Grammar Outs – Cooking Shows Burn Grammar

In my ongoing effort to out bad grammar committed by very public figures, I turned to TV’s cooking shows. Talk about fertile ground!

“We’re going to rinse [the pasta] really good so it stops cooking,” said the host of Home for Dinner with Jamie Deen. Jamie, you say good and I say well. And in this case, I’d be well spoken.

The dessert was pretty unedible,” announced Aron Sanchez on “Chopped”, a show where the judges often skewer chefs for creations not up to par. So I guess we could put this chef-judge on a spit, but I bet he’d be pretty inedible.

Restaurant Impossible’s Robert Irvine was responsible for impossibly bad English when he explained, “In the past, this restaurant has underwent”… Are you kidding? Either the restaurant underwent something or it has undergone something.

One show’s lead in claims: “He’s Chuck. And he’s always looking for ways to cook authentic.” Well, I’m Linden, and I’m always looking for ways to speak authentically (note the use of the adverb since the descriptor is modifying a verb) or authentic English (here authentic is used as an adjective sine it’s modifying a noun, so no ly is needed on the end).

I like to cook and I confess that I like to watch cooking shows. Unfortunately, they provide plenty of fodder for Grammar Outs blog posts. I’d love to know about the on-screen grammar mistakes you catch.

– By Linden Gross

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