Last Christmas, the 5pm Dining blog was chuffed to find a book called The Language of Food tucked into its stocking.

Subtitled A Linguist Reads the Menu, it is written by Dan Jurafsky, a Stanford University professor.

No wait, come back. I know that a book on the linguistics of food may not seem the most obvious page-turner but Dan has produced a tasty treatise which will whet the appetite of anyone who views food as more than fuel.

Don’t worry, it’s written in an easy going style. It’s not indigestible academic stodge.

The opening chapter is a brilliant look at the vocabulary used on restaurant menus and explains why expensive restaurants often use longer words but fewer of them when compared to cheaper restaurants.

There is also a fascinating section on online reviews. In particular, Dan looks at why we often describe fast food using the same words as we would to describe medical addictions.

The cupcake made me do it

So cupcakes are ‘like crack’ and people talk of needing a ‘fix’ of fried chicken. Dan explains that by labelling the food as being addictive, ‘we’re distancing ourselves from our own “sin” of eating fried or sugary snacks: “It’s not my fault, the cupcake me do it.”’

This blogger’s favourite chapter was entitled Does this name make me sound fat? It looks at how food manufacturers choose their product names to create certain associations in the minds of consumers.

Frish or Frosh

Dan looks at an experiment where a group of students were asked to choose between two hypothetical ice creams; one called Frish and one called Frosh.

The students reckoned that Frosh would be smoother, creamier and richer than Frish and they were more likely to buy Frosh than Frish.

If you want to know why, you’ll need to read the book.

If you are looking for something to entertain you over your lunch, here’s a video of Dan talking about the language of food at a LISTEN conference in San Francisco last year.