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Culinary Arts & Cooking vocabulary · Menus & Courses

Main course

Meaning in culinary arts & cooking, with examples

/ˌmeɪn ˈkɔːrs/nounCore term

In culinary arts & cooking, main course means: The largest and most important dish of a meal, usually served after the starter and before dessert. Often shortened to main.

In Turkish: ana yemek

How it is used

Used on menus and during service: "Two mains away" or "Fire mains on table eight." Menus may list main courses as mains or, in American English, as entrées. Kitchens time the mains so a table's dishes leave the pass together.

Example sentences

  1. The lamb is our best-selling main course this month.

  2. Table three have finished their starters; get ready to fire the main courses.

Common collocations

  • main course dishes
  • for the main course
  • mains
  • choice of main course
  • starterA small dish served as the first course of a meal, before the main course. Appetizer is the usual American word.
  • courseOne of the separate parts of a meal served one after another, such as the starter, the main course and the dessert.
  • side dishA smaller dish, such as vegetables, salad, rice or potatoes, served alongside the main course. Often shortened to side.
  • fireIn a kitchen, to start cooking a dish or a course for a table, called out by the chef at the pass when the timing is right.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Menus & Courses

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