43 Most Mispronounced Food Words

Dear Robert, you are terribly terribly wrong in so many of these pronunciations!!!   You should take this article down or correct it as a matter of duty to the human population.  Otherwise I deem you as a terrible person.  Go spend some time in France before you tell people how to pronounce things.  Go spend some time in Japan or Vietnam before you try to say 'sake'  or 'pho'!  You are completely and utterly wrong! If you can't go there, look up the pronunciation of  'coq au vin' PLEASE!!!!  The 'vin' is pronounced 'va' in french.  Your 'pinot' is wong, Your 'nicoise' is wrong.  Your 'buffet' is wong.  You have completely butchered most of the words you listed!  'Sake' is pronounced 'sa-keh' and 'pho' is 'fo'.  Do the right thing for society and correct your bastardization of our food language.  Thank you.

Basil is pronounce with a short "a,' not a long one.  See the article at http://foodmuseum.typepad.com/food_museum_blog/2004/09/you_say_basil_a.html .

Your pronunciation of "chorizo" is patently wrong. It's a Spanish word, and as such as two pronunciations:

chor-ees-sochor-eeth-o

That's it. Never "chor-eetz-o." What a retarded list.

Good read. There is currently quite a lot of information around this subject on the net and some are most defintely better than others. You have caught the detail here just right which makes for a refreshing change � thanks.

Good read. There is currently quite a lot of information around this subject on the net and some are most defintely better than others. You have caught the detail here just right which makes for a refreshing change � thanks.

Checca (KE-kka)Pad Thai (pod tie)Sake (sah-kay)Mille-feuille (mill foy)

Yeah, I've got an issue with "co-ooh-vin" as well. You're telling me EVERYBODY on The Food Network and The Travel Channel is WRONG when they pronounce it sorta like this:"coke-oh-van"?or maybe:"coke-oh-vahn"?Either way, they're far from the pronunciation suggested in the list!

Love the dish, can't pronounce it - pot au feu

Chorizo (chore-eetz-zo)incorrect. it's not italian, it's spanish. in latin america it's pronounced chaw-ree-soh, in spain chaw-ree-thaw.

Paella (pie-aye-ya)incorrect. it's pronounced pah-eh-yah

otherwise thanks for a useful guide.

Let's try Nicoise again. Nee-swahz.

French restaurants are hard for people, I know. Frites (freet), haricots verts (ar-i-co vare), and Nicoise (nee-soise) were probably the most mispronounced in my serving days. If only everything could be as easy as speck. Good old speck. You guys could do most misspelled words on menus... total peeve of mine. Let me know, I'll send you some ideas. :)

the one that gets me is caprese. i've always wondered how you pronounce that word.

Broccoli rabe, anyone? (I know the first part.)

"co-ooh-vin"? Try again buddy.

you've never heard it pronouced yeeh-ro? i shudder everytime i hear it pronounced a different way

"You're right, Ditka, I've never ever heard it pronounced "yeeh-ro," but apparently that's the Greek pronunciation."

I'm with Sean. What's with the t in chorizo? The Spaniards pronounce the z like th, the rest of the Hispanics like an s, so maybe you should get that gringo t outta there. And you don't roll the r in horchata.

Some of these have regional variations, others could use a little more linguistic authenticity.

If you want to be more correct with the French pronunciations, bwee-ya-behs (bouillabaisse), boof-feh (buffet), co-ko-va (coq au vin -- the nasal "i" is not analogous in English, but it's kinda like the a in cat), crew-dee-TEH (crudit� on-deev (endive), fee-leh (filet), pwee-wee-fwee-seh (Pouilly-Fuiss�

In Italian, double consonants are pronounced, so nyock-kee for gnocchi, but that's a quibble.

The single z in chorizo softens it; you'll more commonly hear it s cho-ree-zo, or in Castillian, cho-ree-tho.

In England, Worcestershire is pronounced just "wooster" even when referring to the sauce. And yes, the Brits also pronounce the H in herb.

Yes, Tina, I was shocked "mascarpone" wasn't on the list! SO many chefs mispronounce it...drives me crazy!

Love the list, but feel almost certain you are wrong about Coq au vin. You should definitely hear a "q" sound - like Coke ooh vin.

i hit up Merriam-Webster's site for pronunciation of "buffet" and there's two. one sounds more like "buff" and the other sounds more like "boo" so i think there's two correct ones.

My favorite is mascarpone (mas-CAR-poh-ney) NOT (mar-ska-pone). Notice where the 'R' is in the word. NOTICE IT!! I've heard people who call themselves chefs pronounce that one wrong on television.

I am so glad that Enrique is in the tamal camp. This is one of my greatest peeves.

What about pecan?

Not so much mispronounced but always misspelled: TAMALE. The singular is tamal people, no e. Tamales for plural, yes.

One more: Praline.

You're right, Ditka, I've never ever heard it pronounced "yeeh-ro," but apparently that's the Greek pronunciation.

YEEH-ro. Certainly in Chicago, but all I get are blank stares when I say it in NYC. "Oh, you mean a JHAI-ro?"

Thanks, Gretchen. I'm adding it to our list, which I just discovered has only 42 words.

Habanero. People tend to think that the n has a tilde, and pronounce it haban-yero. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Habanero is correct.

I don't trust Martha. She purposely accent on the vowels or just attempt to make herself sound 'regal'.

And there are regional variations in pronunciation, too. Brits say "herb" with an aspirated "h", and so does Martha Stewart

Maybe I'm just dumb, but I still have trouble pronouncing some of them. Times when I can't pronounce the food words (especially French words), I just point to the menu and said, "I want this one". lol