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TDG: Watch Your Language: The MPI

Fat Guy

By Fat Guy
in Food Traditions & Culture

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

Posted
Posted

PortObellO. PortObellA. PortAbellO. PortAbellA. Which will it be?

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Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Chef Fowke

Chef Fowke

Posted
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What we need is a modern champion of food terms and definitions. Escoffier defined continuity in recipes. Larousse Gastronomique gave us a dictionary of classic recipes. We need to tighten the nomenclature of culinary. I am growing tired of ordering a Caesar salad and getting a romaine salad with a garlic dressing. I hate when I order a bouillabaisse and I do not get rouille!

It is a sad state of culinary when we cannot even have a standardized name for a mushroom!

Oops….sorry, I vent a life long struggle. I love the modern cuisine, but I believe in the classics being cooked in the manner they were originally meant to be.

Chef/Owner/Teacher

Website: Chef Fowke dot com

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

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Did some searches on the New York Times site and found that all four spellings have been used by the paper. However, the overwhelming majority of examples are "portobello" (777 since 1996, which is as far back as the online database goes). As far as I can tell, the only use of "portabella" is as a proper noun, as in the spelling a restaurant in California uses for its own name. There are, however, 11 uses of "portabello" and 2 of "portobella" (only 1 of which is editorial; the other is verbatim from a White House menu).

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

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Priscilla has actually been instrumental in developing the style guide for our Webzine, The Daily Gullet. Right now it's something we use only on internal basis, but the long-range plan is to publish it -- especially the section on culinary terminology and usage.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Suzanne F

Suzanne F

Posted
Posted

Spelling it pOrtObellO makes me think of Eccentrica Gallumbits, the triple-breasted whore of Eroticon 6.

Rather comforting, in a way, don't you think?

But which way would The Official Scrabble Players [sic] Dictionary have it, if it included it at all?

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

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What about etymology-wise? Wouldn't some of these permutations mean something like "beautiful doorknob"?

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Rachel Perlow

Rachel Perlow

Posted
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But which way would The Official Scrabble ™ Players [sic] Dictionary have it, if it included it at all?

My Third Ed ©1995 Scrabble® Dictionary doesn't have it listed. However, the publisher's website, Merriam-Webster.com has it listed with three variants: portobello, portabella, and portabello (and their plurals). All are defined as an "Italian ... meadow mushroom .... a large dark mature cultivated mushroom noted for its meaty texture and belonging to a variety of the button mushroom -- compare CREMINI."

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slkinsey

slkinsey

Posted
Posted

If one is going to make a stab at some kind of Italian spelling, only two of the permutations would work.

porto bello = beautiful port

porta bella = beautiful door

porto bella and porta bello = grammatically incorrect

The main point is that the As and the Os have to agree.

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

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An earlier discussion ensued here. I am in favor of portobello as the standardized spelling. Priscilla's Yahoo research, my New York Times searches, and my personal sense of what seems most mushroomy support portobello.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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slkinsey

slkinsey

Posted
Posted
An earlier discussion ensued here. I am in favor of portobello as the standardized spelling. Priscilla's Yahoo research, my New York Times searches, and my personal sense of what seems most mushroomy support portobello.

Hee! Strangely, the scientific names seem most mushroomy to me. When I was growing up we used to spend all our summers in my Grandfather's house way up in the mountains of Western North Carolina. We were literally in the middle of the forest on the side of a mountain. Anyway... it is very damp up there and mushrooms are literally popping out of the ground all over the place. My parents wanted to be able to pick and eat the mushrooms growing there and, being the scientists that they are and not wanting to kill the whole family, decided to learn everything there is to know about North American wild mushrooms. There are still some mushrooms that I mostly know by the scientific name (lost of tasty boletes about). I knew Boletus edulis before I knew porcini, and I always knew to stay away from Amanita virosa (not that "Death Angel" sounds particularly tasty either).

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Priscilla

Priscilla

Posted
Posted
Pursuantly, what IS eGullet Style on this matter anyways.

Must decide which permutation I prefer and begin campaigning.

I'm pretty sure FG just said you get to decide.

OK then I choose Big-Ass Mushroom.

Priscilla

Writer, cook, & c. ●  Twitter

 

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slkinsey

slkinsey

Posted
Posted
Pursuantly, what IS eGullet Style on this matter anyways.

Must decide which permutation I prefer and begin campaigning.

I'm pretty sure FG just said you get to decide.

OK then I choose Big-Ass Mushroom.

Perhaps the culogrande mushroom? :cool:

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Dave the Cook

Dave the Cook

Posted
Posted
Pursuantly, what IS eGullet Style on this matter anyways.

Must decide which permutation I prefer and begin campaigning.

I'm pretty sure FG just said you get to decide.

OK then I choose Big-Ass Mushroom.

Perhaps the culogrande mushroom? :cool:

Gets my vote.

Dave Scantland
Executive director
dscantland@eGstaff.org
eG Ethics signatory

Eat more chicken skin.

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Peter B Wolf

Peter B Wolf

Posted
Posted
Pursuantly, what IS eGullet Style on this matter anyways.

Must decide which permutation I prefer and begin campaigning.

I'm pretty sure FG just said you get to decide.

OK then I choose Big-Ass Mushroom.

Perhaps the culogrande mushroom? :cool:

"Culatello", is already reserved for (see direct quote on 'GOOGLE Search'

DolceVita Cuisine: Prosciutto

... products, there are myriad Tuscan and Umbrian prosciutti, prosciutto di montagna

(mountain ham) and the greatest delicacy of them all - culatello, a legendary

Peter
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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

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It appears that the Mushroom Counil has adapted the two "a" spelling as official.

Then I definitely support the double-o spelling! I can't stand that mushroom council with all its mushroom politics!

(Actually, I've never heard of it.)

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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slkinsey

slkinsey

Posted
Posted
It appears that the Mushroom Counil has adapted the two "a" spelling as official.

Then I definitely support the double-o spelling! I can't stand that mushroom council with all its mushroom politics!

Isn't that just like them! Well I, for one, am sick and tired being hassled by the Establishment about what I call my mushrooms!

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