Hot Hors-D’Oeuvre

Appears in

#28Le Guide Culinaire
Le Guide Culinaire

By Auguste Escoffier

Published 1903

  • About

The hot Hors-d’oeuvre of our modern service are the old Entrées Volantes or side dishes of the French Service which have survived but with a change of name; their use, however, remains the same.

They sometimes figure on luncheon menus together with cold Hors-d’oeuvre coming after them, but their real place is on the dinner menu where they come after the soup and serve as a link between this and the main dishes.
Nowadays, there is an unfortunate tendency to exaggerate the amount and importance of hot Hors-d’oeuvre: it is too easily forgotten that the essential characteristic of these preparations is their lightness and delicacy. From the point of view of gastronomic logic they can be deemed superfluous and nothing except custom justifies their use. They should therefore be regarded as a kind of intermediate dish and should be something small and dainty which can titillate the palate of the guest without satisfying his appetite.