4 ms·

You're telling me "julienne" is an English cutting technique? That's obviously French.

cinntaile 4y ago
It's just that the French name got associated with the act of cutting fine sticks in English, it sounds cooler than cutting fine sticks. Probably popularized by some famous chef that wrote books or did tv shows. It doesn't make the cutting technique French.
OJFord 4y ago
You're right of course but it's not really the point is it - it's an adopted English term, these 'techniques' are used the world over including by amateurs. And I don't know Japanese, but it doesn't even seem like they have a plethora of more descriptive terms for it than 'finely diced', 'roughly diced' etc. when they're both something-kiri too, for example.
- wavefunction 4y ago
  I was mostly poking fun at the commenters on this article at the time and their absolutist literalist reading of the article headline. Japan didn't invent these techniques necessarily, but they are a part of the defined culture of Japanese cuisine. Like French cuisine, there are defined processes for how a vegetable is treated for a specific context, whereas an amateur or other cuisine might not make a big point of dicing vs chopping for example. From my imperfect understanding of Japanese cuisine, there is usually "a way to prepare a dish" and deviation from that way can be unwanted or problematic, a bit of a social faux pas.
  - OJFord 4y ago
    That's probably much stronger in Japanese culture sure, but to continue the Julienne example, 'properly' done it's not simply matchsticks - it's thicker and shorter than people often think/would do to show off their knife skills. But yes sure, deviate in France and you might get some bad reviews, be labelled avant-garde, but it's probably fine, and you might be on the way to greatness. I'm pretty ignorant of Japanese culture (not that I'm French either, just spent many holidays there and none in Japan) but I can believe there'd be a stronger visceral reaction to that sort of thing. Boycott the insauspicious restaurant or whatever.

It's just that the French name got associated with the act of cutting fine sticks in English, it sounds cooler than cutting fine sticks. Probably popularized by some famous chef that wrote books or did tv shows. It doesn't make the cutting technique French.

OJFord 4y ago

You're right of course but it's not really the point is it - it's an adopted English term, these 'techniques' are used the world over including by amateurs. And I don't know Japanese, but it doesn't even seem like they have a plethora of more descriptive terms for it than 'finely diced', 'roughly diced' etc. when they're both something-kiri too, for example.

wavefunction 4y ago
I was mostly poking fun at the commenters on this article at the time and their absolutist literalist reading of the article headline. Japan didn't invent these techniques necessarily, but they are a part of the defined culture of Japanese cuisine. Like French cuisine, there are defined processes for how a vegetable is treated for a specific context, whereas an amateur or other cuisine might not make a big point of dicing vs chopping for example. From my imperfect understanding of Japanese cuisine, there is usually "a way to prepare a dish" and deviation from that way can be unwanted or problematic, a bit of a social faux pas.
- OJFord 4y ago
  That's probably much stronger in Japanese culture sure, but to continue the Julienne example, 'properly' done it's not simply matchsticks - it's thicker and shorter than people often think/would do to show off their knife skills. But yes sure, deviate in France and you might get some bad reviews, be labelled avant-garde, but it's probably fine, and you might be on the way to greatness. I'm pretty ignorant of Japanese culture (not that I'm French either, just spent many holidays there and none in Japan) but I can believe there'd be a stronger visceral reaction to that sort of thing. Boycott the insauspicious restaurant or whatever.