Welcome to my food translation blog. There are currently two sections.

Section 1 deals with cookbook translation and might be of interest to cookbook authors, cookbook publishers and cookbook translators. I sincerely welcome your contributions to the discussion.

Section 2 talks about recipe translation and testing, but it's still related to cookbooks, because I tend to use recipes from them. It started with my participation in the #ThatTranslatorCanCook challenge initiated by fellow translator @HLTranslation. I have now renamed this section #RecipeTranslation. 

Cookbooks for an MA Translation dissertation? Why?
Well, firstly, because there was a cookbook at home that I fell in love with at first sight and which I believe deserves to be translated into Spanish. Secondly, because I wondered, with its fusion cuisine and gluten free ingredients, whether it would travel well at all. Lastly, because being a mixed-genre text, it was a great opportunity to showcase my skills translating different genres in one. I loved both the academic and practical research I undertook to justify my translation decisions. Food is discussed in many interesting research disciplines: gender discourse analysis, mestizo writers’ discourse, food history, economy, anthropology... I hope to prove to you that cookbook translation is not a job to be taken lightly nor is it a generalist field.

My dissertation title was “Foreignisation: the icing on the cake?” and I achieved a distinction for my work. Follow my blog to find out more!

Topics I discuss:

In #cookbooks, I report some of my dissertation findings about:

• Researching cookbook translation: my methodology
• The history of the cookbook
• The language of cookbooks
• What a hybrid cookbook is and what its translation may entail
• Translating the author’s voice

In #RecipeTranslation, as well as some of the issues above, I cover practical issues:

A. The hybrid cookbook format:

• sections
• instructions
• technical language
• creative language

B. Cultural referents:

• proper names and branding
• dish names and  marketing
• ingredients and localisation
• utensils and localisation
• measurements and localisation

Updated 28/02/2020.