This French expression has nothing to do with the tasty egg and bacon tart.
Why do I need to know être une quiche?
This is a common French expression that doesn’t actually mean cooking the famous savoury French pie… but it does get its origins from a culinary aspect.
What does it mean?
The expression être une quiche, roughly pronounced eh-truh oon keesh, translates to “being a quiche” but in reality it means to “be bad at something” or “hopeless at a certain task”.
It is usually used in a light, humorous, mildly self-deprecating way rather than as a harsh insult.
The word quiche is thought to derive from kieche, meaning “pies,” in Franconian (a collective term traditionally used by linguists to refer to many West Germanic languages).
The classic French quiche is the Quiche Lorraine – egg and bacon in a shortcrust-pastry tart case, but a wide variety of quiche fillings are on offer. Salmon, leeks, spinach or goat’s cheese are popular.
But while a French quiche does have a geographical origin, linguist Laurence Rosier explained in an article for French media Ça M’intéresse that the term quiche isn’t a derogatory term for people from Lorraine (Eastern France near the German border), like “macaroni” is for Italians.
Exactly how this tasty savoury dish became associated with foolishness or incompetence is not clear.
However quiche has taken on a derogatory meaning in English too – although its origins and use are quite different.
In the US, the satirical book Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche, published in 1982, appears to have been taken literally by the men’s rights movement. “Quiche eater” is an insult that calls into question a man’s virility by comparing him to the (supposedly) weak and effeminate French.
Use like this
Je suis une quiche en maths. – I’m really bad at maths.
Je suis une quiche, j’ai encore perdu le jeu ! – I’m useless, I lost the game again.
Pour ne plus être une quiche en cuisine, des recettes originales pour tous. (Recipe book by Morgane Mathieu) – To stop being a kitchen klutz, here are some original recipes for everyone.
