Translation Commentary and Extended Translation

Abstract

Translation serves as a bridge that allows people from various parts of the world to share their knowledge and ideas; food, like translation, also serves as a means of connection and cultural exchange. For a human being, food includes a range of goods and activities that reflect culture, ethnicities, values, religions, and identities, in addition to serving as a system of communication and being an essential component of our daily needs (Garzone, 2017). The importance of food in our lives has driven a growing interest in the culinary field and globalisation has further increased this fascination, spreading ingredients and techniques worldwide (Chiaro and Rossato, 2015, p. 237). Food plays an important part in cultural references and serves as a key symbol that reflects a country's historical roots (González-Vera, 2015, p. 247). The strong link between culture and food makes the translation of food texts challenging due to cultural nuances, such as food-related terminology, culture-specific items (CSIs), including foreign ingredients, dish names, traditional cooking methods, units of measurements (Bîrsanu, 2016, p. 30), and dietary restrictions, which may lack appropriate translations in the TL culture. Food translation is not only about food, but also about culture, identification, and politics (Köhler, 2011); it serves to represent the source culture in the TL, providing an exchange of knowledge between cultures. While translating gastronomic texts may seem like a simple task of conveying the ingredients and instructions of dishes from one language to another (Salih, 2018, p. 21), translators must be aware of the cultural aspect of the food they are translating to ensure that the TT accurately conveys the meaning of the ST. In addition to excellent linguistic skills, translators must possess an in-depth understanding of both SL and TL cultures and possess basic cooking skills to provide accurate and reader-friendly food translation in the TL (Salih, 2018, p. 35).

The present work combines a translation and commentary, which analyses the translation process of the chapter ‘Classics with a Twist’ from the cookbook Gordon Ramsay's Home Cooking: Everything You Need to Know to Make Fabulous Food (2012). The ST is a mixture of various cuisines from India to Los Angeles and Europe, offering a variety of classic recipes with a modern twist from the chef. The translation of the ST will be from English into Modern Standard Arabic. This cookbook is selected because it contains a high frequency of cultural elements, evidenced by the focus on international cuisines. This translation is an opportunity to bridge cultural gaps and introduce readers to global ingredients, cuisines and Gordon Ramsay, whose cookbooks and shows are a personal interest of mine. The goal of the translation is to convey the same meaning and information in a way that is simple and straightforward to target readers, in order for the TT to be accessible for home cooks (non-professionals) who are interested in cooking. This study will investigate the challenges and strategies of food translation and attempt to answer the questions: what strategies exist to overcome the particular translation challenges of food translation and CSIs and how can these strategies be employed in food translation from English to Arabic? Translating food-related texts can be difficult due to the need for expertise in two languages and cultural differences, as shown in the first chapter, specialised terminology and CSIs, including ingredients names, their availability, and units of measurement can create challenges. These were solved by using various translation strategies, such as cultural substitution, transliteration, addition, and deletion. This allowed me to preserve the overall meaning and intention of the ST while adapting it to the TL culture. To create efficient, accurate, and reader-friendly food translations in the TL, an understanding of both SL and TL cultures is essential as well as having at least basic cooking food skills (Salih, 2018, p. 35). Exploring strategies for tackling challenges in food translation and CSIs highlights the difficulty of gaining culinary and translational expertise in a process that can be compared to the preparation of a dish, as a chef takes ingredients and combines them in a way that is both delicious and appealing, in the same way, a translator takes a ST and converts it into a TT that is both faithful to the original and comprehensible to the target audience. Both tasks require creativity, skill, and a deep understanding of the ingredients or text at hand (Chiaro and Rossato, 2015, p. 238).