Just when you thought dining out at trendy restaurants and pulling off a few good dinner parties has made you a culinary erudite — along comes a cooking term or menu item that befuddles the mind and tangles your tongue.

But don’t go running to Webster’s Dictionary or the Food Network if you’re drawing “a blanc” trying to figure out the meaning for a culinary term such as bain-marie. You’ll instead need to hunt down a gourmet chef to learn that it’s a French cooking term for “water bath.” And while you may have a reasonable understanding of what pad thai and demi glâcé means, you’ll need to listen closely to a waiter’s rehearsed script if the daily pasta special comes with “quahog.” Who would guess that the word refers to large, hard-shell clams harvested along the East Coast?

Like tech-heads, the food elite tends to relish the fact that we don’t fully understand their language. They’ve created an “us” and “them” schism that appears glamorous on the surface, but is really designed to keep their knowledge and services in popular demand.

The following is a list of terms that will help you navigate through some of today’s hoity-toity menus and challenging cookbooks.

a blanc (ah BLAHNK) A French term meaning “in white” to identify meats that aren’t browned during cooking.

à la king (ah lah king) A dish of diced food (usually chicken or turkey) covered in a rich cream sauce with mushrooms, pimentos and sometimes sherry.

Abbacchio (ah-BAHK-ee-yoh) The Italian word for a very young lamb.

Ackee [ ah-KEE ] A bright-red tropical fruit with a creamy white flesh used in a growing number of gourmet restaurants to compliment meat and poultry dishes. Certain parts of the fruit, however, are toxic when under-ripe.

Baba Ghanoush [bah-bah gah-NOOSH] A Middle Eastern appetizer of puréed eggplant, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic served commonly with pita bread.

Bake Blind An English term used for baking a pastry shell before it is filled.

Daikon [DI-kuhn; DI-kon] A large Asian radish that is juicier and sweeter than its American counterpart.

Ganache (gahn-AHSH) Not to be confused with mousse, this pastry chef’s favorite is a rich icing consisting of semisweet chocolate and whipping cream. The ingredients are heated and stirred together, then cooled before added into cakes and tortes.

Macerate (MAS-uh-rayt) To soak a food (usually fruit) in brandy, rum or a flavored liquor in order to infuse it with those flavors.

Madeleine (MAD-l-ihn) A small, airy cookie with scallop-shell indentations, dipped often in coffee or tea.

Nam Prik (nahm PRIHK) An Asian term that generally refers to various condiments and chili sauces used with fish, rice and vegetables.

Parchment Paper Martha Stewart flaunts it endlessly on her television show, but never tells us exactly what it is — or where to get it. This heavy cooking paper is grease-and-moisture resistant and used often for lining baking pans, making disposable pastry bags or wrapping foods for oven baking. Parchment paper is available in gourmet cooking shops and restaurant supply stores.

Quark (qwark) A rich unripened cheese with the texture and flavor of sour cream that is used as a dip or for finishing off a variety of foods and desserts.

Quinoa (KEEN-wah) New to American kitchens and similar to couscous, this bland, pearly white grain was a staple in the Inca culture and contains more protein and amino acids than any other grain.

Sablefish (SAY-bl-fihsh) A flaky white fish found in deep waters off the Pacific Northwest coast and prepared in a growing number of expensive seafood restaurants.

Tapenade (TA-puh-nahd) In its traditional French form, tapenade is a thick paste made from capers, anchovies, ripe olives, olive oil, lemon juice, seasonings and sometimes small pieces of tuna. It’s commonly spread over fresh baguette or crackers.

Timbale (TIHM-buhl) Usually a cupcake-shaped mold of meat, fish, rice vegetables or custard.