4

I'd like to say

I'm baking a cake à la Ramsey.

Here, à la means in the style of. My problem is: what if Ramsey is male? The French la goes with feminine nouns. So, should I write the following?

I'm baking a cake au Ramsey.

That might be more grammatically correct in French, but seems wrong in English, since au isn't a phrase in English in the same way that à la is.

Improve this question
3
  • The only expression in English where I've seen "au" is "au naturel" which is in fact a loanword. I can't be more helpful.
    – user15851
    Commented May 30, 2013 at 14:33
  • 8
    In French à la remains à la whatever follows. It's a common (almost mandatory) ellipsis for à la mode de or à la manière de. With an adjective, à la grèque it is short for à la mode/manière grèque. In any case, it is simply incorrect (and not understandable) to substitute à la with au in French.
    – Stéphane Gimenez
    Commented May 30, 2013 at 17:15
  • Oops. *grecque (so easy to fall for this trap). That is, greek, adjective, feminine form.
    – Stéphane Gimenez
    Commented Jun 13, 2014 at 19:34

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
13

Literally, à la only means (in this case) in the. It's an abbreviation of à la mode de, which means in the style of. The de is not governed by the gender of the place/person/etc that follows.

So your usage is correct.

Improve this answer
1
  • So -which- usage is correct? 'a la' or 'au'? Because he uses both. Anyway, there is no 'au' in this place in English, it is always 'a la'. Unless of course there is a direct borrowing from French like 'au gratin' or 'au chocolat'. In English the productive pattern is 'a la', so 'a la (something male)' is correct English.
    – Mitch
    Commented Sep 30, 2013 at 21:48
7

Perhaps this might be relevant to the Cookery SE as well.

How about Turkey à la King?

As you say, à la means "in the style of". It's reached English and is now subject to English rules, which do not [for the most part] include gender-specific expressions. It doesn't matter whether Gordon Ramsey is male or not: à la is used regardless.

Further examples: Apple pie a la zing; Pumpkin pie a la Pigalle; Penne a la vodka

Where an entire phrase like au gratin or au naturel has reached English, that's treated en entière.

Improve this answer
2
  • Only sometimes, the degree to which we follow English rules or the rules of a source language differs from case to case, though tending to become more English as we go. In this case though DavidR is correct, au Ramsey wouldn't even be correct French, we borrowed à la as an idiom that already existed in French, so whether we consider it as French or as English we should have à la Ramsey.
    – Jon Hanna
    Commented May 30, 2013 at 16:38
  • 1
    I usually see Italian alla instead of French à la when talking about Italian cuisine, but +1 regardless. English speakers do sometimes try to retain grammatical gender in loanwords (like Latina), but we're not consistent about it and often simply don't bother.
    – Bradd Szonye
    Commented May 30, 2013 at 22:17
-5

'a la' is feminine, so if Ramsey was male, then you would use the terminology 'au', and you don't need to worry about the relations of French to English, because they are two totally different languages, and what makes sense in French doesn't necessarily have to make sense in English. :-)

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    This answer appears to contradict itself. Is that and supposed to be a but?
    – Bradd Szonye
    Commented Sep 30, 2013 at 21:36

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.