SC - OOP-hors d'oeuvre

[Chris Stanifer]

- --- LrdRas at aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 10/15/00 9:29:53 PM Eastern
> Daylight Time, 
> stefan at texas.net writes:
> 
> << And I imagine it is post 1600, but what exactly
> does "hors d'ouvre" really 
> mean? Besides tiny and expensive? :-) >>
> 
> From Meriam-Webster:
> 
> Main Entry: hors d'oeuvre
> Pronunciation: or-'d&rv
> Function: noun
> Inflected Form(s): plural hors d'oeuvres also hors
> d'oeuvre /-'d&rv(z)/
> Etymology: French hors-d'[oe]uvre, literally,
> outside of the work
> Date: 1714
> : any of various savory foods usually served as
> appetizers  

The best way i have found to describe them follows
very closely with the official description Ras has
given above... "a collection of foods served outside
the menu proper".  Meaning appetizers.  A little story
accredited to Escoffier says that the Captain in one
of his restaurants once asked him to write down an
hors d'oeuvre menu, to which he is said to have
replied "that is a contradiction in terms".  He is
also said to have been a firm believer in the fact
that there is no plural for hors d'oeuvre...  I tend
to agree with that.

Balthazar of Blackmoor

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