggest challenge is linguistic: how to translate into Mandarin terms like 鈥済oug猫res鈥 (cheese puffs), 鈥渕ouillettes鈥 (soldiers for boiled eggs) or 鈥渕ignardises鈥 (miniature pastries served with coffee or canapes).
In many countries restaurants use French terminology, but with no equivalent in Chinese characters they have to resort to descriptions.
At the embassy in Beijing, the job falls to Wang Wei, the ambassador鈥檚 social secretary, who has to find equivalents for expressions such as 鈥淣oisette d鈥檃gneau en damier鈥 (literally 鈥渓amb medallions in chessboard鈥) and 鈥淗omard bleu Bellevue鈥 (blue lobster Bellevue).
Head chef Thomas Ciret described his 鈥渙euf toqu茅 au poivre du Sichuan鈥 (scalped egg with Sichuan pepper) as: 鈥淵ou slice off the top of the egg, withdraw the white, make a whipped cream with sherry vinegar, cardamom, Sichuan pepper, salt, and chives. Then you cook the yolk in a water bath.鈥
Literally impossible
Literal translations are impossible, as with 鈥渇oie gras po锚l茅 脿 la granny-smith et c茅leri-rave鈥 (seared foie gras with Granny Smith and celeriac).
鈥淚f I translated Granny Smith it would be incomprehensible. So first I need to understand what it is, and then interpret it as 鈥榞reen apple鈥,鈥 Wang said. In the same way, she translated 鈥淕aspacho, granit茅 de concombre鈥 (gazpacho with cucumber granita) as 鈥渃old Spanish soup.鈥
Many of the restaurants taking part in today鈥檚 event have not provided Chinese-language menus for its website 鈥 while some have even turned to English for the 鈥渓ocal language.鈥
In Chinese cooking chefs harmonize 鈥渃old鈥 and 鈥渉ot鈥 food types, a Chinese concept that has nothing to do with temperature: lamb and chicken are 鈥渉ot,鈥 black tea and lychees are 鈥渨arm,鈥 while duck, strawberries and green tea are 鈥渃old.鈥
鈥淎t a buffet, some Chinese tend to put everything together on their plates. You鈥檒l see them help themselves to salad, then add fish, meat, vegetables, rice, a creme brulee and a chocolate pancake,鈥 said Jean-Philippe Couturier, head chef at Beijing restaurant Cabernet.
Chinese diners also like to feast around a Lazy Susan loaded with multiple dishes, served with chopsticks.
The contrast with plates served in sequence can be disconcerting, particularly when specialised cutlery such as snail tongs are deployed.
鈥淭he first time I had French cuisine I held my fork in my right hand, until a friend told me to switch,鈥 said Fan Yuejiao, who works for a food website.
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