3 Cooking Shows, 3 Ways to Add Onion
There are three cooking shows that I watch, and yesterday I was struck by this simplistic thought. These guys are using a different verb for doing the same thing. One of the shows is from Puerto Rico, one from Mexico and the other is from Miami, Florida.
- The Puertorriqueño chef says : vamos a colocar la cebolla
- The Mexican chef says: vamos a poner la cebolla
- The chef from Miami says: vamos a agregar la cebolla
In each of these instances, the chefs were doing exactly the same thing, putting chipped onion in a pot. Is there a 'nuance' to placing, putting or adding while cooking or do they really interchange that loosely?
Now, they don't always use these specific verbs, but generally speaking, as they are building a recipe they will continue to use the same verb over and over, then sometimes during the show they will use one of the other verbs "to put", depending on what they are doing.
I never would have thought that this type of thing would be colloquial or regional, but my question is, is it? In the context of cooking, maybe a chef would habitually use one verb over the other, or what would the reason be? One reason I ask is, I rarely get to use meter and have been soundly upbraided for misusing it. It seems the rules are a bit more relaxed while cooking 
EDIT: Crikey, I just heard another one, I've never heard this way before. Le echamos el pollo as she's putting the chicken into the pot. I would have thought the chicken would have been flying out the door.
3 Answers
These are all ordinary words in Spanish (nothing especially "colloquial" about them). I can similarly easily imagine a chef on a US cooking show saying "First throw a quartered chicken in a pot, add 2 cups of broth, toss in some herbs, and let simmer. Then mix in 3 tablespoons of flour, dust lightly with salt and pepper and top off with some sprigs of parsley.
also : shred in / sprinkle on / cover with / fold in / etc.
What would be unusual (and monotonous) would be if the chef always used the same word to describe the action.
P.S. This is an example of some of the terms used to mean "add (to the mixture)". It is by no means a real recipe.
If I had to wager a guess, I would say that they are colloquialisms that vary between the regions. It could very well be just the personal preference of the chef, though.
I was explaining to someone the other day that even though you learn academic Spanish, that doesn't mean that those words are the only ones to convey the idea you are trying to put across. You can visit five different countries and hear things referred to in five different ways. This is a great example of that.
Example: I was at a restaurant and asked the waitress what the word was for "straw." She gave me three examples from three different countries that represented the different people that worked there. I was amazed.
I hope you find this helpful.
samdie wrote:
What would be unusual (and monotonous) would be if the chef always used the same word to describe the action.
Whilst I didn't really think these were colloquial in any way, my Peruana friend has thrown enough colloquialisms at me using 'normal' words it'll probably cause me to doubt forever.
I really appreciate you points, but one of the things that strikes me about cooking shows is just how many times the chef will use the same verb, over and over, as they are building a recipe. Of course, after the recipe is finished and they may begin to elaborate on different ways to make the dish, then some more word variety comes into play. I just thought it an oddity, I've not seen another TV show where this phenomenon occurs.
