Cooking related terms that make you squirm (title edited by MNHQ at request of OP)

[Words]

Sides. No. It is side dishes. See also mains (Shudder)

I made lamb at Easter. No, you cooked it.

Cooked to your liking. Well they woudn't deliberately cook it otherwise if they wanted to stay in business...

TV chef standing in an exotic market with table, stove and utensils.

”xxxx is the National dish here and I’m going to put my twist on it”

No, I don’t want your “twist” I want to see how it’s supposed to be. Either cook it properly or let us watch one of the locals do it.

Ideally food shows (and recipes) should tell you how long the actual prep takes and how many greasy trays and bowls you're going to need to wash up afterwards. It all looks much quicker and easier when they have all their ingredients neatly weighed or chopped in advance for them (and someone else to clear up and wash up!) 😃

I shout 'grub up'. More of a truck stop caff experience at my house.

Mouthfeel 🤢

Oh that's horrible, why would anyone say that.

It is very descriptive of the Waitrose Brown Butter Mince Pies I bought last year ., Mouthfeel but not in a good way ( the roof of my mouth felt like it was coated in lard , not nice feeling at all!)

Cuppa

Oh yuck I can feel the pies !

Slap up means first rate, see Charles Dickens for Etymology

I've said it before but am at the age when I'll say it again: 'cuppa'.
I don’t know why I hate it but I do. Especially when written.

Scant.. in recipes as a scant teaspoon. Nigella does it.. what does it even mean.. always sounds a bit sweary...

I have RTFT and I CAN’T BELIEVE no one has mentioned “pimped”! I’m pretty relaxed myself about most of the bugbears mentioned in the thread and think if we really banned most of the bugbears in this thread our language around food would get very dull indeed. I’m also generally a real fan of Jamie Oliver and think he has done some really good things for food in this country. But I do wish he’d stop using that term - it isn’t cute and it isn’t necessary.

Yes. This. Also ‘Grab’.

Hate this with a vengeance too.

Also, with 'salt and freshly ground black pepper'. I now buy the kind of black pepper that comes in a plastic bottle with its own little mill, but I'm old enough to remember when pepper, like salt, was just shaken out of a shaker that lived on the table. The inevitable 'freshly ground' instruction has always seemed to be saying why can't you exert a bit of effort to raise the tone of the meal, you lazy slattern.

"Up For Grabs" in a magazine competition we've got this £300 set of Tefal pans up for grabs Eurgh

Also "Run...Don't Walk" to whatever store has an amazing ( yeah right) new product they want to attract you with .

Yes, it’s worse written down for some reason. Also hate ‘hot choc’

A very low/small spoonful, as opposed to ‘level’ or ‘heaped’.
What annoys me is when my DP says it but he says ‘scanty’.

I'm in the US, and here we don't talk about scant, level or heaped teaspoons. It would be 3/4 teaspoon instead, for example.

For some reason the word fresh makes me squirm especially when it comes across as a smug reference. Ive had

'Just had a wonderful lunch of salad in the garden with fresh, crusty baguette and butter.'

'Could I have a fresh orange please'

Had a fab meal of fresh seafood with some fresh bread.

Oh good for you. Im having sausage and beans on toast on 4 day old value bread

‘Flavourful’ irritates me, no idea why.

Also ‘so’, e.g. ‘so creamy’, it’s become the new ‘very’ and English teachers often said not to use ‘very’ and find an adjective!