I can't help but notice that the English language is pretty messy when it comes to food. Especially pastry... Things got lost in translation in a very obscure way.
Most cooking shows I watch are in English. As my mothertongue is French, I often have objections regarding the wording. I'm particularly picky when it comes to that, but I think it's justified. You can't do anything neat and precise if you don't use the right words. They too have to be neat and precise.
One of the strangest things is that Great British Bake Off's "pastry week" / "pâtisserie week". Why make different categories (or weeks in this case) while it's the very same one, just translated into another language?? It's confusing to me, as to translate "pastry" into French you will use "pâtisserie" and if you translate "pâtisserie" into English, you will use the word "pastry".
Yes... pâtisserie = pastry. Same thing, different languages. Content-wise, I can't really find out a difference between both categories, so I assume it's "just" a wording issue...
I understand the very explicit "bread week, "biscuit week" and "custard week". But this pastry/pâtisserie thing should really be thought over. It makes no sense to anyone bilingual.
If pâtisserie was meant to include ONLY French pastries, then ok, but it's not the case.
It's the same for "gâteau" in English. What is it but... a cake. How do you translate "gâteau" into English? Cake! Cake into French? Gâteau...
Besides, there are many things that got wrong when translated. Let's take a "friand". In English it's a kind of almond cupcake. In French, it's a rectangular puff pastry filled with minced meat or cheese. It's not sweet. An English "friand" will be closer to a French "financier", a nice soft small almond cake.
I could go on and on with such examples. I often argue with my Swedish partner about "crème fraîche". Here, it's even more vicious. The Swedes use the French expression "as is"... but seemingly not for the product that is actually called "crème fraîche" everywhere in France depuis la nuit des temps.
He keeps bitching he can't find real "crème fraîche" in this country... Un comble.
Baffling, mhmm?