à la

[French, short for à la mode de, in the manner of.]

[ah lah] A French idiom meaning "in the manner (or style) of"; the full phrase is à la mode de. In cooking, this phrase designates the style of preparation or a particular garnish. A la bourguignonne, for example, would mean "as prepared in Burgundy."

Like, in the manner of, as in He hoped to break all records, à la Babe Ruth. This expression, an abbreviation of the French à la mode de (for "in the manner of"), has been used in English since the late 1500s.