Here is another list of fancy food terms explained so you can impress your foodie friends…
A LA CARTE – The fancy version of this is a menu broken down into separate parts so you can order whatever you want for your meal, as opposed to all together…for us normal folks, just think of it as a ‘dollar menu’ for expensive stuff.
MINCED – Just cut any food item to heck and back…basically minced. One step above pulverized with a laser.
CANAPEAS – Think of a Ritz cracker with a piece of cheese on it. Now change the cracker to a slice of artisan bread, and change the toppings to a red onion marmalade, torched Bree, and crispy lardons. Can-of-peas.
CARAMELIZED – A fancy way to say, ‘I almost done burnt it.’
NAPPE – Confirming your sauce is thick enough by its ability to coat the back of a spoon. You don’t want paste, and you don’t want water. Nappe is that sauce sweet spot.
APERITIF – Pre-gaming to get the mouth party started.
UMAMI – If you taste meat-like-flavor in something without having the confirmation of actual meat being present, verbally state you get a strong ‘umami’ profile from the dish.
AU JUS – The natural juice of whatever food item you just cooked. If you cook a shoe and juice comes out, you can serve it with shoe au jus. Don’t cook a shoe. Gesundheit.
CONFIT – Cooking a food items in its own fat. If you cook a shoe its own fat, you can serve shoe confit. F.Y.I. shoes don’t have fat unless your foot is in it, but that wouldn’t be shoe fat…it would be you fat.