French (food idiom) Fridays: Occupe-toi de tes oignons!
(and a soup recipe for you!)
Welcome to a new feature in my newsletter - French (food idiom) Fridays!
The French love of food is well-known, right? And if you speak French, you’ll probably know that many of their proverbs, idioms and other everyday expressions have something to do with food. It’s an important part of their culture and food has a way of sneaking into even the most everyday of conversations!
On the third Friday of every month, I’ll be sharing a food-themed French idiom and a recipe. A fun way to learn a little French and maybe pick up a few new recipes at the same time, right? This type of information is something I’ve tried to incorporate into all of my cookbooks and it’s a popular feature according to many reviews!
My students love learning these types of expressions and one of their favourites is “occupe-toi de tes oignons” which is the French expression for “mind your own business”1 (lol, yes, sometimes we need to tell people this in class).
Wait, what? Onions? Where does that expression come from?
According to a few sources, including the Dictionnaire du Français Non-Conventionnel2 the expression comes from the fact that in the 19th century, women in central France were sometimes given small plots of land to cultivate to keep them out of their husband’s affairs. They grew onions and so whenever they were tempted to meddle in their husband’s affairs, they were told to “busy themselves with their onions.”
There’s also a *different* explanation of the expression that’s a little more slang and less poetic so we’ll leave it at the ladies and their onions ;)
Since my students love to cook too, learning expressions like these often sparks (off-topic, but that’s ok!) discussions about dishes that include the foods in question – I mean, how many onion-centric recipes can YOU think of?
When I was writing French Food For Everyone - le dîner (dinner), one of my students insisted that I include the recipe for (French) Onion Soup3 and I told him if I ended up doing so, he would have to test the recipe for me. He went one better and told me we should make the recipe together during our weekly (what was, at the time, online) cooking club. Um, ok. MY recipe for Onion Soup includes caramelised onions which take a LONG time to cook. HOW were we going to fill the time in an online class (with a dozen families cooking together)?
Actually it turned out ok and there was not too much down-time due to a lot of screen sharing where we all compared the colour of the onions at the various stages of cooking. Thankfully, we managed to spend 35 minutes busily caramelising and not getting bored (phew!).
Caramelised onions can really elevate everyday dishes - the soup, of course, but have you thought about adding caramelised onions to your grilled cheese?
SO. GOOD.
Want more onions?
Today I’m gifting you that recipe I developed (and tested with that online group!) for French Food For Everyone - le dîner (dinner).
Let’s make Soupe Gratinée à l’Oignon/ (French) Onion Soup
I hope you enjoyed this first foray into French food-related idioms! I’ll be back next month with another one and more recipes for you!
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Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for a December missive in a couple of weeks!
Mardi
xo
I also teach them “Occupe-toi de tes affaires” which is more widely used in Québec apparently.
As referenced in this article on Expressio.fr
Fun fact: in France, what we call French Onion Soup is simply known as Soupe à l’Oignon.
I've heard the phrase but didn't know the origin! Do love some caramelised onions :)