Kitchen Slang from Around the World: Cracking the Colorful Code Of the Professional Kitchen

A rich vocabulary has developed to help communicate in the back-of-house. Some are legitimate short-cuts and others are just rude or at least politically incorrect.

Do you have some good restaurant or food safety slang that you don't see here? Send in your contribution to Carolyn Mann.

Bubble Dancer

• A disrespectful name for one of the most valuable of kitchen assets - the dishwasher.

Cremate

• To burn something badly.

Haddock Eaters

• Soft food eaters, no teeth.

Jeopardy/Wheel of Fortune Crowd

• Early bird diners. Need to be home early.

Offensive potatoes

• Tinned potatoes. Antartic

Hank Marvin

• Starving, hungry. Cockey Rhyming Slang. (I'm hank marvin.)

Pearl Diver

• An inconsiderate name for a dishwasher.

Pittsburgh Rare

• Burnt outside, rare inside.

Sawdust

• Dehydrated cabbage. British

Scradge

• Food. British

Ya ya papaya

• A snooty maitre d' in Singlish, the vernacular language of Singapore.