French culinary expression: FAIRE BONNE CHÈRE

53385 Views 22/03/2023 0 comments Posted By: Emmanuel Poulet-Harmel In: Blog of gourmets

The word "dear" goes back to the Greek kara, the head, and was commonly used in Old French to designate the face.

In the 13th century, 'cheering someone out' meant making a good face at someone, welcoming him (and 'cheating someone', a bad face).

For  welcome its guests well, they were treated to a good meal, and this is the meaning that the phrase soon took on.

Little by little, the idea of the face and welcome were withdrawn from the word, which retained, no doubt under the influence of its namesake, "flesh", the idea of eating well in a few expressions "to do dear lies ", "to make expensive dildo", among which only "to make good food" survived.

Today, the syntagm "good food" even exists separately from the expression, since one can "love good food", be "lover of good food", all formulations which suggest the use of ingredients chosen from better, with a view to the elaboration of refined dishes.