Eat your Words author Brenda Millott writes “Ever since owning and running bakeries and cafes, I have been bugged by ‘cross ants’. Staff (of all ages) would invariably mis-spell ‘croissants’. ‘Cuppacino’ and ‘bagette’ were not uncommon, along with numerous others, but ‘crossants’ came up with annoying regularity.”  Exactly.

We remember getting a baleful glare from the staff at a restaurant in Broome when we pointed out a couple of similar errors, including a mangling of ‘bavarois’. If you can’t spell it, don’t serve it!

The      PR company told us a story of the apprentice who     in his chef’s absence, chalked up Homos Dip
on the blackboard, thereby simultaneously committing sins against the language and political correctness.  

This pocket-size book is organised in two ways – by subject and alphabetically. With luck, even the most spelling-challenged menu writer will be able to check his or her work. There’s even a succinct section at the beginning on grammar, with a stern sentence reading “You don’t need an apostrophe to make words plural”. Amen to that.