How to pronounce... The UK's most confusing kitchen words

Microwave. Meekro wahve. Meek raw have.

As the lovely Nigella Lawson showed us all this week, pronouncing even common terms like microwave can be a real minefield!

So we wondered… what other kitchen terms do we struggle to pronounce? And can we expect any more microwave-style treats from Nigella soon?

We analysed 215,460 search queries from Google’s own data to uncover the words we most search for help with. Here are the top 20:

Chipotle: The most searched food word

Chipotle is a jalapeno chilli pepper that’s smoke-dried to give it a really deep and earthy taste. It’s often used in Mexican recipes and can add a real kick to recipes like chilli con carne, or bean based chillis.

This was the most searched for food pronunciation in 2020, with an average of 1,600 of us searching for how to pronounce chipotle every month. And Google told us it’s:

chuh·powt·lei

With Veganuary just around the corner, it’s likely more of us will be trying to recipes and seeking great ways to add extra taste to new recipes. Here’s hoping Nigella will be treating us with some chipotle based meals (and chipotle pronunciations) in 2021.