Un cordon-bleu
Meaning: An outstanding cook.
Language: French
Literally: A blue ribbon
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: The cordon bleu was the sky-blue sash of the Order of the Holy Spirit, the highest French chivalric order under the Ancien Régime (pre-revolutionary France). Its members' famously good dinners transferred the name to the cooking, and it long outlived the order itself.
More idioms — Food & Drink
- Il y a loin de la coupe aux lèvres — Much can still go wrong between intention and result.
- Né avec une cuillère d'argent dans la bouche — Born into wealth and advantage.
- Des économies de bouts de chandelle — Petty economies that save nothing worth having.
- Un étouffe-chrétien — Food so dense and stodgy it is hard to swallow.
- Mettre de l'eau dans son vin — To moderate one's demands or soften one's position.
- De derrière les fagots — The very best, kept back for a special occasion.
More French idioms
- Avoir les coudées franches — To have complete freedom of action.
- Battre sa coulpe — To publicly acknowledge one's own wrongdoing.
- Le petit doigt sur la couture du pantalon — Standing rigidly to attention; obeying without question.
- Ôter une épine du pied à quelqu'un — To relieve someone of a persistent difficulty.
- Un écorché vif — Someone painfully hypersensitive to everything around them.
- Se croire sorti de la cuisse de Jupiter — To have an absurdly high opinion of one's own importance.
From our false friends
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