Faire vs Cuisiner

Question

Mildly thrown off, and it's actually only related somewhat, but one of the questions I was asked was "You were going to make soup, but then..." and what threw me off was I attempted to use cuisiner instead of faire, as I thought that's what you used in regards to making food, but the answer used faire? Or is that just specific dishes and general types of food use faire?

Accepted Answer

Hi Jacob,
Just to add to the other excellent answers, in everyday French you would only use the verb 'faire' to cook something specific.

Je vais faire des pâtes ce soir = I am going to cook some pasta tonight
Je vais faire un bœuf bourguignon ce weekend = I am going to cook a beef bourguignon this weekend

Take a look at this page on the verb 'cuisiner' -
https://www.wordreference.com/fren/cuisiner
 
Bonne Continuation !

Answer

Salut Jacob,https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/faire-la-cuisine-faire-cuire.382507/Have a look at the link in particular the point being made by user BMRI think this is what you are looking for.Bonne journéeJim

Answer

Someone preparing a meal is often faire cuisiner something. The French see the cook once removed from the process of cooking, where the latter is performed by the flame or stove.

Answer

Jacob, I assume you mean ‘faire’ was used alone and ‘cuisiner’ was not indicated as acceptable ?

I guess this really comes back to the use of the English word ‘make’ for which ‘faire’ is a more direct translation. If in a quiz with only 1 answer accepted, usually the expected verb is indicated.

You can indeed ‘ …. faire/cuisine /prépare qqc ‘ with nuanced differences as expected with different words, but a similar general meaning. All are heard in French kitchens, but ‘faire’ is very common.

In everyday modern French speech, the causative around cooking terms is often dropped - even from ‘faire cuire qqc’ and ‘faire rôtir qqc’.

Just don’t say ‘Je cuis.’ as a stand-alone - this could easily be taken as meaning you are 'cooking' as in ‘being cooked yourself'. However ‘Je cuisine’ is fine for ‘je fais la cuisine’.

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/cuisiner/20965

https://dictionnaire.lerobert.com/definition/cuisiner

https://dictionnaire.lerobert.com/definition/cuire#furetiere