About · 48 Alexander Ave, Parsippany, NJ

Salt&Tongue

A small studio of cooks who learned other languages, and linguists who never stopped cooking. We work in a back room in Parsippany that smells, most afternoons, of toasted sesame.

Est. by appointment Bench: labels, menus, regulatory Pairs: EN → 9 languages Rule: taste first, translate second
§ 01  /  How the studio started
Origin note

It started with a jar of anchovies that didn’t say what it was.

A tin of salt-packed anchovies, a handwritten Italian label, a phone camera and a long argument over one adjective. That was the first job. The word on the tin described the snap of the fish and the sting of the salt, and the English dictionary offered us “firm.” Nobody has ever wanted a tin of firm.

So we wrote the line again, from the taste outward. The tin went on a shelf in New Jersey and sold the way the Italian one always had. Elm & Anchovy is that argument, kept going, with a rulebook bolted on for the day the label meets customs.

Every language has a word for the crunch of a good pickle. Our job is to find it before the printer does.

Anchovy tin, elm leaves, dictionary and coral pen on blush paper with hand-drawn marks
Fig. 01 — first job, still on the desk
§ 02  /  House rules
What we hold to

Four rules taped above the proofing desk.

They’re short on purpose. When a deadline is tight and a label is long, these are the lines we re-read.

  1. 01

    Taste before text

    Rule / sensory

    If we haven’t tasted it, we ask for a sample. Mailed jars are opened, spooned and discussed before a single word gets drafted.

  2. 02

    One word, one decision

    Rule / glossary

    “Crisp” means one thing on your jar, in every language, on every SKU. It’s written down once and carried through the whole range.

  3. 03

    Flag it, don’t sign it

    Rule / regulatory

    We read your label against published rules and mark what looks wrong. We’re linguists, not attorneys, so your regulatory counsel holds the pen at the end.

  4. 04

    Fit the tin

    Rule / layout

    German runs long. So does French. We re-break lines inside your actual artwork until the translation looks like the original was written that way.

§ 03  /  Two benches, one table
Who sits where

The kitchen side and the desk side of every label.

Food copy fails in two ways: it sounds wrong, or it’s declared wrong. We staff both ends so neither gets left to chance.

Bench A / the ear

Translators who cook

Native speakers of the target language who shop in its markets and eat its food. They draft the line you’d find stamped on a tin in Lyon or a crate in Osaka, with the same heat, snap and sourness the English promised.

Bench B / the rulebook

Reviewers who read the fine print

Allergen emphasis, net contents, ingredient order, origin statements. A second reader checks each against the published rules for the market you’re entering and marks anything that needs your counsel’s eye.

§ 04  /  Studio spec sheet
Where to find us

A back room, a long table, a kettle.

We’re at 48 Alexander Ave in Parsippany, and we’re there by appointment, so the table is cleared and the sample is open when you arrive. Can’t make the drive? Calls work just as well, and samples travel by post.

Address
48 Alexander Ave, Parsippany, NJ 07054
Phone
(201) 650-7613
Email
orders@elmanchovy.com
Hours
By appointment — book a call
Pricing
Per language pair and word count, from $0.16 a word
Quotes
Written, same business day
Book a scoping call
§ 05  /  Ready to start?

Send us the jar. We’ll send back its second language.

A written quote the same business day, by language pair and word count, from $0.16 a word. Calls are by appointment, so pick the hour that suits your kitchen.

Book a scoping call Call (201) 650-7613
orders@elmanchovy.com