- Fabricated Cuts: Individual portions of meat cut from a subprimal.
- Feta cheese: Crumbly textured Greek-style cheese made from goat’s or sheep’s milk. Notable for its salty, slightly sharp flavor.
- Filo: Tissue-thin sheets of flour-and-water pastry used throughout the Middle East as crisp wrappers for savory or sweet fillings. Defrost thoroughly before use. Keep unused sheets covered with lightly damp towel to prevent them from drying out.
- Fifo: First In First Out. Inventory management system
- Fillet: As a verb, to remove the bones from meat or fish. A fillet (or filet) is the piece of flesh after it has been de boned.
- Firmly Packed: To press an ingredient, such as brown sugar, tightly into a measuring cup.
- Flake: To pull food, such as cooked fish, with a fork, producing small pieces as a test for doneness. Cooked fish should break away easily into small pieces.
- Flambé: To flame foods by dousing in some form of potable alcohol and setting alight for flavor.
- Flank steak: Large, thin, fairly lean, boneless cut of beef.
- Flash Frozen: Food that has been frozen very rapidly using metal plates, extremely low temperatures or chemical solutions.
- Flavonoids: Plant pigments that dissolve readily in water, found in red, purple and white vegetables such as blueberries, red cabbage, and beats.
- Flip: To turn over such as turning pancakes, to finish cooking on the other side.
- Floret: To break or cut fresh broccoli or cauliflower into small clusters.
- Flour: To coat food with a dry ingredient or a mixture of dry ingredients, such as white flour or other dry ingredients.
- Flour all-purpose: The most common form of commercial flour. This bleached and blended variety is widely available. Also called plain flour.
- Fluff: To beat a mixture until light and soft.
- Foie Gras: Liver of specially fattened geese or ducks.
- Fold/Fold In: To gently combine a light, airy mixture (such as beaten egg whites) with a heavier mixture. Place the lighter mixture on top of the heavier mixture, and using a rubber spatula, cut vertically down through mixtures across the bottom of the bowl and up the opposite side. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn with each stroke.
- Fond: French for stock or base. Drippings and bits of food left in a pan after foods are roasted.
- Fondant: Sweet, thick opaque sugar paste used for glazing pastries such as napoleons or making candies.
- Fontina: Creamy, mild-tasting Italian cheese made from sheep’s milk.
- Frenching: Trimming racks of rib or poultry so the bone is cleaned and prominent.
- Fricassee: To cook by braising usually applied to fowl or rabbit.
- Frost: To cover a cake or cookie with icing or frosting.
- Froth: To beat a light mixture or beverage until bubbles or foam forms on the surface.
- Fry: To cook in hot fat .To cook in a fat is called pan -frying or sautéing; to cook in a one-to-two inch layer of hot fat is called shallow-fat frying; to cook in a deep layer of hot fat is called deep -fat frying.
- Farro perlato: Also known as spelt barley. Available from select delicatessens.
- Ficelle: French for string, it can refer to a dish of beef suspended in broth on a string and poached (boeuf a la ficelle), or a kind of small, skinny baguette.
- Financier: A small rectangular French almond cake.
- Fines herbes: A mix of fresh herbs, usually parsley, chervil, thyme, chives and tarragon.
- Finish: The amount of time the taste of a wine lingers on your palate after you’ve swallowed it. Unless it’s unbalanced or harsh, a good length (or finish) is generally taken to be a sign of a good wine. Also known as length.
- Flageolet: A small pale dried bean.
- Fleur de sel: The flower of salt, a fine sea salt from France.
- Floating islands: ‘Islands’ of poached meringue afloat in crème Anglaise. Also oeufs a la neige.
- Foam: In contemporary restaurant usage, this means a sauce brought to a foamy consistency, typically under pressure from a whipped cream siphon.
- Fourme d’Ambert: A blue-veined French cow’s milk cheese from the Auvergne.
- Frangipane: Almond custard pastry filling.
- Fruits de mer: French for fruits of the sea; seafood.
- Farro: A grain that is the ancestor of modern wheat.
- Fermentation: The process by which yeast acts on carbohydrates to change them into carbon dioxide gas and alcohol.
- Femiere (fair-myair): Garnished with carrots, turnips, onions, and celery cut into uniform slices.
- Fettuccine: Flat egg noodles.
- Fiber: A group of indigestible carbohydrates in grains, fruits, and vegetables.
- Flavones: White pigments in vegetables and fruits.
- Florentine: Garnished with or containing spinach.
- Flow of Food: The path that food travels in a food service operation, from receiving to serving.
- Fond Lié: A sauce made by thickening brown stock with cornstarch or similar starch.
- Fondue Swiss: A dish consisting of melted Gruyère and Emmenthaler cheeses and white wine into which cubes of bread are dipped and eaten. From the French word meaning “melted.”
- Food Danger Zone: The temperature range of 45ºF to 140ºF (7ºC to 60ºC), in which bacteria grow rapidly.
- Forestière: Garnished with mushrooms.
- Free-range: Referring to animals, usually poultry, that are allowed to move relatively freely outdoors as they are raised for market.
- French Dressing: Salad dressing made of oil, vinegar, and seasonings.
- French-style Ice Cream: Ice cream containing egg yolks.
- Frisée: A variety of curly endive or chicory that is more tender and lighter in color than curly endive.
- Frittata: A flat, unfolded omelet.
- Fumet: A flavorful stock, usually fish stock.