A French full course meal is a gastronomic or gourmet meal with several courses served sequentially one after the other. This sounds just like the definition I gave you above for a multi-course meal. However, there are certain French dining customs and elements that don’t exist in other cultures, especially during a formal French full course meal.
How many courses you serve as the host or hostess is up to you but remember, the gastronomic meal of the French is about bringing people together, not slaving in your kitchen and ignoring your guests. You can include anywhere from 4 to twenty courses, but anything beyond 7 courses could be difficult to manage.
A simple multi-course meal or full-course meal consists of at least 2 or 3 courses but can go as high as you like. As you approach 8 or more courses, the entire meal becomes more of a tasting menu, with the size of each portion being much smaller. The more courses there are, the longer it takes to eat and complete the entire meal.
Main meals of France 1 Breakfast – le petit déjeuner. Usually bread, butter and jam, croissants or perhaps cereal. ... 2 Lunch – le déjeuner. Many cafés and restaurants open for lunch from 11.30 and accept customers until about 13.00 –it can be really difficult in rural areas to find somewhere ... 3 Eating “en famille” Family meals. ...
In western formal dining, a full course menu can consist of 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, or 16 courses, and, in its extreme form, has been known to have twenty-one courses. In these more formalised dining events, the courses are carefully planned to complement each other gastronomically.
7 CoursesThe 7 Courses of a Formal French Meal.
A Seven Course French MealLe hors-d'œuvre (Appetizers): It starts off with le hors-d'œuvre also called l'entrée. ... Le Potage (Soup): ... Le Poisson (Fish): ... Le Plat Principale (Main course): ... La Salade (Salad): ... Le Fromage (Cheese): ... Le Dessert (Dessert):
A traditional “family meal”, such as Sunday lunch, or a meal to which guests are invited, can last two to four hours, or even longer in the country. It is quite usual to have a bowl of green salad with every meal.
The 12 Courses Typically, the 12+ course chef's tasting menu consists of hors-d'oeuvres, amuse-bouche, soup, appetizer, salad, fish, main course, palate cleaner, second main course, cheese course, dessert, and end of the meal dessert.
Five-course mealAppetizer.Soup.Main course.Dessert.Cheese.
8 course meal: An 8 course dinner menu includes an hors d'oeuvre, soup, appetizer, salad, main course, palate cleanser, dessert, and mignardise.
French people usually eat a smaller meal for dinner, such as a soup or salad with bread and a dessert (often a yoghurt or a slice of cheese). Considering French people famously don't snack, they must survive a long break between lunch and dinner. The solution is that lunch is the biggest meal of the day.
Full course meals are made up of three courses: an appetizer, main dish, and dessert. Also known as a three-course meal or a standard course meal, you will sometimes see restaurants offering a full menu with these three items. You can add more courses to a full course meal.
French dinner courses can include: an apéritif (which is an alcoholic drink before the meal), hors d'oeuvres (which is typically soup, vegetables, or eggs), the principal plate (a meat, pasta, or crêpe), a salad (which is typically served separately from the principal plate), cheese (which is also served separately), ...
We then discussed the three main meals in more detail, focusing on le petit-déjeuner (breakfast), le déjeuner (lunch), and le dîner (dinner). To review, for le petit-déjeuner (breakfast), the French usually opt for lighter fare, like la tartine (a slice of bread or toast with butter or jam).
Apparently, the French spend a leisurely two hours, 13 minutes a day drinking and eating, which is far above the average of one hour 30 minutes and represents the most time spent on meals compared to any other country included in the survey (see table below).