The Language of Food

In the last few years, the popularity of cookbooks and culinary shows has started to attract people's attention and made them want to have more information on these topics. As gastronomy students and those who spend time in the kitchen know, language and food are universal to everyone.

Language helps people to communicate and gain information, meaning that it will provide us with many benefits when talking about food. These are essential to humanity and help us to live our lives. Most importantly, they represent the concepts of socialization and identity construction, when you ask, "How?" First of all, language is established as a part of our social identity in terms of a culturally-specific vocabulary, context-sensitive topics, and shared attitudes. Any particular human group can assert its diversity, hierarchy, and organization through its eating habits; while also demonstrating its own unity as well as the "otherness" of those who consume food differently.

Language not only affects the food we eat, it also affects television, radio, communication, and social media, meaning that this is a very broad topic. Food is a global language and the language of food clearly shows a vast map of culinary influences.

Well, we all love food, don’t we? Food brings us together at work, at school, and at home, but language has this same effect of bringing us together. This shows us the effect of language on food. So, this article is for those people who have been wondering about this topic.

The Universal Language of Food

We can communicate our love, grief, dreams, and experiences through food. We have the opportunity to open up to one another and share our lives when we eat together. It is a time for laughter, tears, and introspection. Travelling to different locations, whether near or far, tempts us to try new foods and interact with the people we eat with.

Many civilizations have expressed themselves through food. Food is not just necessary for survival, it is an expression of who we are. To honor visitors, cultures often provide food. The custom of breaking bread has long involved numerous social interactions. Food causes an emotional and physical reaction as well as activating our senses to the surroundings.

How is food universal? Well, the answer is that food transcends all cultures. It is a resource that is typically available in every society. Food and flavors are not static; rather, they change over time. Even in a family situation, it promotes unity.

Culinary Language

Briefly, the word 'culinary' is derived from the Latin word 'culina', which means "kitchen" or "cookstove." The word "culina" itself comes from the Latin verb coquere, which means "to cook." Coquere is also the root of the words concoct, precocious, and concoction. The term, 'culinary' began to grow in the Western world first as a craft, and later, towards the end of the Renaissance era, as a field of study.

Culinary language contains linguistic information about the study of food and the field of food in general, as well as food-related studies. The study of food and language in many interdisciplinary domains, such as linguistics, anthropology, sociolinguistics, consumption politics, and globalization, is known as culinary linguistics, which forms part of applied linguistics. The standard terminology used in this industry is based on French, English, or Italian, and it is not only used for day-to-day work in the kitchen.

Also, we want to give you a little more information. Have you ever wondered why chefs speak French? The reason behind this is that French is so closely connected with cooking that it permeates both professional kitchens and formal dining rooms. The restaurant concept may be credited to the French, but the actual cooking was not created by them. Now that you have some brief information about the culinary world, let’s look at a few examples of culinary terms.

Top 10 Culinary Words You Should Know

While you are wondering what the top 10 culinary terms are, here are some terms that may be of interest to you, as well as their clear definitions for those who are not chefs.

The first term is "Acidulation", this technique involves adding lemon or lime juice to water to make it acidic or sour. The second term is "Baste"; to keep food moist when cooking, oil or fluids are poured over meat or other types of food. Further to these, removing the center and seeds from a fruit is called "coring," you "dress" food by adding vinegar, salt, or other seasonings; a boneless piece of meat, chicken, or fish is referred to as a "fillet," while an "infusion" is a beverage, medicine, or extract made by letting tea leaves or herbs steep in liquid; a "kissing crust" refers to the portion of a loaf's top shell that touched another loaf during baking, to "mince" means cutting food into pieces smaller than chopped pieces with a chef's knife in the final step, a "mother" is a base sauce used to create variations of the original sauce, and last but not least, "marinate" refers to the lengthy process of soaking food in seasoned, acidic liquid before cooking.

These terms are commonly used by people who spend time in the kitchen. There are many different types of terms if you notice them. For example, "Mother'' and "Dress". You can even sometimes guess the meanings by their names which gives culinary language an exciting aspect.

In addition, there is a difference between the words 'cooking' and 'culinary'. Before we start to talk about their differences, let’s talk about the different schools. There are cooking schools and there are culinary schools, and these explain the difference between 'cooking' and 'culinary'. Culinary school will teach you why a recipe works, while a one-off cooking class may only teach you how to prepare a certain dish. Taking a single cooking class won't even scratch the surface. The realm of food science and technique can be explored at culinary school. You will start to comprehend the rationale behind why recipes are written the way they are.

Lastly, have you ever wondered why chefs speak French? The reason behind this is because French is so closely connected with cooking that it permeates both professional kitchens and formal dining rooms. The restaurant concept may be credited to the French, but the actual cooking was not created by them.

The Importance of Localization in the Culinary World

First, let’s start with a question. What is localization? Localization is the practice of giving something a local flavor or limiting it to a certain location. Chefs usually speak French, but sometimes it is hard to understand them. Even ingredients can pose a huge challenge when localizing culinary texts. So it has to be translated. In this section, we're going to turn our attention to the importance of localization in the culinary world.

There are many examples of the importance of localization in the culinary world. Here are some interesting examples. The first example is black beans, used to make a succulent stew, which are respectively called "caraotas," in Venezuela, "frijoles negros" in Cuba, and "habichuelas negras" in Puerto Rico. The same stew may contain "camote" in Bolivia, "batata" in Colombia, and "boniato" in Uruguay, these are all different names for sweet potatoes, all three of which may be present. Markets in Puerto Rico sell the delectable passion fruit known as "parcha," or in the Dominican Republic "chinola," while in El Salvador, it's known as "maracuyá." In Argentina and Ecuador, the delicious "melocotón," which is known as a nectarine in Guatemala, is marketed under the name "pelón".

The Connection Between Food and Culture

As we all know, food influences culture in many ways including tradition, religion and also family. For example, let’s think about a dish. This dish is made in two countries such as America and Egypt. Since pork is totally prohibited in Islam they have to change the dish by putting chicken or beef in that dish instead of pork, and this is just one example. So, that means that this creates a new society and makes us different from others. What foods we purchase can be significantly influenced by religious requirements. Muslims, for instance, will not consume beef or lamb that has not been killed using the halal method, whereas Jewish people will only consume Kosher foods, so, for example, they do not consume meat and dairy at the same time. It is a well-known fact that food is an important part of a person's cultural heritage. Food influences the way people eat and is affected by their religion. Moreover, people generally connect to their ethnic group through food patterns. People with different cultural backgrounds eat different kinds of dishes. The types of food change depending on the area and the influence of their ancestors on what foods are liked and disliked.

There may be dishes with similarities but because of the different cultures and languages, they may be called by different names. For example, a dish that is called "dolma" in Turkey, is called "pimientos rellenos" in Spain. "Dolma" is a stuffed dish, made with vegetables, meat, rice and tomato sauce. Let’s see what other countries call "dolma". In Iran, this dish is known as "dolmeh," in Greece, as "dolmades," in Armenia, as "tolma," and in Syria, as "yebra". It is also known as "mahshi' in Egypt. This shows us that most countries have similar tastes but with different names. Another example is what is called "meze" in Turkey, in Spain this is called "tapas" but in Cyprus, it is called "little delicacies", which all refer to a variety of small meals served with bread and usually eaten with family and friends outdoors. Sometimes the dish that we call "meze" can be eaten as a main course because it can be very filling. Food with Spanish, Jamaican, Arabic, Japanese, or Greek names may be called differently, but be the same dish. As another example, in America, a "hot dog" has a different name in Europe and is called a "Vienna sausage" or a "frankfurter". However, the name "hot dog" usually doesn't change in other countries, and is used by many people. These are the most common examples.

Evolution of Food Names

This refers to the analysis of the history of food and its impact on culture, environment, and society. The importance of the evolution of food depends on how the food is produced and plays a major role in shaping our society and environment and it results in some interesting food names. Maybe some of you are aware of some interesting food names. Usually, these food names have a very interesting backstory on how they came about. For example, there is a Turkish dish called "İmam bayıldı". An "İmam" is the person who is in charge of leading prayers in a mosque, and "İmam bayıldı" means that the person in charge of leading prayers in a mosque has fainted. It has an interesting name, doesn't it? The name came about from a legend where an Imam either fainted in shock at the amount of olive oil used, or swooned over the delicious nature of the dish.

There are also many weird and interesting food names. You may ask, "What are some examples of weird food names?" Well, food names don't always have fun names. The dish that we call "Sweetbread", is neither sweet nor bread. It is, in fact, the pancreas from a calf or a lamb. Two more examples of weird food names are "Ladyfingers" and "Cold Duck". "Ladyfingers" is simply a sponge cake shaped in a delicate fingerlike form, and "Cold Duck" is actually a drink.

So there you have it, as we discussed at the beginning of this article, language and food are very important for humankind. In addition, we also saw how important culinary terms are. Last, but not least, if you want to become a chef you need to know cooking and baking terminology, which we talked about it in the section on culinary language. As you can see, language affects food just as it affects film and television. If you are interested in this topic, then you can also check out The Most Popular Online Language and 7 Words You Probably Didn't Realize Come from Movies and TV on our MotaWord blog.