French Food: A Guide to French Cuisine & Food Vocabulary in French
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Memorise pomme on its own and you still do not know its gender. Learn la pomme instead, and the article does two jobs at once.
This guide covers everyday food words, useful restaurant phrases and 13 dishes you may meet in France. It also shows the plural where that is the form people normally use, plus a few pronunciation traps that catch out English speakers.
If you want to build these words into real conversations, start with our guide to speaking French and practise ordering aloud before your next meal.
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Table of contents
“Food” in French and Food in France
The general word for “food” is la nourriture. You will also hear la cuisine for “cooking” or “cuisine”, and un repas for “a meal”.
There is no single daily menu that represents everyone in France. Habits vary by household, region and occasion. A quick breakfast might include bread or a viennoiserie, while lunch and dinner can range from a sandwich to several courses.
For a more formal or festive meal, you may hear un apéritif, often shortened to un apéro, before the food. The meal can then move through une entrée (“a starter”), un plat principal (“a main course”), cheese and dessert. This sequence is part of the festive gastronomic meal recognised by UNESCO, not a rule for every French lunch or dinner.
At a restaurant, le plat du jour is the dish of the day. Le menu du jour is usually a set menu with two or more courses. Opening hours vary, especially outside large cities, so check before you travel.
Essential French Food Vocabulary
Learn each noun with le, la, l’ or les. The article tells you the gender, except when l’ hides it, so those entries include m. or f.. Words normally used in the plural are labelled pl.
Top tip: save the words you genuinely expect to use in your personalised phrasebook. A short, useful list beats a huge list you never practise.
Breakfast Food in French
- Breakfast: le petit-déjeuner
- Bread: le pain
- Toast: le pain grillé
- Jam: la confiture
- Honey: le miel
- Ham: le jambon
- Butter: le beurre
- Egg or eggs: un œuf, des œufs
- Cereal: les céréales (f. pl.)
- Croissant: le croissant
- Sugar: le sucre
Lunch and Dinner Food in French
- Lunch: le déjeuner
- Dinner: le dîner
- Food: la nourriture
- Soup: la soupe
- Salad: la salade
- Pasta: les pâtes (f. pl.)
- Chips or French fries: les frites (f. pl.)
- Mashed potatoes: la purée
- Vegetables: les légumes (m. pl.)
- Potato: la pomme de terre, or la patate in familiar speech
- Tomato: la tomate
- Sweet pepper or bell pepper: le poivron
- Onion: l’oignon (m.)
- Mushroom: le champignon
- Carrot: la carotte
- Courgette: la courgette
- Aubergine: l’aubergine (f.)
- Rice: le riz
- Bean: le haricot
- Salt: le sel
- Spices: les épices (f. pl.)
- Pepper: le poivre
- Lemon: le citron
- Olive oil: l’huile d’olive (f.)
- Vinegar: le vinaigre
- Sauce: la sauce
- Salad dressing: la vinaigrette
- Meat: la viande
- Minced meat: la viande hachée
- Beef: le bœuf
- Pork: le porc
- Chicken: le poulet
- Fish: le poisson
- Duck: le canard
- Starter: l’entrée (f.)
- Main course: le plat principal
- Dessert: le dessert
- Dish of the day: le plat du jour
French Snacks and Dessert Vocabulary
- Snack: un en-cas
- Afternoon snack: le goûter
- Cheese: le fromage
- Cured meats or the shop that sells them: la charcuterie
- Cake: le gâteau
- Tart or pie: la tarte
- Crisps: les chips (f. pl.)
- Biscuit or cookie: le biscuit
- Fruit: le fruit
- Apple: la pomme
- Pear: la poire
- Cherry: la cerise
- Banana: la banane
- Strawberry: la fraise
- Blueberry: la myrtille
- Orange: l’orange (f.)
- Ice cream: la glace
- Chocolate: le chocolat
- Vanilla: la vanille
- Sweet or piece of candy: le bonbon
French Drinks Vocabulary
- Drinks: les boissons (f. pl.)
- Water: l’eau (f.)
- Juice: le jus
- Coffee: le café
- Tea: le thé
- Milk: le lait
- Wine: le vin
- Beer: la bière
French Kitchen Vocabulary
- Kitchen: la cuisine
- Table: la table
- Chair: la chaise
- Plate: l’assiette (f.)
- Bowl: le bol
- Glass: le verre
- Wine glass: le verre à vin
- Cup: la tasse
- Fork: la fourchette
- Spoon: la cuillère
- Teaspoon: la cuillère à café
- Frying pan: la poêle
- Saucepan: la casserole
- Knife: le couteau
- Bottle: la bouteille
- Oven: le four
- Fridge: le réfrigérateur, or le frigo in everyday speech
- Microwave: le micro-ondes
- Kettle: la bouilloire
French Eating and Cooking Verbs
- To eat: manger
- To drink: boire
- To cook: cuisiner
- To take or have: prendre
- To want: vouloir
- To prepare: préparer
- To add: ajouter
- To bake: faire cuire au four
- To boil: faire bouillir
- To fry: faire frire
- To cut: couper
- To mix: mélanger
- To order: commander
- To taste: goûter
- To choose: choisir
- To pay: payer
Ordering Food in French: Sentence Templates and Useful Vocabulary
A few pronunciation details are worth learning with the spelling. Un œuf is /œf/, but des œufs is usually /dezø/ with liaison. In the same way, le bœuf is /bœf/, while les bœufs is /lebø/. The h in haricot blocks elision and liaison, so say le haricot, not l’haricot. In pain /pɛ̃/ and vin /vɛ̃/, the final letters mark nasal vowels rather than a pronounced n.
- Restaurant: le restaurant
- Brasserie or casual restaurant serving drinks and meals: la brasserie. The same word can also mean a brewery.
- Wine bar: le bar à vin
- Waiter or waitress: le serveur, la serveuse
- I have a reservation for two: J’ai une réservation pour deux personnes.
- I would like…: Je voudrais…
- What will you have?: Que prenez-vous ?
- I’ll have…: Je vais prendre…
- What do you recommend?: Que recommandez-vous ?
- I’m allergic to…: Je suis allergique à…
- I don’t eat…: Je ne mange pas…
- I don’t drink…: Je ne bois pas…
- Have you chosen?: Avez-vous choisi ?
- I’ve chosen: J’ai choisi.
- Do you have a vegetarian dish?: Avez-vous un plat végétarien ?
- The bill, please: L’addition, s’il vous plaît.
- Can I pay by card?: Puis-je payer par carte ?
- Can I pay in cash?: Puis-je payer en espèces ?
- Very rare, rare, medium or well-done steak: bleu, saignant, à point, bien cuit. These are useful approximations rather than exact one-to-one matches across every restaurant.
- Was everything all right?: Ça a été ?
- Thank you, it was delicious: Merci, c’était délicieux.
- Please, to one person you know well: s’il te plaît
- Please, politely or to more than one person: s’il vous plaît
- To take away: à emporter
- To eat in or on the premises: sur place
- On the terrace: en terrasse
- Inside: à l’intérieur
- With or without: avec, sans
- Cheers!: À votre santé ! or the shorter Santé !
- That’s all, thank you: C’est tout, merci.
- Tip: le pourboire
13 French Dishes to Know
French cooking is regional, and no list of 13 dishes can represent the whole country. Treat these as well-known starting points, not a ranking of what every person in France eats.
1. Bœuf bourguignon
Le bœuf bourguignon is a Burgundy beef stew. Braising beef cooks slowly in red wine with aromatics and vegetables; common additions include carrots, onions, mushrooms and lardons. Recipes differ, so beef shank is one option rather than a required cut.
2. Quiche lorraine
La quiche lorraine is a savoury tart from Lorraine. The classic filling combines eggs and cream or milk with smoked pork belly or lardons. Cheese, vegetables and salmon appear in other quiches, but adding them makes a variation rather than the traditional Lorraine recipe.
3. Ratatouille
La ratatouille is a Provençal vegetable dish associated especially with Nice. It commonly brings together tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, peppers, onions, garlic, olive oil and herbs. The exact ingredients and whether the vegetables are cooked separately or together vary by cook.
4. Soupe à l’oignon
La soupe à l’oignon is onion soup. In its familiar gratinated form, slowly browned onions and broth are topped with bread and grated cheese, then finished under heat until the surface is golden. Gruyère, Comté or Emmental is more typical than Parmesan.
5. Galettes and crêpes
Brittany is famous for both. A useful beginner distinction is that a buckwheat galette is often savoury, while a wheat-flour crêpe is often sweet. Regional usage is more flexible, though: Tourisme Bretagne notes that the names vary within Brittany itself.
6. Fromages français
Le brie, le camembert and le roquefort are only three examples of French cheese. Cheese can appear as its own course, in a sandwich, at an apéro or as an ingredient.
Several cold-weather dishes put cheese at the centre. La tartiflette combines potatoes, onions, lardons and Reblochon. La fondue involves dipping bread into melted cheese, while la raclette pairs melted cheese with potatoes and accompaniments. These dishes belong to Alpine traditions that cross modern borders, rather than to one uniform national menu.
7. Cassoulet
Le cassoulet is a slow-cooked bean dish associated with Castelnaudary, Carcassonne and Toulouse. Pork, sausages and duck or goose confit appear in different local versions. Its name refers to the earthenware vessel traditionally used to cook it.
8. Viennoiseries
Les viennoiseries are baked goods made from enriched or laminated dough, distinct from ordinary bread. Examples include le croissant, le pain au chocolat, le chausson aux pommes, le pain aux raisins and la brioche. You will commonly find them in a boulangerie or pâtisserie.
9. La bouillabaisse
La bouillabaisse is an emblematic Marseille fish dish with roots in fishers’ cooking. In a traditional service, the fish and broth may arrive separately, with bread and la rouille, a garlicky sauce. The Marseille tourist office gives a detailed account of the service and the fish used.
10. Confit de canard
Le confit de canard is duck that is salted, cooked slowly and traditionally preserved in its own fat. That method, rather than slow cooking alone, is what makes it a confit.
11. Hachis parmentier
Le hachis parmentier layers mashed potato with chopped or minced cooked meat. Its name honours Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, the pharmacist and agronomist whose work helped promote the potato as food in France.
12. Gratin dauphinois
Le gratin dauphinois comes from the former Dauphiné region. Thinly sliced potatoes bake gently with milk or cream and garlic. Some modern recipes add cheese, although versions presented as traditional often leave it out.
The singular name is gratin dauphinois. The adjective agrees in the plural: des gratins dauphinois.
13. Escargots
Un escargot is a snail; the plural is des escargots. On a menu, the preparation matters. Les escargots à la bourguignonne are usually served in their shells with butter, garlic and parsley.
Ready to Order?
Choose five words and two restaurant sentences from this guide, then say them aloud until they feel automatic. You can add more with our French phrases for travel.
When you sit down to eat, one simple line can carry the whole interaction: Bonjour, je voudrais…, s’il vous plaît. You do not need perfect French to order confidently. You only need a phrase you have practised and the courage to use it.
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