1,532 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...

The painter, the restaurant owners and the opera singer

You might well have noticed that there are recipes involving names that have been so overused (often for any old thing) that they have almost become common nouns.

21 K 4.4/5 (20 reviews)

Keywords for this post:Recipe Name Tatin Carpaccio Melba

Last modified on: September 25^th 2012

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

The painter, the restaurant owners and the opera singer

Here are three examples that you can easily find on the menus of certain restaurants.

Carpaccio

carpaccio Normally a dish of raw beef, sliced very, very thinly, seasoned, covered with a light film of olive oil, and often served "on the plate".

le triomphe de st georges It comes from: From the name of Vittore Carpaccio, a Venetian Renaissance painter famous for the reds and browns of his paintings, red as beef. Some even claim that he was inspired by his painting "The Triumph of St. George".

And often it's: Anything thinly sliced, such as: scallop carpaccio, pineapple carpaccio, and so on.

Tatin

Normally it 's: A delicious tart with caramelized apples baked upside down (the pastry is on top) and turned upside down when serving.

Le restaurant des soeurs Tatin It comes from: From the name of the Tatin sisters, restaurateurs in La Motte-Beuvron, France, who invented this dessert in the early 20th century.

And often it's: Anything with pastry on top (or bottom) that vaguely resembles an upside-down tart, such as: tomato tatin, chicken dice tatin, etc.

Melba

Normally it's: A peach melba, a bowl of vanilla ice cream, raspberry coulis, poached peach, praline almond paste and whipped cream.

From: From the name of a famous Australian singer of the late 19th century, Nellie Melba, for whom the great chef Alain Escoffier invented this dessert.

And often it's: Anything served with vanilla ice cream and Chantilly cream, like: Strawberries Melba, Pears Melba, etc.

And?

Well, I've mentioned the most common, it seems, in French, but you'll notice that it's often linked to a proper noun.

Of course, you can have fun combining them all... " Fraises Melba et leur carpaccio de poires Tatin": In a bowl, a base of vanilla ice cream, a layer of thin slices of caramelized pears, a circle of crisp shortcrust pastry, diced strawberries and Chantilly cream.

But... it looks good too!

Lasts posts

Oven height

When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do. But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.
October 8^th 20251,8985

The importance of sieving

In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?
September 3^rd 20257,0843

The grease spray

As soon as you have something in a recipe that sticks to the mold, the question always arises as to how difficult it is to remove from the mold. There's nothing more frustrating than breaking your cake when unmolding it, because part of it has stuck in the mold. The classic way to avoid this is...
August 26^th 20256,5655

Cake moulds

When we make a cake, or a cake of the same rectangular shape, we usually take out our usual mould and tell ourselves that the recipe is anyway "for a cake", but is it really that simple?
August 25^th 20256,6425

Thinning out herbs

If you need to add a long-stemmed herb (tarragon, mint, verbena, thyme, etc.) to a recipe, you'll probably only need the leaves and not the stem, so you'll need to remove the leaves. Leaf removal means keeping only the beautiful leaves, and eliminating the ugly stems and leaves, but how do you do...
August 8^th 20254,7535

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other pages you may also like

Should a sausage be pricked before cooking?

If you are using sausages in a recipe, you may have already asked yourself the question: Should you prick it before cooking it, or not? You will certainly find as many opinions "you should prick" as "you should not". Let's try to untangle all this.
September 29^th 201847 K4.1

Wipe meats and fish before cooking

When you want to cook meat or fish, there's a very simple yet very important step to take before you even start: It's to dry, or wipe, each side of the meat or fish, sometimes called "dabbing" or "sponging". But why? And how? Let me explain.
April 14^th 20248,7464.5

Preservative oil, an asset for taste

When you prepare a dish using an ingredient that has been preserved in fat, for example a springtime mixed salad with tuna in oil or sun-dried tomatoes, you're probably going to make a french dressing (vinaigrette) next. In that case, why not use the preserved oil from the tuna or tomatoes?
June 5^th 20247,5045

Choosing a chopping board

It's a no-brainer, surely? If you want a chopping board, just find a piece of wood, and Bob's your uncle! You can happily chop away with a knife and not damage the table or worktop. But in reality, it's a bit more complicated than that. You need to be careful what you are buying, in particular the...
May 8^th 201250 K4.6

Making the most of seeds: Dry roasting

In cooking, and particularly in baking, there are a lot of seeds we can use, such as linseed, sesame, poppy, etc. Usually, recipes simply say to add them just as they are to the mixture or dough. To make a seeded loaf, for example, prepare a plain bread dough as usual, then, towards the end of...
January 30^th 201562 K4.0