According to the standard procedure, eating a French meal is a hassle.

A serious French meal, served in order.

The first is the appetizer, which refers to the first course of French cuisine, also known as an appetizer or appetizer. There are two types of appetizers: cold appetizers are made with a salad of various vegetables, fruits, seafood and other ingredients to achieve appetizing purposes, while hot appetizers are mainly fried and fried dishes.

The second course of French cuisine is soup, and the onion soup and fish soup in France are recognized as beautiful soups in the global culinary world. The soups in French cuisine are divided into two main categories: clear soups and thick soups. Consommé is mostly made with beef, chicken, fish, or vegetables, and is called consommé because it removes the fat from the raw material during cooking, and has a very light taste. Flour, butter, light yellow, cream, fresh milk, meat, vegetables and other ingredients are usually added to the soup, and the taste is relatively strong, so it is called thick soup.

The third course of French cuisine is the side dish, which usually includes freshwater fish, marine fish, shellfish and soft animals. One of the more obvious characteristics of side dishes is that the color of the meat is white, so it is also called white meat, while the main dish is usually red meat.

Then there's the main course, also called the main plate, which is the essence of a French meal. Entrées generally require no less than two of each side dish and require a variety of cooking methods.

After the main course, you can order a dessert, which can be ice cream and other foods.

Wine pairings are also particular, and the starters usually go well with sherry, whiskey, white wine, and soda. For the main course, steak or roast beef with dry red wine, lamb chop or roast lamb with light wine, ham or roast pork with champagne and sweet wine.

In short, there is a lot of exquisiteness, of course, French food is not so particular at the beginning, in fact, some people have studied the evolutionary history of French food.

The origins of the earliest French cuisine can be traced back to the source of the entire history of France, the Gaul period BC. The Gauls were excellent hunters, so at that time, meat was their staple food: poultry, pork, and meat of all kinds of prey. The Gauls also cultivated cereal crops and used them to make bread and brew beer.

With the invasion of the Romans, the Roman dining culture took root in Gaul. After Caesar conquered Gaul in 58 BC, the traditional Roman diet such as olive oil and wine-growing techniques also came to Gaul, and the history of French wine began, all of which brought great changes to the early Gallic diet. Because Roman culture was much more advanced than Gaul at that time, it was the Gallic upper class society that was most deeply influenced by Roman food culture.

In medieval dining culture, aristocratic banquets were an indispensable and important part of the dining culture. At banquets, the dishes are mixed together and served at once. Large pieces of meat are cut into small strips and eaten by people directly by hand. Due to the influence of religion, the idea of the existence of chains was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, so poultry was considered a more "noble" food and was favored by the aristocracy. During this period, the sauces were very thick and the flavor was heavier, especially mustard.

What does this chain mean? The concept of 18th-century European theology was a hierarchy of things from the top down. In the "Chain of Existence", God is at the head, and there are nine levels of angels under it, below which are humans, and below which are animals, plants, and minerals. No link in the chain can be moved up or down, and moving its position at will will destroy the order of the entire universe and violate the will of heaven.

Pie also had a place in medieval dining. At the end of the Middle Ages, it was already customary to eat pies after a meal, which was the prototype of the modern dessert. One of the most distinctive and bizarre dishes of the Middle Ages was roasted swans or roasted peacocks. French aristocrats peeled peacocks or swans whole, roasted them, stuffed them back into their original feathered skins, sewn them up, and painted their feet and beaks gold to bring them to life. Because the meat of swans and peacocks does not taste good, sometimes the meat inside the fur is replaced with domestic goose or chicken.

Between the 11th and 13th centuries, several crusades brought back many exotic foods, such as rice, buckwheat, and especially spices, such as ginger, cinnamon, cloves, pepper, nutmeg, etc., which further enriched the ingredients of French cuisine, and spices were sometimes used to mask the taste of stale food.

The period of the Renaissance was the era of the rise of French cuisine.

Between the 15th and 16th centuries, the discovery of the New World introduced many American foods to Europe, such as peppers, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, etc., further enriching the variety of French cuisine. The combination of Marie Mecchi and Henry II led to the introduction of advanced and refined Italian food to France, such as pasta, asparagus, basil, sage and marjoram, and of course, Italian sweets and ice cream. In addition to food, Queen Mitch also brought the use of tableware to France, especially forks, which were not used in French cuisine at all before that.

The real path of French cuisine to "upscale" originated with a famous chef in the 17th century, La Varenne, who wrote a book that has an important place in the history of French cuisine, Le Cuisinier fran?? ois》。 The book is considered to be the first true French cookbook, and his recipes marked a shift in medieval culinary style. He also created new dishes: less greasy, less heavy, and served with vegetables. The book emphasizes the importance of the original taste of food, using local herbs instead of exotic spices, and using local ingredients. On this basis, a large number of classic dishes have emerged that laid the foundation of French cuisine: white sauce (one of the five major sauces of French cuisine), bouillon stock, butter dough, etc.

During this period, table manners in French cuisine were also more standardized. Instead of serving all the dishes together as in the Middle Ages, they are presented in order according to categories. Tableware and utensils have gradually changed from pottery to silver tableware that came from Italy.

Before Louis XV, French cuisine was all about pomp and circumstance rather than sophistication. With the further development of French culture, French cuisine is much more elaborate than before, and delicacy and elegance are gradually put on the table, and these two points are mainly reflected in the quantity and quality of food. The first is that the quantity is reduced, the amount of dishes on the plate is greatly reduced, and secondly, the quality of the dishes is also paid more attention. During this period, the development of French cuisine made a qualitative leap and gradually evolved its own characteristics, gradually rising from the food itself to the level of culture and art.

The French Revolution further promoted the spread of French cuisine around the world, ushering in a golden age. After the Revolution, the aristocracy fled, so a large number of chefs who had previously served the aristocracy moved into the people and opened restaurants. At the same time, the rise of the bourgeoisie and the pursuit of quality life by this group of people have given restaurants of all sizes a living space, and the pursuit of French cuisine has changed from the original aristocratic class to the bourgeois crowd. The Industrial Revolution and the spread of machinery made it possible to reduce the cost of making and transporting food, and French cuisine became more popular among the population.

The 19th century can be said to be the golden age of French cuisine. The first was the birth of the profession of "gourmet". In 1803, Grimod, the world's first gourmet, published the world's first restaurant guide yearbook, L'almanach des gourmands, which was highly sought after by the whole country. Secondly, famous French chefs are also beginning to emerge, especially Auguste Escoffier, who is known as the "King of Chefs". He is a legendary figure in the history of modern French cuisine. He invented the kitchen division system, in which each person specialized in a part, which made the serving of dishes more efficient. He also simplified the structure of modern French cuisine, replacing the previous "French way of serving" with the "Russian way of serving". In the past, the dishes were not removed, but now they are withdrawn one by one. He also wrote the "Cooking Guide", which is still one of the classics of the chef world and is still used as a textbook. The recipes, techniques and kitchen management methods he invented have had a profound and lasting impact not only in France, but also in the world.

The Michelin Guide was born at the beginning of the 20th century to promote car travel and thus better sell Michelin tires. Unexpectedly, it has become an authority on restaurant ratings and a bible for food lovers. The popularity of French cuisine has been further boosted by the popularity of similar gastronomic guides, and the Michelin star rating standard has also promoted French cuisine to a place of elegance and luxury.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the "new French cuisine" began to enter the attention of the people. In those days, everything was changing and innovating. A new wave has emerged in the world of cinema, a new wave has emerged in the world of literature, and a new wave of French cuisine has emerged in the world of cooking. It is a rebellion against "orthodox" cuisine, rejecting the complexity of traditional cuisine, and the new French cuisine pursues simplicity and retains the original taste of the ingredients. For example, reducing the cooking time of fish and seafood, using steam cooking, and switching from thick and heavy sauces to lighter flavors such as fresh grass and lemon juice, etc. Among the leaders of the new French cuisine is the French national treasure chef Paul Bocuse. But Bocuse objected to any labelling of his cuisine and refused to be an ambassador for the "Trendy Cooking" movement. He believes that there is only one type of cooking, and that is good cooking.

Now, in the 21st century, another wave is blowing in the culinary world. Molecular gastronomy, also known as molecular gastronomy, is a culinary art that scientifically explains all cooking techniques and results and controls them with digital precision. To make molecular cuisine, we must rely on modern scientific theories and scientific instruments to make a cooking method that subverts the appearance of traditional cooking techniques and food by studying the physical and chemical changes of substances in different environments. For example, it can make potatoes appear in a frothy form, make lychees caviar-like, and have the texture of caviar, the taste of lychee.

The evolution of French cuisine is often accompanied by social and cultural changes, and the history of the evolution of French cuisine is, to some extent, a microcosm of French history. From the Gallo-Roman Empire, to the aristocratic banquet culture in the Middle Ages, to the rise of French cuisine before the end of the Renaissance system, to the unprecedented elevation of the status of French cuisine after the Revolution and the various changes it has undergone, French cuisine has always been accompanied by the continuous progress of the entire society, culture and economy. The characteristics of French cuisine at each stage reflect the cultural background and living conditions of the French people at that time.

Catering has also changed from the initial stage with the purpose of "satisfying the stomach" to now becoming a "high-end product" for the pursuit of art and culture. Although French cuisine has now been listed as a "World Cultural Heritage", in the final analysis, "French cuisine" is not only a "heritage", an immutable symbol of "high-end, luxury, and elegance", but a living existence that will make corresponding progress with the pace of change of the times.

Of course, these are more general histories of French cuisine, to be specific, the French spend an hour before a meal with an aperitif with some olives and biscuits, and when they actually sit down to eat, they don't have that intense hunger.

In addition to cats and dogs, there are also many varieties of meat, including well-known snails, frog legs, horse meat, and traditional meats, not to mention seafood: oysters, lobsters, crayfish, spider crabs and various sea shells, mainly marine fish, the most popular are bream, wolffish, sole, turbot and some untranslated fish, and smoked salmon is one of the Christmas traditions. People who can hunt also pay attention to eating mountain sandpipers, which are small birds, but they are covered in meat and the meat is extremely fresh.

Meat is mostly stewed, grilled and fried. In general, they do not have the concept of "stir-frying", and there is only a prelude to cooking. Therefore, French food can be prepared in advance, unlike Chinese food, which always has to be cooked at the last minute in order to keep it fresh and tender. The condiments they use are basically some "grasses", and the commonly used ones are shallots, thyme, parsley, bay, etc. Just as there are not only soy sauce and vinegar in Chinese food, but also a variety of spices in French food, such as butter, milk, cream, eggs, etc., which can also be combined with a variety of flavors.

The French do not eat as many varieties of green vegetables as those in China, and most of them are eaten raw, and the rest are in the mode of watercress: large and tasteless, which is also suitable for the French cuisine. Gradually, people also used some foreign condiments, such as curry and ginger. The French believe that ginger has aphrodisiac properties, so it is very easy to accept. In addition, Chinese cabbage and bean sprouts have also begun to become popular. Their approach to vegetables is the opposite of Chinese food, with no in-between: either raw or cooked. Eaten raw, there are a variety of lettuce, sweet carrots, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Like a boiled rotten with pureed spinach or all kinds of stuffed vegetables, even lentils are boiled until soft.

Knives and forks are exquisite.

On the occasion of a little higher grade, three to four pairs of knives and forks are placed on each side of the plate, and the cups are large, medium and small. That's the most elaborate one, and one or two pairs of knives and forks are generally enough. For example, eating seafood is even more lively, there are all kinds of tools, if you don't do a lot of work, you will feel sorry for them. The general rule is to start with the outermost knife and fork for each dish, and then remove it as you go, and then it will be easier to do. Large glasses are used for drinking water, others for red and white wines. The large spoon is only used for soup or communal use, and the small spoon is divided into sweets and coffee, the latter being one size smaller than the former. If you eat at home, you can wash pots and cups and spoons after such a meal, but fortunately, someone invented the dishwasher.

In short, eating French food can be said to be enjoyable, or it can be said to be a kind of torture.

Zhou Fangyuan was the most afraid of torture, so he didn't wait for Arnault to answer, and went into the kitchen by himself. In fact, it is quite impolite, under normal circumstances, the kitchen is a battlefield for the male and female hosts, how can there be a reason for guests to come in. But Zhou Fangyuan couldn't sit still when he thought of the situation of two or three hours at every turn, but fortunately, when he entered the kitchen, it was not as complicated as he imagined. The appetizer was a plate of vegetable salad, the main course was steak with foie gras, and the dessert was also prepared before, Arno just had to mix the salad and fry the steak and foie gras, which made Zhou Fangyuan breathe a long sigh of relief.