6 Minute English / How the language of menus matters

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I m Neil.

And I m Beth.

Would you like some fried chicken and chips with gravy, Beth?

No thanks, Neil. I don t really like fried chicken. It s too oily for me.

Okay, no problem. But, maybe you d like some organic poulet roti in a tender meat jus with frites?

Ooh! Now, that sounds interesting. What is it?

Well, it s French for chicken and chips with gravy! It s a strange fact but the same dish described using different words can make it sound more delicious, more exotic and more desirable.

Restaurants think carefully about the language they use to describe the food on their menus, trying to make it sound appealing, tasty or poetic. Instead of hamburgers, we have gourmet burgers , it s jus not gravy, and raspberry coulis sounds a lot tastier than raspberry sauce.

Many of the words used to describe gourmet food - that s food which is higher-quality and more sophisticated than usual - are French, coming from a country with a long tradition of high-level cooking called haute cuisine.