Interesting discussion of menu language

[paulraphael]

There's a lot of territory between Le Bec Fin's minimalism and all these Python-esq celebrations of culinary b.s.

helenjp makes a case for description when it would be legitemately helpful.

But I think a bit of description can also serves the purpose of making the food sound more appealing--not a bad thing if the description is accurate. And if the food is in fact appealing.

When I managed an ice cream store years ago I formulated new flavors from time to time. One thing my boss understood much better than I did was importance of the flavor's name. One of our new flavors was simply rum ice cream (like rum raisin without the raisins). It was good ice cream made with good rum, and I liked the simplicity. But no one bought it. No one! My boss thought about it for a minute, and changed the name to "Jamaican Rum." There was no b.s. involved ... it was in fact made with rum from Jamaica. The five gallon tub sold out by the end of the day.

I also noticed that the name did more than sell a flavor; it actually influenced the customers' perceptions. We made the standard "sweet cream" ice cream, which is just the base ice cream without any flavoring added. Time after time people would try a sample and declare that it was too sweet! In fact it was much less sweet than some of the other flavors. The name changed the way they experienced it.

Since a restaurant is in the business of selling food, and selling an experience, I think it's a mistake to underestimate the influence of names on both these endeavors. Granted, if the descriptions smell like b.s., then the customer will assume that's what you're selling. But you have choices besides b.s. and nothing.