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Using 'faire' with cooking verbs

In English, we often use the same verb whether we are doing the cooking or the food is cooking itself. We can say "I boil the water" and "the water boils." French is slightly more literal. For many cooking verbs, the basic verb describes what the food is doing. If you want to say that you are the one applying the heat, you usually need the helper verb faire.

This structure uses faire to show that you are causing an action. By putting a conjugated form of faire in front of a cooking infinitive like cuire or bouillir, you show that you are making the cooking happen.

Word list
faire cuireA2 to cook faire cuire le poulet = to cook the chicken faire bouillirB1 to boil faire bouillir l'eau = to boil the water faire frireB1 to fry faire frire les oignons = to fry the onions faire rôtirB1 to roast faire rôtir le poulet = to roast the chicken faire cuire à la vapeurB2 to steam faire cuire à la vapeur = to steam
How it works

When you talk about preparing food, you will usually pair faire with an infinitive cooking verb. Think of it as saying you are "making the food cook" or "causing the liquid to boil." The verb faire is conjugated to match the subject, while the cooking verb stays in its infinitive form.

For example, bouillir means that a liquid is bubbling and turning into vapour. The water is doing the action. To say that you boil the water, you use faire bouillir.

Je fais bouillir l'eau pour le thé.
(I am boiling the water for the tea.)
Faites bouillir l'eau avant d'ajouter les pâtes.
(Boil the water before adding the pasta.)

The same logic applies to cuire. If you put a chicken in the oven, you are not undergoing the cooking process yourself. Therefore, you use faire cuire.

Elle fait cuire le poisson au four.
(She cooks the fish in the oven.)
Nous faisons cuire le poulet ce soir.
(We are cooking the chicken tonight.)
Frying, steaming, and grilling

This pattern is very common in French and applies to most specific cooking methods. When frying something in oil, steaming vegetables, or grilling meat, you will rely on the faire construction.

Le beurre fond pendant que je fais frire les pommes de terre.
(The butter is melting while I fry the potatoes.)
Il fait cuire à la vapeur de bons légumes verts.
(He is steaming some good green vegetables.)
Ils font griller des saucisses dans le jardin.
(They are grilling sausages in the garden.)
Watch out: Is faire always required?

While faire is standard for cooking verbs, it is helpful to know that some verbs like cuire and dégeler (to thaw) can occasionally be used without faire, even when there is a direct object. However, using faire is the most conventional and natural choice in everyday speech.

You will also meet this structure with other cooking verbs. For instance, to melt chocolate for a cake, you use faire fondre, and to roast a chicken, you might hear faire rôtir. In all these cases, the rule remains the same: faire shows who is in charge in the kitchen.

Summary

In French, cooking verbs usually describe what the food itself is doing. To say that you are cooking, boiling, frying, or steaming food, put the conjugated verb faire in front of the infinitive cooking verb to show you are making the action happen.