French banquet likely to test Chinese diners
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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’s 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’s 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 “gougères” (cheese puffs), “mouillettes” (soldiers for boiled eggs) or “mignardises” (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’s social secretary, who has to find equivalents for expressions such as “Noisette d’agneau en damier” (literally “lamb medallions in chessboard”) and “Homard bleu Bellevue” (blue lobster Bellevue).
Head chef Thomas Ciret described his “oeuf toqué au poivre du Sichuan” (scalped egg with Sichuan pepper) as: “You 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.”
Literally impossible
Literal translations are impossible, as with “foie gras poêlé à la granny-smith et céleri-rave” (seared foie gras with Granny Smith and celeriac).
“If I translated Granny Smith it would be incomprehensible. So first I need to understand what it is, and then interpret it as ‘green apple’,” Wang said. In the same way, she translated “Gaspacho, granité de concombre” (gazpacho with cucumber granita) as “cold Spanish soup.”
Many of the restaurants taking part in today’s event have not provided Chinese-language menus for its website — while some have even turned to English for the “local language.”
In Chinese cooking chefs harmonize “cold” and “hot” food types, a Chinese concept that has nothing to do with temperature: lamb and chicken are “hot,” black tea and lychees are “warm,” while duck, strawberries and green tea are “cold.”
“At a buffet, some Chinese tend to put everything together on their plates. You’ll see them help themselves to salad, then add fish, meat, vegetables, rice, a creme brulee and a chocolate pancake,” 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.
“The first time I had French cuisine I held my fork in my right hand, until a friend told me to switch,” said Fan Yuejiao, who works for a food website.
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