I like to call myself a gourmet translator. Have always worked in bilingual environments and live six months out of the year in Brooklyn, New York. I am equally fluent in Spanish and English. Married to a professional chef, so the language of food&wine is always in the air.
TO BROIL OR NOT TO BROIL. THAT IS THE QUESTION.
When broiling is required, you and I know exactly what that calls for. But not everyone does. If you care to look it up in a regular English-Spanish dictionary, you are likely to find “asar” as a translation, which actually means bake or roast, but no indication is given about cooking directly under the heat source. And the reason is that in many Latin American countries, stoves don´t have broilers. Therefore, it really takes a translator well trained in the culinary arts to be able to translate this correctly, since different words may be required according to context.
Believe it or not, this area has its own technical terminology, and it takes someone who really loves food to properly understand the procedures and therefore be able to put them into a different language, for a different culture.
I firmly believe that culinary texts need to be translated by people with knowledge of the cuisine in both source and target languages. Language alone is far from enough in this field, since quite often an ingredient or even a utensil might not have an equivalent in the target language, and that’s when the food-lover expertise becomes of vital importance. Not only is it necessary that the instructions of a recipe are easy to understand and follow, the a recipe also needs to make sense and sound attractive.
THE LANGUAGE OF WINE
Unless you are immersed in the wonderful world of the wine and its art, how can you possibly understand the vocabulary involved in the description of aromas, flavors and other subtle delicacies, let alone translate them into a different language?