Words Related to Food

July 15, 2023

Have you ever tasted anything so delicious (or rancid) that you struggled to describe it? The food industry has its own language. Understanding the definitions and distinctions of different words can elevate how you talk about food, allowing you to confidently discuss new meals with chefs and food lovers. Start with these 11 words related to food – you might discover new words!

Table of Contents

Flavor

A food vocabulary list would be only complete with the word flavor. This word is closely related to the taste you experience when you eat something. You can create unique, rich flavors with the ingredients in a meal. Furthermore, some flavors are incredibly complex. The taste of different ingredients can cause different results. For example, adding milk can make dark chocolate creamier and sweeter.

Taste

Taste refers solely to the sensations a food creates when it hits your taste buds. Your taste buds have sensory cells that will discern what a particular food tastes like. You may experience multiple different tastes in one dish or meal.

Taste options include:

Sweet
Savory
Bitter
Sour
Salty

There’s a myth that taste buds experience different tastes on different parts of your tongue; your taste buds all over your tongue can experience all tastes.

When using words related to food, it’s important to use flavor and taste correctly, as it’s one of the most common mistakes in food jargon.

Dish

A dish is a food item prepared and served in a specific way according to a formal or informal recipe. Even if the dish comes out in an unexpected way, the chef’s actions were deliberate in creating it. Remember, food is only considered a dish once it is ready to serve!

Appetizing

One of the best food adjectives that you can use is appetizing. You use this word related to food to describe your response to a food item’s flavor (both the taste and the aroma). Generally, people will refer to food as “appetizing” or “unappetizing,” making it a broad term.

Remember, appetizing is a subjective term. What’s appetizing to one person isn’t necessarily appetizing to someone else. When something is appetizing or unappetizing, it can elicit physical responses from people. Someone may start to drool, or someone may begin to feel physically ill.

Hunger

Hunger is the body’s natural response to a lack of food, which you can resolve by eating a meal – whether a huge meal or a light snack. Hunger is different than hungry. Hungry refers to wanting food throughout the day for people with access to average food.

Meal

As a noun, the word meal is the occasion you plan to eat, such as breakfast, lunch, dinner, and brunch. However, a meal can also refer to a combination of one main dish and one or more side dishes.

Herbs

Herbs are the spice of the food world. Herbs grow naturally in the wild, but you can grow herbs at home too. There are more than 3500 different species of herbs, lending different flavors to various dishes. Certain herbs are used in all types of cuisine worldwide, while others tend to appear in the same culture’s cuisine repeatedly, such as curry in Southeast Asia.

Some of the most popular herbs you should stock in your kitchen are:

Basil
Mint
Cilantro
Parsley
Sage
Oregano
Rosemary
Dill

Starters

Starters are food items designed to be eaten before the main meal. Starters are significantly lighter than the main meal, as the chef won’t want the guest to become full before their entree comes out. Starters can be shared with the table or kept for oneself.

Recipe

A recipe is a specific list of ingredients and their quantities, followed by instructions on how to make a particular dish. Most people save recipes that they enjoyed in the past. When someone alters someone’s recipe to something different, there’s a new recipe created.

Cuisine

A “cuisine” is a particular type of cooking. People often use cuisine to refer to food from a specific location, such as Chinese cuisine or French cuisine. The dishes in one particular cuisine often share similar ingredients and herbs. However, each dish will have its own unique flavors.

Diners typically narrow down cuisine to more specific locations or styles of cooking. For example, northern Italian cuisine is much different from southern Italian cuisine.

Snack

A snack is eaten in between meals, usually in small portions. Some popular snacks include chips, cookies, yogurt, and fruit. You can buy snacks already made or cook a snack in the kitchen. Some people will swap out a meal for a snack. By definition, a snack is not a liquid.