vol-au-vent

[ vaw-loh-vahn ]

noun

, Cooking.

1. a large shell of light, flaky pastry for filling with vegetable, fish, or meat mixtures, usually with a sauce.

vol-au-vent

/ vɔlovɑ̃ /

noun

1. a very light puff pastry case filled either with a savoury mixture in a richly flavoured sauce or sometimes with fruit

Word History and Origins

Origin of vol-au-vent¹

1820–30; < French: literally, flight on the wind

Word History and Origins

Origin of vol-au-vent¹

C19: from French, literally: flight in the wind

Example Sentences

Viewers may emerge from “The Taste of Things” desperate to find a restaurant that serves a good vol-au-vent, a turbot in hollandaise sauce or the meringue-coated ice cream confection known as baked alaska.

From New York Times

Each course is practically a feast unto itself: vol-au-vent, roasted veal loin, poached turbot, baked Alaska — and that’s just the first half-hour.

From Los Angeles Times

Rather than braising it, my grandfather André would cook it in a vol-au-vent and combine with crayfish.

From The Guardian

Jones displays his affection for pastry again in a fine vol-au-vent: puff pastry with a well of creamy leeks and fingers of steelhead trout on top, its gleam courtesy of orange trout roe.

From Washington Post

They will be there for hours and hours, and yet, it seems, they will not get so much as a vol-au-vent.

From The Guardian