Buen Provecho
Jun 27 '03
The Bottom Line You deserve to eat well, too.
Buen Provecho. A simple, two-word phrase that the English language does not seem to be able to cope with. Not only there is no literal translation, but all equivalents fall short as well. Pity, really, especially if you consider that most other languages have their own version of the expression. "Guten Appetit," say the Germans. "Bon Appetit" is the French term. Smaller languages are not left behind, either. Slovak, which is spoken by fewer people than there is English-speakers in the New York metro area say "Dobru chut." It all means the same - wishing that the person you told it to finds the meal tasty, pleasing and enjoyable. Even beneficial, were we to follow the literal translation of "provecho". As it happens, English is the only major language that does not have such a phrase.
I prefer to use buen provecho despite the fact that I know nothing more in Spanish, while I am fluent in four other languages that use similar terms. Of all the phrases I know, this one has probably the most honest meaning. Some equivalents have become very automatic. For example, how many times did you really wish a person had a pleasant morning when you said "good morning"? Not often, I would guess. By the same token, in some languages wishing somebody a tasty meal has become similarly habitual, and is being used as a greeting when you join others at their meal. This is not the case with buen provecho, though. When you say it, you really mean it. You really wish that the other person's meal tastes good, whether it is somebody who shares the table with you or a complete stranger. This concept, however, is too large for this short essay. I will not go into details of how good it felt both giving to and receiving this wish from strangers while I walked the streets of San Juan or Madrid. Instead, I will concentrate on the simple act of mutual wishes of a good meal in a restaurant.
Remember the last time you went to eat out with somebody else in an English speaking country? Most likely, you sat down, ordered your meal, and when it came, you started eating. After a few minutes, the waitress came and asked you whether everything was okay. You nodded. However, the food was only your secondary concern. You went to the same place you have been going to regularly, and chances are that you ordered the same meal as numerous times before. You went dining out in order to enjoy each other's company, not to enjoy what you were eating.
Now imagine that you visited your friends in a Spanish speaking country. You went out for a dinner, to a restaurant that was unknown to you. You sat down, ordered your meals (probably with the help of your friends), and when they arrived, you all said "buen provecho" before starting to eat. The waitress may have come to inquire about the food, but most likely she didn't. Not that you'd notice; you'd be too busy explaining everybody in detail how good or bad the food was. You'd find yourself asking others the same questions and probably also tasting each other's food. The little phrase at the beginning of your dining experience would have set the tone for the dinner. Food would play a much more important role, and suddenly you'd realize that you have five senses. That it is not enough to see and smell the food, and to listen to people and maybe touch them. That you also have a sense of taste, which is largely ignored at home where nobody wishes you a tasteful meal.
However, to claim that a single phrase can make people care more about what they eat would be wrong. In reality, the causal relationship is the opposite: people care about the taste of their meals, which is why they invented a specific expression to communicate this caring to others. I would venture as far as to say that a phrase for wishing others to have an enjoyable meal indicates that the culture cares about its food and vice versa. Anecdotal evidence proves me right in this - societies that don't have such a saying tend to have their food too uniform and too bland, compared to those that have it.
It may be just a matter of taste, but I really think that the food in the US is one of the blandest in the world. I attribute this to the fact that the society here does not really care what they eat. Even worse, people don't care what others eat and how much they like it. Consider my original example of people dining here. Do you remember your last meal and how it tasted? Do you remember what was so distinct about that meal? And do you remember whom you went out with and what you were talking about? Most likely you know only the answers for the last question.
But why should you care? After all, as long as you don't remember how the food tasted, it could have been pretty bad and you'd still be satisfied in the long run. Maybe this is the answer, and you should not care. This, however, is the perfect recipe for mediocrity; a likely reason why everything tastes roughly the same these days. However, when you travel abroad, you get surprised by the amounts of various foods that actually taste differently; sometimes worse but often better than the meals you ate at home. In fact, I know quite a few people who travel abroad just to get their taste buds working again.
"It all sounds nice, and maybe it is even true," I hear you thinking. "But a single person or a family can't change the society," you add. You are wrong. In this case, a single person can go a long way to change the current status quo. Next time you have a dinner with somebody, wish the person an enjoyable meal. A single word, "enjoy", could be enough. During the meal, ask for details about how it tastes and what's so good or bad about it. Cultivate your friends to do the same. In no time, you and your friends will start thinking critically about what you eat and switch to meals and restaurants that cater to your tastes. You will realize that you have just upgraded your quality of living, thanks to your genuine caring about the food you have been served. Your friends will realize it, too, and will teach the same habit to their friends. Even if you don't change the society, at least you and your friends will eat better. However, if enough people start to do the same, the restaurants will notice and will be forced to offer better and more unique meals.
The English language lags behind other languages by not having an expression for wishing somebody a tasteful meal. Being descriptive of the culture, the language can adopt such a phrase only if the culture first adopts its meaning. It's past time that English speakers are able to wish their friends the English equivalent of buen provecho.
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NetDanzr
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