Translating recipes - 6 Minute English

Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Sam.

And I'm Rob. The British are not famous

for their food or rather they are famous,

but for bad food.

While French and Italian cooking is admired around the world,

the UK has a reputation for overboiled vegetables,

mushy peas and black pudding, a dish made from pig's blood.

Oh, that doesn't sound very tasty,

does it? But

I don't think our reputation for bad cooking is still true today,

Sam. The last twenty years have seen big changes as Brits have fallen

in love with international foods like Indian curry and Asian rice dishes

and with non-traditional cooking like vegetarian and vegan food.

Some of the most popular food in Britain comes from other countries

and includes the recipes, flavours and tastes of those faraway places.

But how do recipes and cooking ideas from all over the world make their way

onto the British dining table? In this programme,

we'll be finding out.

We'll be meeting the recipe translators.

These chefs translate recipes -

the instructions, explaining how to combine the different items -

the ingredients they will cook, from their own language

into English, and of course

we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.

Sounds good Rob, but first,

I have a question for you.

It may be true that British cooking is better than it used to be,

but there's still some pretty bad food out there.

So, according to a 2019 YouGov survey,

which UK Food was voted the worst?

Was it a) steak and kidney pies.

b) Scotch eggs, or c) haggis?

Oh, I've got to say, Scotch eggs.

I've never liked them that much.

OK, all right Rob,

I will reveal the answer later in the programme.

Now, as anyone who speaks more than one language knows, translating involves more

than getting the dictionary out. Recipe translators need

to know the vocabulary for different ingredients and cooking techniques,

while also preserving the heart of the recipe.

Listen as BBC

World Service programme, The Food Chain, talks with recipe translator,

Rosa Llopis.

Long story short,

I began to work as an interpreter for Le Cordon Bleu,

the French cuisine school, and I realised that there was no,

I mean, no such specialisation in Spain.

at least, like in gastronomy or cooking translation.

Recipe translation is closely connected to gastronomy,

the art and knowledge involved in preparing and eating good food.

This is contained in a country's traditional recipes, written in

its own language, not English, hence Rosa's decision to specialise in recipe

translation. If you specialise in a subject, you focus on studying

and learning all about it.

When Rosa is asked

how she became a recipe translator.

She begins by saying 'to cut a long story short'.

This phrase can be used when you are explaining what happened in a few words

without giving all the details.

Like most recipe translators, Rosa's goal is to produce a cookbook

in English, containing the best recipes from her own country, Spain.

But doing this is not so easy as she explained to BBC

World Service programme, The Food Chain.

If my readers

can’t replicate those recipes, they won’t buy the book,

so what I mean is,

I don't only have to find, for instance, the translation of the name

of an ingredient.

If it's an ingredient that we don't use or we don't have in Spain,

I always try to offer an alternative, so they can mimic the flavour or the results

Rosa's cookbook allows readers to replicate her dishes - to make them again

in exactly the same way.

But this isn't easy when the recipe includes ingredients

which are difficult to find - something like lemon grass, which is used

in some Spanish cooking,

but can be hard to find in the shops.

For this reason, Rosa gives an alternative - a substitute ingredient -

which mimics or copies

the flavour of a certain food. To mimic the flavour of lemon grass for example,

she recommends using lemon juice.

It's not easy work,

but thanks to recipe translators

like Rosa, people here in the UK can cook something a little tastier

than meat and boiled vegetables.

Speaking of which, it's time to reveal the answer to my question, Rob.

Yes, you asked which food was voted the worst by a recent UK YouGov survey,

and I said it was Scotch eggs - that's boiled eggs wrapped in sausage meat

and breadcrumbs. Yuck!

In fact, the correct answer was c) haggis - which doesn't sound much nicer

because the Scottish dish,

haggis, is made using a sheep's stomach.

Oh yuck. OK, let's quickly move on to recap the vocabulary

we have learnt from this programme, starting with 'ingredient',

an item of food

that is combined with other food to prepare a particular dish.

'Gastronomy' is the art and knowledge involved in preparing

and eating good food. If you 'specialise'

in something, you have spent time studying and learning all about

it, becoming an expert in that subject.  

The phrase 'to cut a long story short' is used in British English,

when you want to explain what happened in a few words

without giving all the details. To 'replicate' something means to make

or do it again in exactly the same way.

And finally to 'mimic' something means to copy the way in which it is done,

sometimes in a funny way.

Well, once again our six minutes are up. Bye for now.

Bye bye.