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.