Food Pronunciation Guide for the Dim-witted

[gus_tatory]

if you guys think "mille feuille" is hard, try "cuisses de grenouilles" (frog's legs).

umm, "kwees duh gruh-noo-yuh" is about as close as i can get to transcribing it.

[NulloModo]

I have a couple:

Gnocchi for one. I've always pronounced it 'no-key' with a slght soft g sound before the n, sorta like in gnome. My roomate insists on saying 'yonkee'. Please tell me I have the correct version of this one.

Also...

Gyro. Is it like 'Jai-Roh' or 'Eeh-Roh', I have heard both are supposedly authentic...

[hwilson41]

Moët & Chandon is another trick for the unsuspecting. Moët, so I've read, is actually Dutch and the "t" is pronounced (Chandon is French).

THW

[Gifted Gourmet]

Wine names can be fun:  Puligny-Montrachet; Chayeauneuf-du-Pap; Torckenbeerenauslesen....

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Montrachet?? wherein none of the "t"s are pronounced ...

and then there is the red wine: Eschezeaux? Perhaps Chambolle-Musigney?

No wonder people simply give up an request the poossy foossy

[patti]

Here's a helpful site: Audio Guide to French Culinary Terms

I only wish it were more comprehensive.

[ludja]

My time us better spent teaching bartenders how to say Blue Curacao

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Wait, I need help on this one, is it

Blue Coor-ah-sow? or

Blue Coor-ah-cow?

(I think it's the former, as I believe there is an accent cedille on the "c").

And where is the accent?

Ok, one I hear people pronouncing wth uncertainty is the Austrian wine grape:

Gruner Veltliner (umlaut over the "u"):

Grew'-ner Felt'-lean-er (accent on first syallable of each word)

(I can't think of a good phonetic way to depict the umlaut "u"; but it would be similar to the vowels in "foot")

Edited February 12, 2005 by ludja (log)

[ballast_regime]

... "nuh-YO-kee," but fast so the "gno" blend together ...

[redfox]

Actually, now that I am reading around on the Internet, it seems that maybe the correct pronunciation of "Noilly Prat" is Frenchy on the "Noilly" but with a hard t on the "Prat" -- because the owner of the original Prat name was a Brit.

[highchef]

I have a few, please don't laugh.

risotto..I have a friend who says 'rizott' with no e sound on the end and a long o. Is that the Italian way, or is it also ok to pronounce the o?

edamame...I know WHAT it is, just never heard it pronounced..help.

gravlax- is that x sounded out?

And I'm sorry, but I say biscotti - with the i. the aforementioned friend says biscot with the t ending.

is pancetta 'panchetta' or pansetta?

I have more, be nice.

[jgm]

I need help with:

tagliatelle

and manchego --man-CHEE-go or man-KAY-go?

(and that's just for starters, but I'll have to think on it.)

[NulloModo]

I need help with:

tagliatelle

and manchego  --man-CHEE-go or man-KAY-go?

(and that's just for starters, but I'll have to think on it.)

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man-CHAY-go

[chezcherie]

edamame=ed-uh-MA-may

[Mooshmouse]

edamame...I know WHAT it is, just never heard it pronounced..help.

is pancetta 'panchetta' or pansetta?

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Eh-dah-MAH-meh (all short vowel sounds)

And you have it right with 'pan-CHE-tta".

Edited February 11, 2005 by Mooshmouse (log)

[jackal10]

Cockburn port pronounced Co'burn

Salisbury (as in steak) is Sarum

[Okbrewer]

how about those spies that need a shave? you know:

Hairy coverts

[Tess]

I've been hearing a lot of people mispronounce "coup de grace" lately. Not a food term, but pronouncing it "koo duh grah" sure makes it sound like one to me.

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It always sounds to me like it means "fat ass" when they pronounce it that way.

Generally it's funny when people think you pronounce French right every time by leaving off the last few letters, like "Vichyswah."

My favorite is still "bouillaBAIZE," with the last syllable sounding like the f-word.

[mrbigjas]

My favorite is still "bouillaBAIZE," with the last syllable sounding like the f-word.

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hm, i've never heard anyone pronounce it bouillabuck...

[jgm]

Salisbury (as in steak) is Sarum

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Really????? I'm not doubting or challenging you, I'm just surprised. Do you know any history of this term? I've never heard of it being pronounced that way--which is meaningless, since I live in a community where a street named Greenwich is pronounced "green witch." My friends and I have tried to change that over the years, and people think we're just being hoity-toity. But then, in this state, "Arkansas" is pronounced AR-kan-saw only when referring to that state. If referring to the Arkansas River when it's within our borders, it's ar-KAN-zuss.

No wonder I don't know how to talk.

[mrbigjas]

I have a few, please don't laugh.

risotto..I have a friend who says 'rizott' with no e sound on the end and a long o. Is that the Italian way, or is it also ok to pronounce the o?

edamame...I know WHAT it is, just never heard it pronounced..help.

gravlax- is that x sounded out?

And I'm sorry, but I say biscotti - with the i. the aforementioned friend says biscot with the t ending.

is pancetta 'panchetta' or pansetta?

I have more, be nice.

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where is your friend from? that sort of thing is, to my knowledge, sort of associated with italian-americans, esp. in new york/new jersey/philadelphia.

e.g. ricotta in italian is ree-coat-ta, in south philadelphia it's ri-GOT.

i've heard that this is an evolution of a southern italian or sicilian accent-- the softening of the consonants and leaving off the final vowel--but i don't know enough about the various italian accents/dialects to know for sure.

pancetta has the CH sound, as if it was panchetta.

[therese]

I've been hearing a lot of people mispronounce "coup de grace" lately. Not a food term, but pronouncing it "koo duh grah" sure makes it sound like one to me.

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It always sounds to me like it means "fat ass" when they pronounce it that way.

Generally it's funny when people think you pronounce French right every time by leaving off the last few letters, like "Vichyswah."

My favorite is still "bouillaBAIZE," with the last syllable sounding like the f-word.

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The alternate pronunciation of coup de grace makes me think that we're getting ready to throw bacon around the room (for whatever reason I've lately heard it used in meetings, around a conference table).

"BouillaBAIZE" is great one. Yeah, things can get pretty steamy, but I've yet to bring anybody to an actual boil.

Tagliatelle = tah-lyah-TELL-ay

Gnocchi = NYOKE-kee

Not that double consonants in Italian are pronounced. The U.S. ear has a hard time hearing (and generating) the difference, so don't worry about it.

risotto..I have a friend who says 'rizott' with no e sound on the end and a long o. Is that the Italian way, or is it also ok to pronounce the o?

Your friend's likely from the northeastern U.S., and she's either of Italian extraction or grew up listening to Italian Americans. She pronounces prosciutto as "pro-ZHOOT", right? It's actually more okay to pronounce the o than to not pronounce it, at least if you're anywhere other than the northeast U.S. where it's basically a dialect (that reflects the immigrants Sicilian and far south Italian origins, where I suppose it would also be appropriate). Anywhere else it sounds distinctly uneducated and lower class (by which I'm not making a value judgment, just pointing out the situation).

[Jensen]

Salisbury (as in steak) is Sarum

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Really????? I'm not doubting or challenging you, I'm just surprised. Do you know any history of this term?

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Ha! Ask an Englishman to say St. John (sinjin) or Featherstonehaugh (fanshaw or, like the kid I grew up with, ferney-hugh...and you'd better not pick the wrong version when talking to him!) or Cholmondley (Chumley) or Worcester (wooster).

I'm not at all surprised that Salisbury is sarum. I'll just keep saying "salsbury" though.

Cockburn is pronounced coburn in Canada so that one wasn't a surprise at all.

[therese]

pancetta has the CH sound, as if it was panchetta.

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Yep.

The "h after c" thing is one of the hardest things about Italian for anglophones, as the "h" is used to indicate that a "c" will be hard before an "e" or "i". If it's missing then the "c" is pronounced "ch" (as in "church"). If the "c" is preceded by an "s" (and followed by either "e" or "i") then the "sc" is pronounced "sh" (as in "shush").

[Toliver]

Regarding the Vietnamese dish "pho", I am not Vietnamese but I work with a woman who is and it's pronounced "fuh", as other posters have pointed out.

I always think my cowroker is getting ready to cuss at me when she says "pho".

[therese]

My favorite is still "bouillaBAIZE," with the last syllable sounding like the f-word.

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hm, i've never heard anyone pronounce it bouillabuck...

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In case anybody here doesn't know this, the verb "baiser" (pronounced beh-zay), means, well, let's just say that it's nothing to do with cooking.

[jackal10]

I exagerated. Salisbury the place is sometimes pronounced Sarum.

as in

There was a young curate of Salisbury

Whose manners were quite Halisbury-Scalisbury

He wandered round Hampshire

Without any pampshire

Till the Vicar compelled him to Warisbury

I extended this to steak..

There are many similar English place and family names that are not spoken the way they are spelt.

Cockburn I mentioned above, Other food related ones might be Worcester (sauce) pronounced Wooster; Leicester (cheese) pronounced lester

Other examples (not a complete list by any means)

Wymondham (pronounced Wind-am),

Waldergrave (=Wawgrayve),

Mainwaring (=Mannering),

Magdalene (=Maudlin),

Caius (=Keeys),

Auchinlech (=Aflek)

Althorp – pronounced 'Awltrup'

Belvoir – pronounced 'Beever'

Cholmondely – 'Chumli'

Featherstonehaugh – 'Fanshaw'

Leominster – 'Lemster'

Leveson-Gower – 'Loosen-Gaw'

Marjoribanks – 'Marchbanks'

Ralph – 'Rafe'

Ranulph – 'Ralph'

St. John – 'Sin Jin'

Towcester – 'Toaster'

Woolfardisworthy – 'Woolseri'

Wriothesley – 'Roxli'

Menzies - 'Minges'

Edited February 11, 2005 by jackal10 (log)