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French Toast is NOT French
And other culinary curiosities
There are plenty of misconceptions regarding the origin of certain foods because of the names we call those foods. It is best not to jump to conclusions. For instance, french toast is NOT French!
The practice of frying bread that has been soaked in eggs and milk originated in the Roman Empire long before France was even a country.
In the 1400’s the dish was very popular in England and it was known as, “pain perdu,” which meant, “lost bread.” It was called ‘lost’ because old stale bread was used.
According to culinary legend this dish did not get the name, ‘French Toast,’ until 1726 when an innkeeper from Albany, New York served it. The innkeeper’s name was Joseph French and on his menu he named the dish after himself. It’s been called french toast ever since.
So no, french toast did not originate in France.
Furthermore, if you pop open the top of that bottle of French Dressing you got from the grocery store and pour it over your salad know that it also did not originate in France but rather in the labs of American food manufacturers in the 1950s.
As for french fries there is a debate about whether they originated in France or in Belgium. I…
