French to Spanish | English to Spanish | Creative translation services for the food, wine, beverages and hospitality industries
Professional Spanish food and drink translation
Table of Contents
About professional culinary translation
Food translation is very often left to non-specialists. Only big mishaps make headlines, like Sweet by Ottolenghi having to be fully revised and reprinted when all the temperatures are wrong. Small business disasters might not make headlines, but their consequences can be a lot more damaging than innocent giggles at the typically non-professional menu translations.
A professional culinary translator, on the other hand, will be conversant with their culinary culture, with yours and others, and with the latest eating, dining and food and menu marketing trends and guidelines.
Having trained in culinary translation, I’m familiar with different culinary texts. To specialise, I first researched cookbook translation for my MA Translation dissertation. Then, I completed a three-month culinary translation course where I translated a wide range of culinary texts and benefited from extensive expert feedback. Next, as web translation is closely-linked to marketing, I completed a course in SEO translation. And, this year, I specialised in wine translation!
Being a trained culinary translator, I’m able to add value to your business. I generally charge per project for menus, websites and marketing materials which require thoughtful translation, not a word-for-word approach.
My promises to you:
- I’ll spend time to carefully analyse your profile and your copy to adapt my translation strategies
- I’ll undertake painstaking research to guarantee the correct use of terms for your product, audience and style
- I’ll liaise with you to resolve doubts and confirm key decisions
- I’ll be happy to make suggestions
- I’ll be happy to be different from the crowd and be innovative, always discussing it with you
Why culinary translation?
I got into foreign foods early in my life hearing my mother’s memories of Uruguayan foods and, later, living in France and the UK. As a child, I grew up hearing stories of tarta pascualina, matambre and pizza fainá, even if I did not taste some of them until 2006, when I visited Uruguay.
Culinary translation qualifications and training
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve had my food and wine translations expertly reviewed by experienced translators in the field.
I have completed:
- a 3-month professional course on culinary translation (180 hours of study)
- a 5-week course on wine translation (which required many more study hours than the 50 advertised)
- a 4-hour monographic course about chocolate (an many hours of self-study)
- a multi-session mooc by FunMooc and Ferrandi Paris about the history of food styling in restaurants and cookbooks
Besides formal study, I follow the world of food, drink and nutrition to understand the challenges your customers and you face and be up-to-date with trends. I read specialist press and attend specialist events.
2021
FoodTrex Global Summit – Sustainability in food and beverage tourism
2020
- The Future of Wine | Eating the Gap | Encuentro de los Mares – Sustainability in wine, food and fishing
- Gastronomika Live | Turning the Tables – The future of restaurants
- Dublin Gastronomy Symposium 2020 – Food and disruption: what shall we eat tomorrow?
Cookbook and recipe translation services
It takes years to write a cookbook and recipes can take a long time to develop, but your hard work does not have to be spoiled by a bad translation. I have the passion, creativity and specialist training to help you conquer new readers and palates and, below, you’ll find professional feedback I’ve received from my tutors.
Food glossary compilation
I love all the entries you added and how detailed they are. I have nothing to correct!
Cookbook translation
The translation is excellent. The section on how to translate a hybrid text is well-researched and covers a lot of ground. A very thorough approach to pragmatic research was demonstrated through consultation of parallel texts and TV shows.
Recipe translation
You’ve nailed the conversions. Congratulations!
Recipe translation
The translation of recipes is obviously your thing. Great precision and I love how you have solved the cultural gaps, naturally added clarification and advice and how you’ve renamed the sections so they’re easier to understand; the terminology, the tone, everything.
Food marketing translation services
Let me spread the word about your wonderful products with convincing Spanish copy. But don’t take my word for it!
Luxury food and drink marketing
You’ve nailed the terminology and the tone. It’s a convincing text that really makes you want to buy the products, particularly the vinegar.
Food and drink product reviews
I’ll say it again, you should go into transcreation, a style that suits you to a T. You really make the reader want to buy the product. Ten kilos of…, please!
Food and drink advertising
I loved your reflections on the Danone add and I think you’ve nailed the audience.
Food and drink copywriting
I love how you have combined the culinary and health properties, resulting in a well-rounded article. Wonderful.
Food business translation services
Do you need a translator who’s been fully immersed in British culture for twenty years and in Spanish culture for twenty plus? Are you looking for someone who can convey the warmth of your British pub, the approachability of your Michelin-starred restaurant, the clout of your super creative press reviews or the poetry of your menus to Spanish readers? Keep reading.
Pub menu translation
This difficult translation includes very British concepts, but you rendered the essence of each dish and made them clear to the reader. I feel the warmth of a British pub with its tasty and hearty food!
Creative tearoom menu translation
Reading you is a pleasure. The translation is poetic, sensual and creative. You know your specialised terms and have chosen them very well. Delicious!
Professional restaurant review
This is a very difficult text to understand. I think this is the first time someone understands this sentence and translates it properly reproducing all the sense, tone of voice, style, everything. Excellent translation of the dish names and descriptions too.
Restaurant website localisation
This is a wonderful text: simple, calm, warm, approachable. The contextualisations are brief and appropriate and the text flows like a stream.
Food research and food literature translation
Do you need to translate the latest food research for a specific purpose, perhaps for your food magazine or your gastronomy journal or your government publications? I offer professional translation for food literature, including academic papers, books and other printed materials.
Scientific food article translation
Your research skills are superb and you made the text very easy to follow and understand. You understood every detail and rendered it with precision and grace. Not sure I can teach you a lot more!
George Orwell essay translation
I can see that you’re fully immersed in British culture: you nailed all the subtleties. I usually have to explain the history of this dish to every student, but it was unnecessary. And I always learn so much from you.
Food label translation services
Food and drink label translation is a serious business that involves knowledge of the relevant legislation. I can help translation agencies that offer this service and food and drink companies with this.
As you know, nutritional and allergen information in food labels depends on national laws. Failing to respect them can have serious health and legal consequences.
But you also need your information about your products to sound idiomatic and reliable. The following example is not a professional translation as it showcases bad grammar and incorrect terms. But, believe me, it’s not the worst I’ve seen on what are, otherwise, premium products! If you agree the translation standard of your products should match that of the products themselves, I’m here to help!
The history of [product] is the history of our family. Since the farthest generations we have bred our pigs and produced salamis following the most antique butchery Italian tradition.
Since [date] we are also pioneers of organic products with […] line… This is the first real line of organic salamis. It is gluten free and without milk derivates.
[… ] line is based on the organic breeding, respecting the life quality of the animals that live in wide open spaces. (organic product label)
Don’t break, BUILD trust!
If you want your food or drink business to break international barriers, I sincerely recommend you engage a professional gastronomy or oenology translator, less likely to embarrass you than machine translation, a non-native speaker or a non-specialist.
When I buy a product, I expect to understand and trust the information provided on the labelling, packaging and other marketing text. I don’t know about you, but, in my experience, bad translations are typical of cheap quality products. And when they happen to be good quality products, like the organic ham above, I feel they’ve let themselves down. There’s an inconsistency between their product and their marketing which is embarrassing. Words build trust. Be the business you aspire to beat! Be the best, set the standards.
Useful reading
Next steps
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