Definition: armorican

The term "Armoricaine" is in fact a distortion of "Americanaine", no doubt because Brittany (Armorica) is one of the best producers of shellfish. However, the origin of the term "américaine" comes, as Curnonsky attests in a letter received from a Mr Garrigue, a restaurateur, from a French chef from Sète named Pierre Fraysse. Upon returning from America, where he had spent time in Chicago as a "chef", he founded the restaurant "Peters" in Paris. One evening, shortly before closing time, some guests arrived and insisted on having dinner. Peters went back to the kitchen, but he was short on time and ingredients. He therefore decided to cook lobsters in a sauce made with tomatoes, garlic, shallots, white wine and cognac, and to speed up the cooking process, he cut the lobsters into pieces. The meal was a great success and when asked for the name of his recipe, he replied, still under the influence of his trip across the Atlantic, "American-style lobster". In fact, it must be said that the composition of this dish (garlic, tomato, oil) tends to prove that its origin is more southern than Breton.