The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2021 - 29

A Variety of
Assignments
Culinary translation isn't
limited to translating
cookbooks and recipes, but
any material related to the
food and drink industry:
food and wine publications,
product labels, material
about health and nutrition,
restaurant menus, blogs,
and websites, to name a
few. Engaging in culinary
translation may lead you
to translate a wide variety
of texts.
For those in the food
and drink industry, hiring
a professional translator
ensures high-quality
work, including thorough
proofreading. Beyond the
stupid typos and ludicrous
texts, incorrect information
on food labels can have
devastating consequences for
people with special diets or
food allergies.
Cookbooks
As stated by Henry Notaker
in his History of Cookbooks,
culinary books have existed
for thousands of years but
haven't always had the same
consistent structure and
style seen today. They've
witnessed an ongoing
evolution. According to
Notaker, the first cookbook
dates back some 3,700
years and was written on
clay tablets. Before the 18th
century, Notaker explains
that cookbooks were
intended for rich, literate
people and written by men
for men in a narrative
style, with ingredients and
instructions appearing as one
block of text. In the earliest
cookbooks, ingredient
quantities were often listed
according to price or size. In
www.ata-chronicle.online
the absence of kitchen timers
or affordable clocks, Notaker
says that the earliest
cookbooks often reference
prayers to describe cooking
times (e.g., boil as long as it
takes to say six Hail Marys).
The recipe gradually took
its current form in the
19th century.
How recipes were
presented in cookbooks also
evolved over the decades.
The addition of technicolor
photographs around
the 1930s was a turning
point in the evolution of
cookbooks, the addition of
rich colors grabbing the
reader's attention. (And
who would consider buying
a cookbook with no photos
today?) However, the
process for color printing
was difficult and the price of
color reproductions greatly
affected how many color
photographs appeared in
cookbooks and magazines,
which explains why black
and white photographs
or illustrations remained
popular. Radical changes in
color photography in the
late 1970s and early 1980s,
transformed by Japanese
color printing technology,
gave a much better clarity
of color to the images. This
development was one of the
factors that led to an increase
in the number of magazines
dedicated to food.
There has now been a
shift away from general
and traditional cookbooks.
This new generation of
cookbooks conveys more
than recipes accompanied
by colorful photographs,
providing readers with a
social and historical context
that takes them somewhere
and tells a story. Today's
cookbooks tend to specialize,
offering recipes from a
specific country or region,
addressing specific diets,
or types of ingredients.
This shift also allows for
new voices to be heard
as cookbooks embrace
a more diverse global
food community.
Be an Expert and Expect
Some Challenges
While you don't need to be
an accomplished cook to
be a successful translator
in this field, it does help to
prepare and taste the dishes
and ingredients you're
attempting to adapt to new
cultures and environments.
One critical aspect of
translation is knowing the
intended audience. Actually,
this needs to be your first
concern since you wouldn't
translate a recipe the same
way for experienced cooks,
children, or even male cooks.
As I said before,
translating food-related
documents is about
translating a different
culture. You should expect
many culture-specific
elements and find strategies
to deal with them. Here are
a few points that sum up my
specialization, with a focus
on the recipe text.
Know Your Terminology:
Culinary texts are similar to
technical texts and require
familiarity with technical
jargon (e.g., cooking
techniques and utensils).
Do you know the difference
between " caramelizing " and
" browning " ? How do you
translate " baste " in your
target language? Being an
experienced cook definitely
helps, but using quality
reference books (e.g., the
encyclopedia of gastronomy
Resources on
Culinary History
Roden, Claudia. The Book
of Jewish Food: An Odyssey
from Samarkand and Vilna
to the Present Day (Knopf,
1996), https://bit.ly/
Claudia-Roden.
Notaker, Henry. A History of
Cookbooks: From Kitchen to
Page over Seven Centuries
(University of California
Press, 2017), https://bit.
ly/Henry-Notaker.
My number one reference
book for culinary
translation is Le Grand
Larousse Gastronomique
(Larousse France, 2012),
https://bit.ly/Le-grandgastronomique.
Larousse
Gastronomique:
The World's Greatest
Culinary Encyclopedia
(Clarkson Potter, 2009),
https://bit.ly/LarousseGastronomique.
" Cooking
the Book with
Yotam Ottolenghi and Nigella
Lawson, " Gastropod (March
18, 2018), https://bit.ly/
Gastropod-Yotam-Nigella.
Elias, Megan. Food on
the Page: Cookbooks and
American Culture (University
of Pennsylvania Press, 2017),
https://bit.ly/Megan-Elias.
Elias is a historian and
director of the gastronomy
program at Boston University.
You can visit https://bit.
ly/Lille-culinary for more
information on the culinary
conference at the Université
de Lille (November 30-
December 2, 2021)
American Translators Association 29

https://www.bit.ly/claudia-roden https://www.bit.ly/claudia-roden https://bit.ly/henry-notaker https://bit.ly/henry-notaker https://www.bit.ly/Le-grand-gastronomique https://www.bit.ly/Le-grand-gastronomique https://www.bit.ly/Larousse-gastronomique https://www.bit.ly/Larousse-gastronomique https://www.bit.ly/gastropod-yotam-nigella https://www.bit.ly/gastropod-yotam-nigella https://www.bit.ly/Megan-Elias https://bit.ly/lille-culinary https://bit.ly/lille-culinary http://www.ata-chronicle.online

The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2021

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