France is well-known not only for beautiful women, refined perfumery, Eiffel Tower, champagne, but, first of all, for its cuisine. About culinary predilections of Frenchmen written the set of various books. And it is not necessary to speak about quantity of known dishes, because there are a lot of them, and to try out all the presently known French dishes would not be enough even life.

In preparation of meal Frenchmen adhere to two important principles which are inherent only in the French cookery and it is necessary to mention them. First, cooking and its use are important for Frenchmen, such as love and art to keep up the conversation. Necessary knowledge in the field of cookery can be gathered from the book of Brillat-Savarin "The Physiology of Taste". Secondly, the cookery at Frenchmen is considered art, and art spiritualized, for example for salads they give names of the operas - "Carmen", "Aida", "Mignon", "Tosca".

By the way, names of many French dishes meet in terminology of many national cuisines: an omelette, sauce, cutlets, mayonnaise, Olivier salad, quenelles, steak, etc.

But in the French culinary lexicon it is possible to meet and such names which demand additional explanatories. For example, pot-au feu - soup in a pot, consomme is a meat broth, veloute - soup in which usually add egg yolk, and marmite - a broth to which separately submit a garnish. A word "restaurant" also the French origin. And here the word "soup", according to some researchers, occurs from Greek "soup" that means "the chunk of the bread soaked in a liquid". In the Middle Ages vegetables from which cooked soup, - cabbage, onions, roots, various greens, seasonings - were "privilege" for poor, therefore and soup was considered as a dish for beggars.

Among the French are very popular cream soup of leeks with potatoes and onion soup with cheese. Also widely known Provencal thick fish soup - bouillabaisse. But the best known and most famous is, of course, Onion Soup, whose history is very old and interesting.

In 1790 the cook of French king Lui XV Franchesko Leonardi has erected soup in a rank of refined dishes, having devoted it the first volume of the six-volume culinary work "L'Apicio moderno" where named it "a dish, worthy princesses". Since then soups have started to improve, not sparing for them the most tasty, most expensive components - asparaguses, artichokes, gifts of the sea, perfect meat, etc.

In the "Great Dictionary of Cuisine" by Alexandre Dumas has an article devoted to Onion Soup. Love Charles de Gaulle to soups was so great that every day he ordered his chefs to cook another soup. But, nevertheless, the most respected French soup is considered to be the Onion Soup.