Continuing the A to Z of French herbs, today's herb is the cousin to parsley. To be honest, I'd never heard about it before I moved to France, Chervil.

Chervil is pronounced Cher like the singer and ville like the French word for town. But in French, it's called Cerfeuil.

Chervil is often called French parsley or garden chervil. It’s an annual herb related to the parsley family. It used to be called Myrhis as its oil had an aroma similar to the resin from Myrrh which is extracted from a tiny thorny tree that’s used for perfume and incense amongst other things.

Back to chervil though, it’s commonly used as a seasoning for various French dishes and most notably used in the popular herb mixture fine herbes.

The name chervil is Anglo-Norman from Latin and is derived from the Greek chaerophyllon, meaning the herb of rejoicing or, less reverentially, the happy herb.