The 17 Course Classic French Dinner Menu

17 Course Classical French Dinner Menu

An 18th century merchant and chef named Boulanger forever changed modern food service by selling dishes he called”‘restoratives”’ – a word which is now considered the prelude to the modern term, “restaurant.” Before this, food in France was controlled by guilds, and guests had little choice in the menu which was fixed, as the professional guild dictated the menus, not the customers.

Boulanger changed all of that as the French Revolution of 1793 ended the monarchy also changed the fabric of French society. Many chefs were suddenly put out of work and opened restaurants in and around Paris to support themselves. They began to sometimes leave the choice of the menu to the patron, which was a new thing.

Auguste Escoffier (1847 to 1935), rejected the confusion and volume of the old menu dictated by the chefs or the new way of the guests ordering anything in any sequence they desired. Escoffier infused a sense of order and diversity by carefully selecting and matching one or two dishes per course. It is this sequence set forth by Escoffier which is still generally followed today, that we today know as the Classical French 17 Course Dinner Menu.

The sequence is as follows and the links take you to some our favorite recipes that we like to serve here at home during our dinner parties:

Hors d’oeuvre (appetizer)
Potage (soup)
Oeufs (eggs)
Farineaux (rice & pasta)
Poisson (fish)
Entrée (entry of 1st meat course)
Sorbet (which Escoffier describes as flavoured ice water)
Reléve (meat course)
Rôti (roast)
Légumes (vegetables)
Salades (salad)
Buffet Froid (cold buffet)
Entremet de sûcre (sweets)
Savoureaux (savoury)
Fromage (cheese)
Desserts (fresh fruits & nuts)
Cafe (coffee)

Consistency, freshness of ingredients, keeping it seasonal, and flair of the chef is what makes dining turn into a memorable experience. Seven to seventeen courses doesn’t hurt in making it an experience for diners, so long as you follow the first rule. It is easy to get carried away with too many courses and lose sight of the first rule.

It’s fun to compare Escoffier’s 17 course menu with that of the American Fanny Farmer’s of Boston. Fanny Farmer’s 17 course menu was featured in this book and NPR special, as the American and French haute cuisine menus of that time, and upon comparison were not all that different from Escoffier’s or those of today. Not much has changed in the 17 courses over time or across the pond. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130536078