The correction is right for someone dealing with American menus. There, the Hauptgerichte are called 'entrees'.

@Nancy: Where?

Also wenn ich meinem Duden glauben darf, dort steht, für "entree" als Bedeutung in Bezug auf Essen "Vorspeise". Worauf auch der französische Ursprung hindeutet.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/52/E0165200.html
2 : the main course of a meal in the U.S. (www.m-w.com)
I know it doesn't seem to make sense, especially given the French origin, but that's how it's used.
@snoop: I've lived many years in Rhode Island, Ohio, New York, spent time in New England, California, Washington, etc.

In BE, entree = Vorspeise
In AE, entree = Hauptgericht

Yes, it is confusing. But it's true.

Wie Nancy richtig ausführte, gilt "Entree" in den USA (ich füge hinzu: und im englischsprachigen Kanada) als Hauptgericht. Darauf hat der Duden keinen Einfluß.

@Nancy: Also müsste man dann sagen: 1. Gang: Appetizer, 2.Gang: Entree & 3. Dessert.

Stimmt das dann so?

@eva: For your American & Canadian audience - yes!

Agree with Nancy--'entree' is *always* Hauptgericht in AE. If you need a translation which is unambiguous on both sides of the Atlantic, you could try 'Main Course' (already mentioned) which I believe works in BE as well.

I've just looked up the word entree in my New Oxford Dictionary of English and this is what it says:

1 the main course of a meal
Brit. a dish served between the fish and meat courses at a formal dinner.

The Collins English Dictionary says:
1 A dish served before a main course.
2. Chiefly US the main course of a meal

As for the origin, the Collins says: C18: from French, from entrer to ENTER; in cookery, so called because formerly the course was served after an intermediate course called the releve (remove).

Agree with Nancy and Peter<us>. Not that they need any backup ...

@Ferg: Falls Du auf einem Eintrag von Haputgericht (AE)/Vorspeise (BE)
bestehst, müsstest Du für die exzentrische Orthographie noch Belege bringen, oder dich mit den seit Jahr und Tag vorhandenen und korrekten LEO-Einträgen zufrieden geben.

Trivial question: how did entree evolved to become the main dish in america when the french word itself carries the meaning of something in the beginning. (not totally sure what the french word means.)

@ky
I did some reading on this recently and found the following page, which you may find interesting:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/FOOD/entree.html

The author's theory is that the original order of a French menu, in which the entrée came towards the middle of the meal (after the soup and hors d'oeuvres, but before the rôti and the dessert), evolved differently in different countries. In some countries, the earlier courses of the meal gradually fell into disuse while other countries got rid of the later courses instead. I have no idea whether or not this is true, but it's an interesting theory.

I am reopening this old but very interesting thread because I'd like to know what Americans say for "Zwischengericht". Does anyone know?

Mir sind auf der US-Speisekarte nur appetizer - soup - entrée / main course - dessert begegnet ... bei einem Festbankett müßte es noch ein Zwischengericht geben, ich war aber bei keinem ... ist entremet bekannt? (Mir nicht, außer daß ich es auf Leo gefunden habe.)

Tante Wiki warnt:

Tante Wiki hat einen eindeutigen Einschlag ins AE. Das steht meist nicht dabei.

It should be noted, perhaps, that many AE speakers say "main entree," but there aren't any "side entrees," for instance. Here's also a slightly humorous article about all this in the Huffington Post (from 4 years ago): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/meg-hemphill/en...

For #18, see http://www.fooduniversity.com/foodu/food_c/pr...