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Cuisine

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Food can signify love, sharing, pleasure, and celebration!!!

National French Week offers an opportunity for students to

Use the following activities & experiences to discover the culinary world
Learn about nutrition
  • create posters and displays on agricultural production, regional cuisine either of France or the francophone world
    • compare the nutritional value of a typical French or francophone and American meal
  • collaborate with school cafeteria staff to offer a French meal or dish
  • invite a French-speaking or French-trained food professional to speak to the school
  • decorate the cafeteria with student-created posters promoting French regional cuisines and the cuisines of the francophone world

Practice food preparation
  • sponsor a recipe or cooking contest with school board members or administrators as judges
  • create menus in French for the school cafeteria
  • volunteer to have students “cater” a school board or city council meeting
  • organize a French meal cooked by students with invited guests
  • organize a French pot luck dinner for students and their parents

Discover the nuance of taste
  • organize tasting events for cheeses, pastries, or regional dishes which may involve judging as well as sampling dishes
  • sell or provide samples of French foods in the hallways at school or at a local grocery store or mall
  • set up a café in the classroom and serve breakfast to administrators, counselors, or parents
    • one student acts the part of the French-speaking waiter or waitress while a partner serves as translator
  • work with local grocery stores, food shops, culinary specialty stores, or malls to do demonstrations or presentations on French or francophone foods
  • organize a francophone food fair with French-speaking students at a local university
    • students of different nationalities can provide a dish representative of their culture
  • organize a culinary scavenger hunt with teams of students searching for ingredients for an exotic dish
    • then prepare and eat it

Share knowledge with others
  • create a website/blog on francophone cuisines with recipes, cultural information, music, and illustrations
  • put together and distribute a French or francophone cookbook
  • sponsor an excursion to a local French restaurant, inviting school officials and parents
  • take a field trip to a French bakery or restaurant for a cooking demonstration or lesson
    • have students demonstrate what they learn to others
  • have students give a presentation on French food, table setting, and table manners to local civic groups or elementary schools
  • invite exchange students to be guest speakers and talk about their experiences with food in the United States
    • organize a panel with American students who have visited other countries
  • collaborate with other teachers for an interdisciplinary project related to French cuisine
    • one teacher supplying the cooking expertise, one supplying the cultural knowledge

For twelve years I organized an annual French dinner for my university students, the last one consisting of a nine-course meal for 32 people. Every year at the beginning of second semester, students voted on a menu and date for the dinner during the month of March. I then tabulated the results, assembled the recipes, and determined the cost of the meal per person. Students paid usually $6-$8, and we invited other French faculty and Francophone foreign students to attend as well. Students signed up to help shop, prepare the dishes, and clean up.

On Friday afternoon, one or two students accompanied me to do the shopping. Depending on the dishes chosen, students came to my home on Saturday throughout the day (and sometimes on Friday if a dish required overnight refrigeration) to prepare the various plats. We even tried making our own baguettes one year, but oven space was too limited to allow us to bake enough loaves and prepare the other dishes which required oven time. Dishes like soups and stews could simmer away in crock pots or electric roasters, freeing the stove top and oven for dishes that had to be prepared just prior to serving.

Individual menus were printed, and each student received a copy of all the recipes. The table setting was as authentic as possible, with tablecloths, cloth napkins, real dishes and silverware. Students were responsible for serving the dish they had prepared. We served French bottled water rather than wine since not all students were of legal drinking age, although we cooked with wine. Fresh ingredients were used whenever possible, and all dishes were made from scratch. The meal lasted at least two hours, and there were never many leftovers.

The last two years, we were featured in the local newspaper as “Cooks of the Week” with the menu of our dinner and recipes printed as well as photos of the cooks at work. Although the logistics, particularly for seating and cooking time, were often complicated, this was one of the most popular events to which students looked forward from one year to the next. It is often one they reminisce about when we meet years later, and they still use the recipes.

A typical menu included: French onion soup, crab-stuffed avocadoes or bouchées à la reine, chicken breasts with white wine and cream sauce, stuffed mushrooms or carottes à la crème, aligot or pommes dauphines, salad, cheese, mousse or éclairs au chocolat, Konakry (a jelly-roll cake with raspberry jam filled with crème pâtissière and pineapple and with an apricot glaze) or cherry clafoutis, and, of course, café after the meal.

Jayne Abrate

Jayne Abrate

Adapted from the AATF National Bulletin, Special Issue, Vol. 24 No. 5 (May 1999)