Soup du jour

[phillygirl]

Tonight I stopped into a local restaurant to grab a quick bite for dinner. The waitress was a young girl, probably late teens. I asked her what kind of soup they had today. She didn't know (which always sort of annoys me, as I think they should know the specials and should know the soup). She was very sweet and pleasant, though, and ran back to the kitchen to check.

And I quote: "We have soup du jour and Maryland Crab Chowder". I asked her to repeat that, and she did, with a nice smile.

I decided that I needed to be the one to break it to her, so I let her know that soup du jour means "soup of the day". She was embarrassed, went back to the kitchen to double check, and returned. She proudly, with reddened cheeks, let me know that today's soups were Crab Chowder and Maryland Crab Soup.

yeah. Left her a good tip because she's going to need it.

[Gingersnap]

Well, she really should know the term if she's serving but so much general knowledge has been lost that now it's her manager's fault for not telling her.

Unless it's diner (where this kind of thing isn't really relevant), I do expect the servers to know what the menu terms mean and how that relates to the dish.

[phillygirl]

Well, she really should know the term if she's serving but so much general knowledge has been lost that now it's her manager's fault for not telling her.

Unless it's diner (where this kind of thing isn't really relevant), I do expect the servers to know what the menu terms mean and how that relates to the dish.

It's just a bar restaurant. Not fancy, not diner. Generally decent food, but not haute cuisine. We actually wondered if the cook/chef was messing with her by telling her soup du jour. I certainly didn't use the term!

[Gingersnap]

It's just a bar restaurant. Not fancy, not diner. Generally decent food, but not haute cuisine. We actually wondered if the cook/chef was messing with her by telling her soup du jour. I certainly didn't use the term!

Honestly, I don't see any problem with simply calling it "soup of the day". We speak English here so unless it's a French place, just using the normal language seems fine to me. If it's a place with French or various foreign dishes, then I get why they want to do it that way.

I used to go to a tragically French place. They had awesome food but unless you had some French, the menu was impenetrable and the specials were painful. I was okay with it because I had enough but they closed after 4 or 5 years and I think the insistence on French was the problem. I had companions who were put off by the whole thing.

These were the same people who would cheerfully go to a local Moroccan place where we sat on the floor, had no idea what any dish really was due to bad translation, and were constantly interrupted due to special washing, snacking, and custom conventions.

Go figure.

[Norm dePlume]

You know that Geno's Steaks place where they have the "Please SPEAK ENGLISH" sign? I wonder if they have a soup du jour.

[Adam]

You know that Geno's Steaks place where they have the "Please SPEAK ENGLISH" sign? I wonder if they have a soup du jour.

Nope.

[Adam]

Honestly, I don't see any problem with simply calling it "soup of the day". We speak English here so unless it's a French place, just using the normal language seems fine to me. If it's a place with French or various foreign dishes, then I get why they want to do it that way.

I used to go to a tragically French place. They had awesome food but unless you had some French, the menu was impenetrable and the specials were painful. I was okay with it because I had enough but they closed after 4 or 5 years and I think the insistence on French was the problem. I had companions who were put off by the whole thing.

These were the same people who would cheerfully go to a local Moroccan place where we sat on the floor, had no idea what any dish really was due to bad translation, and were constantly interrupted due to special washing, snacking, and custom conventions.

Go figure.

Meh. English is a mongrel language. There are a lot of foreign-language phrases that are a part of the common lexicon: du jour, au jus, de facto, de rigeur, etc. This poor young lady just apparently was never taught that du jour means "[of] the day." Honestly, that's something I would expect anyone with a reasonably well-rounded high school education to know, but that's probably asking too much these days. The owner/manager/whoever is in charge certainly should have made sure she knew it, though.

[phillygirl]

Meh. English is a mongrel language. There are a lot of foreign-language phrases that are a part of the common lexicon: du jour, au jus, de facto, de rigeur, etc. This poor young lady just apparently was never taught that du jour means "[of] the day." Honestly, that's something I would expect anyone with a reasonably well-rounded high school education to know, but that's probably asking too much these days. The owner/manager/whoever is in charge certainly should have made sure she knew it, though.

Yep. I view soup du jour as a common phrase that most that have ever been to a restaurant should know. She was young. Now she knows. I didn't want to embarrass her, but also felt like it would be best if someone pointed it out to her.