Pardon my french
Far be it from me - a bookseller - to lecture chefs about the importance of a polished and professional menu. Need I mention that a menu littered with misspellings invites ridicule, or that a single error risks undermining an otherwise well-compiled menu?
The correct spelling and idiom of classic French cooking are certainly no walk in the park. The increasing popularity of exotic dishes and international ingredients, however, results in a regular menu minefield.
The recent UK publication of Food in 5 Languages, Elisabeth Neiger (Grub Street, £5.99), is worth noting for anyone who regularly uses culinary language, as the book was previously only available as a German import at a prohibitively high price.
Neiger works from sauces to non-alcoholic drinks, including culinary and service terms, listing all the words or phrases side by side.
The five languages featured in the book are English, German, French, Italian and Spanish, and its handy size makes for an ideal kitchen or travelling reference, for chef or tourist alike.
An alternative approach is offered by The International Menu Speller, Kenneth N Anderson and Lois E Anderson (John Wiley, £8.99). Aimed exclusively at professionals, this convenient reference book contains an alphabetical listing of food terms in 40 languages.
Its only shortcoming is that it is simply a listing, so there are no translations or explanations. With this book by your side, you can discover how to spell hackbraten, but you will still be in the dark as to what on earth it actually is.
explanations
More explanatory is Quentin Crewe's pocket-sized Gourmet Traveller's Menu Guide (Mitchell Beazley, £7.99). It is organised alphabetically by cuisine, from Africa to the USA, and within each cuisine section like a menu.
Although aimed primarily at the amateur, its 10,000-plus entries and Quentin Crewe's considerable expertise (remember his Great Chefs of France?) demand that it is a publication that should not be overlooked by the professional.
The ultimate menu speller is undoubtedly the Duboux Dictionary of Gastronomy, Hotels and Tourism (Rot-Wieb, £42.50). True, food is only found in three languages - English, French and German - but within these bounds it is certainly definitive.
In reality, however, this impressive volume, with its equally impressive price tag, would probably only be made full use of by staff in big international hotels.
I cannot let pass an opportunity to extol the virtues of my desert island cookbook, the Larousse Gastronomique. "The World's Greatest Cookery Encyclopedia", announces its front cover, and believe you me, the claim is not exaggerated.
Originally compiled by Prosper Montagne and first published in France in 1938, recent editions reach beyond classic French cuisine to document modern developments. What recommends it as a spelling checker is that entries are listed alphabetically, in English and in French, and that each English entry, whether ingredient, technique or recipe, is accompanied by its French translation.
It is available in two versions; a rather bulky, but nevertheless handy, red paperback (Manderin, £12.99) or the de luxe, last-a-lifetime, grey hardback edition (Hamlyn, £40).
But, unrivalled as a collection of culinary information, the emphasis of the Larousse Gastronomique is still primarily on French cuisine.
As the world shrinks and culinary boundaries expand, chefs today will find a necessary supplement to their trusty Larousse in Sharon Tyler Herbst's Food Lover's Companion (Barrons, £7.50).
An A-Z guide to ingredients, dishes and techniques, its focus is global rather than classic French and it will supply correct spelling and useful explanations of many foreign food terms.
If you are still puzzling over what hackbraten is, then this book is for you. It is particularly invaluable when using US cookbooks, for it will lay to rest forever the mysteries of eggplant, sweet butter and the like.
If you require a book that is devoted exclusively to the cooking of the USA, look no further than the Dictionary of American Food and Drink, John F Mariani (Hearst Books, £18.99). This edition has 2,000 definitions of US ingredients, although about 500 other specialist works of reference also spring to mind as alternatives.
Italian food has dominated many menus of recent years. For an Italian culinary dictionary, try Anna Del Conte's highly informative and endlessly fascinating Gastronomy of Italy (Bantam, £16.95).
Asian ingredients, dishes and techniques are increasingly widely used. If you want to know more, there is the Letts Companion to Asian Food and Cooking, Jack Passmore (Letts, £16.95).
A photographic guide to ingredients is a valuable source of reference to any cook, and The Book of Ingredients, Philip Dowell and Adrian Bailey (Mermaid, £16.99), although very much in need of updating, should be your first choice.
For those keen to dig deeper when it comes to particular ingredients, Roger Philips' books Mushrooms, Wild Food and Vegetables, all published by Pan, deserve your attention.
A list of essential reference books for the working chef cannot be complete without the inclusion of Le Repertoire de la Cuisine (Jaeggi, £13.99), Louis Saulnier's basic reference to the cuisine of Escoffier and every chef's first book.
More expansive is Herring's Dictionary of Classical and Modern Cookery (Virtue, £31), which also offers basic vocabulary in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, while The New Catering Repertoire - Aide Memoire du Chef, H L Cracknell and G Nobis (Macmillan, £14.99), which covers vegetarian, Asian and nouvelle cuisine, as well as some aspects of kitchen operation, is certainly a more contemporary option.
Finally, I'd like to give you some inside information. Chef suggested I write about the best reference books and culinary dictionaries that are available, as Caterer regularly spots menu spelling mistakes. Rather too regularly, was the impression I got. Enough said.
Rosie Kindersley is manager of specialist bookshop, Books for Cooks, 4 Blenheim Crescent, London W11 1NN. Tel: 0171-221 1992/8102, Fax: 0171-221 1517.
