"What's your favorite?" asked the woman, looking over the dessert menu.
"I'm a big fan of the pot du creme," I answered, pronouncing the first word Poe as I had been taught by chef.
"Well, I think I'll pronounce it like the French would, and I'll have the pot du creme," said the woman's friend, with an extra emphasis on the t.
I'll be sure and tell the French chef that his French mother taught him the wrong pronunciation of that French word, I thought.
What I actually said, after a pause that was just long enough to let the other three ladies' discomfort register in their brains so that they wouldn't bring the troll back again, was
"Well okay then. Anyone else?" I had plastered on the kind of big, fake smile that one needs in order to survive in the service industry. They all ordered with the kind of pleading looks on their faces that one wears when one is hoping that you don't spit in their desserts, too.
1 comment:
I had a friend who was a professional home economist and worked on various glossies in Manhatten and London, and also wrote cookery books. She chose to pronounce French cookery terms in phonetic English. It was highly amusing, seeing other people's faces, when she referred to a kweech or Cream dee Men th. They then didn't like to pronounce it correctly in front of her and seem to correct her, and couldn't bear to mangle it.
I wonder if your customer had heard "pot au feu" or another phrase where the t is pronounced, and assumed it applied to all uses?
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