entr ées

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:24 AM -0700 4/5/07, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>my friend steven levine wrote in his livejournal today --
>
>   http://unzeugmatic.livejournal.com/111715.html
>
>that
>
>Like most American visitors to Australia, when I was there I took
>note of the fact that restaurant menus describe as "entrees" what are
>noted as "appetizers" in American menus, and what American menus
>categorize as "entrees" the Australian menus call "main courses". My
>friend rsc just returned from a trip to New Zealand where he noted
>this same thing holding true -- as it does everywhere but the US --
>and said that he had no idea how the US designation came about.
>
>-----
>
>steven then went back to the 1907 _Modern Hostess_, which describes a
>"formal hotel dinner" of ten courses, in which the entrée course was
>fifth, in between the fish course and the roast course.  steven's
>idea was that as these dinners got pared down, the entrée course
>"increased in importance and quantity and became more generalized".

Plus (it had to be said) on less formal occasions
the entrées and dessert courses are now often
both served *after* the joint...

LH

>as it happens, the *only* subentry the OED currently has for "entrée"
>in cookery is from a time when the entrée course came between the
>fish and the roast (though the meal might have only five courses,
>rather than ten):
>  2. Cookery. A 'made dish', served between the fish and the joint.
>Also attrib., as entrée dish. (Littré explains entrées as 'mets qui
>se servent au commencement du repas'.)

LH

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