Common Food Mispronunciations and Misnomers

[demiglace]

I asked some friends how to pronounce FAGE..spelling it out. I got three different pronunciations..can anyone help. It's the Greek Yoghurt Fage.

[Hassouni]

fa-yeh, from what I know. But I also as far as I know think "Greek yogurt" is a sham. It's just labne, strained yogurt (or the Turkish version, süzme yoğurt). No yogurt in its natural state is that thick, even though yogurt in the Eastern Med and Middle East tends to be thicker than in the US or UK.

Edited February 28, 2012 by Hassouni (log)

[patrickamory]

True Greek yogurt is more likely to come from sheep or goats than cows, I'm guessing?

[demiglace]

Thanks for the pronunciation and the information. I googled Greek Yoghurt and the info is what you said..strained yoghurt.

[BrentKulman]

Bruschetta has a double T, so it's "bru-SKET-ta"

This past weekend, I was listening to The Splendid Table and I heard Lynn Rossetto Kasper pronounce it "bru-SHET-ta." I always thought this was a mis-pronunciation but she's Italian and I'm not. Is this a regional thing, perhaps?

[Mjx]

Bruschetta has a double T, so it's "bru-SKET-ta"

This past weekend, I was listening to The Splendid Table and I heard Lynn Rossetto Kasper pronounce it "bru-SHET-ta." I always thought this was a mis-pronunciation but she's Italian and I'm not. Is this a regional thing, perhaps?

Lynn Rossetto Kasper is American. However, she's spent plenty of time in Italy, so I have no idea why she would pronounce 'bruschetta' that way; 'che' is always pronounced 'keh' in Italian.

[phatj]

A frequently mispronounced food-related word is "restaurateur." It's like nails on a blackboard when I hear it mispronounced on the TV Food Network, or by NPR hosts who ought to know better.

"RestauraNteur," they say — that is, they insert an "N" in the middle of a word that has no "N".

The correct anglicized pronunciation is ress-ter-ruh-TUR. . .Dictionary.com has a sound clip:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/restaurateur

I believe that the spelling and pronunciation "restauranteur" has moved past being an error and is becoming the more commonly used spelling. Several dictionaries already list it as an alternate spelling.

Lots of foreign words that are adopted into English eventually get Anglicized.

ETA: Clarification

Huh. I had no idea that "restaurateur" is correct. Presumably I've seen it written that way any number of times but my brain added the "n" back in automatically.

[tikidoc]

Another singular/plural that drives me nuts. "Tamales" is plural for "tamal" not "tamale". I know, another Americanized thing but it still irritates me.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

And yet other singular/plurals that bug me:

Momo, shrimp, squid, moose, and sheep are all their own plurals. No such thing as Momos, shrimps, squids, mooses or meese, or sheeps. And yet I see it all the time. Meh.

[BadRabbit]

And yet other singular/plurals that bug me:

Momo, shrimp, squid, moose, and sheep are all their own plurals. No such thing as Momos, shrimps, squids, mooses or meese, or sheeps. And yet I see it all the time. Meh.

RE: shrimp and squid

I had always thought the same thing but then every dictionary I've looked in lists both shrimp and shrimps and both squid and squids as proper plural forms. I haven't checked the OED but I'm betting it's the same there.

Edited: grammar

Edited March 6, 2012 by BadRabbit (log)

[Mjx]

And yet other singular/plurals that bug me:

Momo, shrimp, squid, moose, and sheep are all their own plurals. No such thing as Momos, shrimps, squids, mooses or meese, or sheeps. And yet I see it all the time. Meh.

RE: shrimp and squid

I had always thought the same thing but then every dictionary I've looked in lists both shrimp and shrimps and both squid and squids as proper plural forms. I haven't checked the OED but I'm betting it's the same there.

Edited: grammar

The OED lists both options as acceptable (but the form with the terminal 's' always sounds so illiterate).

[Beebs]

Someone might have mentioned this one already, but caught it on Food Network this weekend & it's been bugging me ever since...

"With au jus" - arrrggh!!! It's "au jus" only. Or "with jus". Not "with with jus".

[patrickamory]

A waiter in an LA restaurant actually put down the gravy boat of jus three nights ago and remarked, "And here's more au jus on the side."

[Hassouni]

Shrimps seems to be standard in Britain..."potted shrimps," etc.

[Jaymes]

How about 'Calphalon'? I've always said KAL-fa-lon.

But a friend insists the first L is silent, and that syllable is supposed to be pronounced 'kaf' like a baby cow: calf.

[Hassouni]

Jaymes, I've never heard that. I mean your friend could be right, but I've always heard it as you say it.

[Jaymes]

Jaymes, I've never heard that. I mean your friend could be right, but I've always heard it as you say it.

Honestly, she's the only one I've ever heard say it that way as well. But she's so insistent (even rude) about it that I began to wonder if she might be right.

[Dave the Cook]

Michael Symon says -- in a Calphalon commercial -- CAL-fa-lon. Video here.

[Jaymes]

Michael Symon says -- in a Calphalon commercial -- CAL-fa-lon. Video here.

Wow, thanks! Ammunition.

This is going to settle it.

Heheh.

[Mjx]

Artful.

Not a food term, but one I see increasingly used in descriptions of food presentation to mean 'artistic'. Just say 'artistic', already; arranging your figs and prosciutto in the shape of a daisy may meet strike you as artistic, but by no stretch of the imagination is it particularly clever or skilful (i.e. 'artful').

[Heartsurgeon]

here is a combination "Mispronunciation and Misnomer"

pilaf.

for starters, it is pronounced pee-lav, NOT pee-laf

second, the translation of pilaf is rice.

so when a menu lists "rice pilaf", it literally means "rice rice".

STOP IT! IT'S STUPID!

call it rice, or call it pilaf, but stop calling it rice pilaf, it makes no sense.

[PrivateTim]

A waiter in an LA restaurant actually put down the gravy boat of jus three nights ago and remarked, "And here's more au jus on the side."

In a French restaurant that might be a faux pas, but in American English "au jus" is thought of as a side sauce, not its literal French meaning.

If you are at a deli and the waitress asked you "would you like jus, with your sandwich?", you would think her an idiot or pretentious. She is going to ask, "would you like au jus, with your sandwich?"

You can buy packets of "au jus" in any supermarket in the U.S., you are not buying a packet labeled "jus".

[Hassouni]

That doesn't make it any better, frankly

[Chris Hennes]

I asked some friends how to pronounce FAGE..spelling it out. I got three different pronunciations..can anyone help. It's the Greek Yoghurt Fage.

fa-yeh, from what I know.

I somehow missed this: according to the product packaging, it's pronounce "fah-YEH!" Don't forget the exclamation mark!

[gfweb]

Shrimp scampi actually translates as shrimp shrimp. But scampi has come to mean a garlicky sauce and we now see sole scampi etc.

RE au jus... Guy Fieri will burn in hell for his egregious misuse of the term on TV. I knew in third grade that prime rib au jus was "with juices" . Clearly hair bleach depletes grey cells.