Florentine (culinary term)

Culinary lore attributes the term to 1533, when Catherine de Medici of Florence married Henry II of France. She supposedly brought a staff of chefs, lots of kitchen equipment and a love of spinach to Paris, and popularized Florentine-style dishes. Food historians have debunked this story, and Italian influence on French cuisine long predates this marriage.{{cite web | url = https://thenewgastronome.com/caterina-de-medici-a-gastronomic-myth/| title =The Illusive Story Of Catherine de' Medici: A Gastronomic Myth | last =Campanini | first =Antonella | date = 18 December 2018| website =The New Gastronome | publisher =University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo| access-date = September 12, 2021| quote = }} Pierre Franey considered this theory apocryphal, but embraced the term Florentine in 1983.{{cite news | last =Franey | first =Pierre | title =60-minute Gourmet: Chicken breasts enhanced with a spinach stuffing| newspaper =New York Times| location = | pages = | language = | publisher = | date =October 5, 1983 | url =https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/05/garden/60-minute-gourmet-209336.html | accessdate =September 6, 2021 }}

Auguste Escoffier included a recipe for sole Florentine in his 1903 classic Le guide culinaire, translated into English as A Guide to Modern Cookery. It is recipe 831 in that translation. Escoffier called for poaching the fish in butter and fumet, a stock made of fish bones, cooking the spinach in butter, covering the dish with Mornay sauce, garnishing it with grated cheese, and finishing it in an oven or salamander.{{cite book | last =Escoffier | first =Auguste | author-link =Auguste Escoffier| title = A Guide to Modern Cookery| publisher =W. Heinemann | series = | volume = | edition = | date = 1907| location = | pages =284 | language = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = | quote=}} In his 1936 cookbook L'Art culinaire moderne which was first translated for American cooks in 1966 as Modern French Culinary Art, Henri-Paul Pellaprat included five recipes for spinach-based Florentine dishes with Mornay sauce. The protein components were chicken breasts, cod fillets, sweetbreads, stuffed lamb breast and oysters.{{cite book | last =Pellaprat | first = Henri-Paul| author-link = Henri-Paul Pellaprat |editor-first1=René |editor-last1= Kramer |editor-first2= David|editor-last2= White|title =Modern French Culinary Art | publisher =World Publishing Company| series = | volume = | edition = | date =1966 | location = | pages = 444–445, 526, 585–586, 636, 653| language = | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PoREAQAACAAJ| doi = | id = | isbn = | quote=Adapted for the American Kitchen by Avanelle Day}} Craig Claiborne published a recipe for oysters Florentine with Mornay sauce in The New York Times in 1958.{{cite news | last =Claiborne | first =Craig | title =Frozen Vegetable Dishes Asset for Spur-of-the-Moment Suppers; Seven Products Are Introduced - Ready To Serve In Jiffy | newspaper =New York Times | location = | pages = | language = | publisher = | date = December 11, 1958| url =https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/12/11/84160409.html | accessdate = September 12, 2021}}

File:Eggs florentine.jpg and fresh fruit, at an Original Mel's restaurant]]

A quiche containing spinach is often called "quiche Florentine".{{cite news | last =The Food Guys | first = | title =This Recipe For Quiche Florentine Gets A Thumbs-Up From Popeye | newspaper =Montana Public Radio | location = | pages = | language = | publisher = | date = May 5, 2019| url =https://www.mtpr.org/arts-culture/2019-05-05/this-recipe-for-quiche-florentine-gets-a-thumbs-up-from-popeye | accessdate =September 12, 2021}} Poached or soft-cooked eggs served on spinach with a Mornay sauce or equivalent is often called "eggs Florentine".{{cite news | last = Goodfriend| first =Wendy | title =Mollet Eggs Florentine | newspaper =KQED | location =San Francisco | pages = | language = | publisher = | date =September 10, 2011 | url =http://ww2.kqed.org/essentialpepin/2011/09/10/mollet-eggs-florentine/| accessdate =September 12, 2021}}

Chicken Florentine gained popularity in the United States as early as 1931, although the quality of the dish was uneven, and canned mushroom soup was sometimes used as a quick sauce in the years that followed.{{cite web | url =https://www.campbells.com/recipes/easy-chicken-florentine/ | title =Easy Chicken Florentine | last = | first = | date =2014 | website =Campbell's | publisher =Campbell Soup Company| access-date = September 6, 2021| quote = }} By the 1960s and 1970s, the general quality of the dish had deteriorated to "casserole" and "wedding banquet" food.{{cite book | last =Staff | title =The Complete Cook's Country TV Show Cookbook Includes Season 13 Recipes: Every Recipe and Every Review from All Thirteen Seasons | publisher =America's Test Kitchen | series = | volume = | edition = | date =2020 | location = | pages =30 | language = | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=vYzzDwAAQBAJ&dq=chicken+florentine&pg=PA30

| doi = | id = | isbn =9781948703383 | quote=}}

Writing in The New York Times in 1971, Claiborne praised a restaurant version of chicken Florentine, describing the chicken as "batter‐cooked and served with mushrooms in a lemon sauce".{{cite news | last =Claiborne | first =Craig | title =The Food Is Fine but Oh, the Decibels | newspaper =New York Times | location = | pages = | language = | publisher = | date =March 5, 1971 | url =https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/05/archives/the-food-is-fine-but-oh-the-decibels.html | accessdate =September 6, 2021 }} Contemporary cookbook authors are attempting to "restore" the dish to "its elegant roots",{{cite book | last =Staff | title =The Chicken Bible: Say Goodbye to Boring Chicken with 500 Recipes for Easy Dinners, Braises, Wings, Stir-Fries, and So Much More | publisher =America's Test Kitchen| series = | volume = | edition = | date = 2021| location = | pages =199 | language = | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=ARThDwAAQBAJ&dq=chicken+florentine&pg=PA199 | doi = | id = | isbn =9781948703550 | quote=}} with "clearer, brighter flavors".{{cite news | last =America's Test Kitchen | first = | title =Rethinking Chicken Florentine with clearer, brighter flavors | newspaper =Associated Press | location = | pages = | language = | publisher = | date =February 4, 2019 | url =https://apnews.com/article/cooking-lifestyle-recipes-52e9cadc4e964e4bb6c8547342484295 | accessdate =September 6, 2021 }}

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{{French cuisine}}

Category:Spinach dishes

Category:French cuisine

Category:French chicken dishes