New language on menus
For restaurants, language must evolve, yet it is resistant to certain forms of change. New menu terms sparkle briefly, (9) ________ at all, and then fade away. However, new terms are necessary because, as food culture changes, (10) ________ must menu vocabulary. In a society (11) ________ cuisine seems to occupy the cultural high ground, it is inevitable that menus are continually being augmented (12) ________ fashionable terms. Novel items on menus distress people for two reasons. They attest to phenomena we don’t like (13) ________ expect not to like, and their wording offends our sensibilities. There is (14) ________ new about this aversion to innovation. As far (15) ________ as the 1750s, a distinguished restaurant critic criticised the “unnecessary labels creeping onto the menu”. So what does make a term stick? First of all, it has to be widely adopted; it also has to denote something of lasting significance, for it will only last as long as the phenomenon (16) ________ question; and to become embedded, it needs to describe recognisable dishes.