A little tale of terminology #120

I spent the weekend with two friends who are mid-way through a 4-week Culinary Arts course at Ashburton Cookery College. Their temporary residence: Brixham.

I recall Brixham as a kid when my bro and I stayed in a caravan with my Grandma at nearby Goodrington Sands. These days it’s home to much of the English fishing trade. A proper working harbour with around a £78million fish trade. And an undisclosed trade sum in pasties, a Devon and Cornwall staple. A town which, aside from Mitch Tonk’s Rockfish restaurant, might seem a little down at heel when compared to its more chi chi neighbours of Dartmouth, Salcombe and Totnes.

But back to my friends.

As we gorged on the fruits of their labours, in this instance profiteroles, my friends regaled me with stories of their new found skills, processes and terminology. Who knew the base for the cream in a profiterole is crème pâtissière augmented with double cream to become crème diplomat!

Terminology. All arts, trades and professions have them. Seemingly designed to bamboozle the outsider ensuring the knowledge is kept safe for the privileged few.

It reminded me of a cooking story from a few years ago.

There was my friend, let’s call her Barbara, after all that’s her name, in her kitchen studiously preparing dinner for her partner, Hello Fresh recipe card in hand. All was going well until halfway through making the accompanying sauce she suddenly came across an unfamiliar term and instruction:

“Reduce by a third”

Stumped, she pondered for a moment until common sense prevailed. Naturally, she poured a third of the runny sauce down the sink…

That story and the picture of Barb pouring the bubbling liquid down her sink made me giggle for days after.

It also reminded me of how easily we all slip into jargon, abbreviations, and perhaps these days emojis, without considering our unsuspecting audience. At best it can ruin a meal, at worst it can be alienating, confusing or misleading for our reader or listener. I know, I’ve done it myself in Financial Planning reports of old. My suggestion? Next time, take a beat and think, who is this message for and how do I want it to land?

As ever I’m interested in you; where have you caught yourself using terminology that bamboozles rather than clarifies?

Grab your pastry (or pasty!) of choice and drop me a line, I’d love to hear from you.

And remember, you’re never going to be any younger than you are today; if my talk of profiteroles and pastries has whetted your appetite, treat yourself, you know you won’t regret it…

Until next week my friends,

Ruth x

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