Restaurant

[karohemd]

No, the i in "gaspaccio" (that's what he said, not gazpacho or carpaccio, which is odd) is silent, it's simply there to mark how the c is pronounced. Nil points, Mr Oh so expensive front of house man. Your'e supposed to know that and teach them how it's done. Asshat!


I can't believe The Gallery made it into the final but they really improved and deserve it. They could actually win this because I think The Cheerful Soul doesn't fit into Blanc's concept.

Comments

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

What is "gaspaccio"? -- sounds like a cross between carpaccio and gazpacho?

[djonma.livejournal.com]

Nah it's not entirely silent.
Mostly, but there's a hint of it. Not Ch-o
More Ch-*i*-o

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

No, it's like "tsho". It's definitely not emphasised like that idiot did. And it's an open o at the end, not like in bow. I have no idea why it's generally mispronounced (and apparently taught wrong) in this country. Same as the last i in Pinot Grigio (with the difference that it's "dsho" here).
Maybe azrael2393 (the only Italian on my f-list) reads this, he could confirm.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Er, I can't remember what he said now. Generally, gazpacho is spelled like this but he'd even have less a reason to put an i in. I really want to know what was on the menu now...

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I note that the English and Spanish versions of Wikipedia don't accept "Gaspaccio" as a valid search term but that the Italian version redirects to Gazpacho.

Consequently my guess is that the purpose of (mis?)spelling the dish as "gaspaccio" in a British restaurant is to make it sound exotic (to the uncultured English ear). To then pronounce it correctly would defeat the point!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Heh!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

bateleur just confirmed that it's an Italian spelling (which makes sense as that's where the i comes from and the original source of my complaint).

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Why might Italian seem more exotic than Spanish, I wonder?

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Ah, right. Mm, the i in Italian -io is pretty much always pronounced in English, for some reason.

I suspect it's so we can change the Italian accented penultimate syllable into our preferred antepenultimate: so gas-pa'-ccio (which sounds an uncomfortably abrupt ending to English ears) becomes gas-pacc'-i-o, much easier.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I get the impression Italy is more associated with cuisine than Spain in people's minds. Plus "gazpacho" renders neatly into English phonemes. And sounds a bit like a bandit leader from a 70s Western!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

a bandit leader from a 70s Western

I can just hear him wishing a Farside-esque "Adios amoebas!" to his dysenteric clientele.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I don't mind much if the average Brit gets it wrong but this was specifically about the correct pronunciation of the word.

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

Wow. It's official Ozzy; you're more pedantic than I am about pronunciation (which takes some doing). Maybe it's because I've never studied Italian (and in any case, consider it as a language to be not much more than a provincial, mispronounced debasement of Latin*), but even now you have explained it, I can't bring myself to care!

*One could say the same of French and Spanish too, technically, but it's so much more obvious with Italian! ;-)

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

As I said to Mo above, I don't mind (much) if the average Brit gets it wrong but if someone is lecturing someone else about the correct pronunciation of something and gets it wrong, my hackles go up.

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's a fair point. If people are going to be pedantic, they should be sure to be accurate!