The struggle to spell

May 20, 2025 by
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Before I started writing for Eat Your Books (over 11 years ago!), I had a bi-monthly food column at a medium sized newspaper for several years. In junior high, I competed at the state spelling bee and made it to the final round. You might assume with that pedigree I could properly spell almost any culinary term without looking it up. However, much like Food and Wine’s Kat Kinsman, there are words that I always have to spell check. She wrote about this last year and I was reminded of it when I wanted to text a friend about a dish I had just eaten at a local restaurant. I couldn’t remember how to spell the dish and had to look it up on the restaurant’s online menu.

To be fair, it was not a common item – paccheri con stracotto is not something one encounters every day. But there are more common culinary terms that I struggle to spell each and every time I write them. Two of those I share with Kat Kinsman – hors d’oeuvres and bourguignon. But my spelling issues are not limited to Italian or French words. It took me a long time to get restaurateur correct on the first try, although I have (finally) nailed that one. Same with Worcestershire, but I do have to sound it out, intentionally mispronouncing it in my head.

Other commonly misspelled culinary terms include mayonnaise, prosciutto, Caesar, cardamom, and mascarpone. Speaking of mascarpone, there are many words where mispronunciations are more common than misspellings. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard people say “sherbeRt”, adding an extra consonant where it doesn’t belong. I try to be forgiving of mispronunciations because there is no easy way to check pronunciation when you are in the midst of a conversation. What common food words do you have difficulty spelling (or saying)?

Category: Antipasto

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9 Comments

  • rmpostonmfandt  on  May 21, 2025

    I still have to think hard when spelling “vinaigrette” for some bizarre reason. That word just cannot stay stuck in my noggin! And I agree on just letting mispronunciations go and not correcting. My mom and grandma both had pretty severe strokes and often they mispronounce things – it’s correct in their head but the tongue can’t seem to catch up. I know they can get a bit frustrated when folks correct them or try to finish their sentences before they can get them out. And it’s really about the content of the conversation and not the accuracy anyway!

  • KatieK1  on  May 21, 2025

    I went to college in Worcester, Massachusetts. I love that it’s pronounced Wosteh. And here in Manhattan, Houston Street is pronounced Howston.

  • icooksometimes  on  May 21, 2025

    Marscapone makes my eye twitch. My boyfriend and I watch a ton of food/cooking shows together and he always ribs me when someone says marscapone. If it’s typed out on screen like that, I have to leave the room to calm down a bit :’)

  • anya_sf  on  May 21, 2025

    To be fair, restaurateur and mayonnaise (and vinaigrette) are French words adopted into English. And prosciutto and mascarpone are Italian. But misspellings of any kind tend to leap off the page at me, although I try hard not to correct people (my sister is one of the biggest offenders, and of course I am not immune to typos myself). And “sherbert” and “marscapone” drive me bonkers. I do realize I am sort of a grammar and spelling nerd and this can be a problem 🙂

  • gamulholland  on  May 21, 2025

    This is more pronunciation than spelling, but while I realize that saying “TOO-meric” without the first R instead of “turmeric” is now considered an additional acceptable pronunciation, it still sounds so strange to me.

  • ozfoodie  on  May 22, 2025

    @icooksometimes I need a laugh reaction here ha ha. And @anya_sf hello sister! We share the same problem!

  • MollyB  on  May 22, 2025

    Omitted or misplaced diacritics on French and Spanish words drive me crazy. One of my biggest pet peeves is people who want to insert a tilde on the “n” in “habanero.” It doesn’t need a tilde just because a different kind of chile (jalapeño) has a tilde! This is especially frustrating on menus in the US – if you can’t spell Spanish, French, or Italian words correctly on your menu, just use English! So, if you can’t spell “crème pâtissière,” just use “pastry cream” – no one is going to judge you. But I will absolutely judge you if you don’t have the right diacritics. 🙂

  • Megoola  on  May 28, 2025

    “TOO-meric” reminds me of Arnold Scharzenegger “It’s not a tumor!” From Kindergarten Cop.

  • averythingcooks  on  June 2, 2025

    As a Canadian who grew up in the nation’s capital with full on French immersion in school ….the often heard pronunciation of “vinaigrette” (clearly a French word) as “vinegarette” leaves me puzzled ….the word “vinegar” is not even in the word ????

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