Today's Tip
A French dinner begins before the meal. The first course is as important as the main. It sets the pace, the mood, and the guest's expectations. A simple cold soup, a single slice of pâté with cornichons, or a composed salad — served slowly, before anyone is rushed.
Try This
For your next dinner party, serve a cold first course: a simple vegetable soup served in small cups, or sliced radishes with butter and salt on a board. It can be assembled two hours ahead. Guests arrive, you serve immediately, and the evening begins before anything is hot or stressful.
The French term for the first course is "entrée" — which in French actually means entrance, not the main event. (Americans reversed this.) The entrée's job is to open the appetite and establish the evening's register: formal or casual, rich or light, warm or cool. A good host chooses the entrée to set expectations for everything that follows. Heavy first course → lighter main. Light first course → richer main. The entrée signals that you have thought about the meal as a sequence, not a collection of dishes.
One French lifestyle tip, every morning at 7am. Free — always.