Last night I was reading an article from The Korea Times on the net about Pastry Chef Stephan Will at the Imperial Palace Hotel and the following confuses me a little: Will describes his culinary style as seasonal and straightforward, achieving clarity with the visual presentations being simple and modern. He picks fruits and chocolates as his favorite ingredients to work with but refuses to single out a signature dish. "My menu is not about one dessert, but more about how I balance that dessert with another dessert," said Will.
Question: What is a signature dish? Here, what does signature mean?
ANSWER: Signature here is used much in the same way that one is identified by how he/she writes his/her name in their own hand (autograph is a synonym). In other words, it is very characteristic or unique, such as John Hancock's penning to the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Thus, a signature dish is what a chef is known for; usually, his invention. In analogy, it is similar to an artist's defining style, e.g. van Gogh's fundamental settings and impressionistic yellow tints in his oil paintings or, an author's way of saying things, e.g. Hemingway's short sentences and use of rather simplistic vocabulary for the most part.
Oscar Tschirky created the Waldorf salad that has been adopted by the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Another example would be Franz Sacher's, a Jewish baker, chocolate cake "sacherforte." In a stretched sense, you might say the signature dish of Korea is kim-chi, the national dish. Or, perhaps, McDonald's "Big Mac" serves as its signature dish.
Thus, a signature can be anything such as a tune or theme song, a sound effect, or picture, or logo, etc. that serves to set apart or identify a program or performer on radio or TV (if theme song, often played at the beginning or end) or something that identifies a company or business, etc. which people always associate with that particular organization or product or person, etc. Some examples are: Time Warner Entertainment's Looney Tunes theme song, MGM's lion's roar, General Mills' Jolly Green Giant's "Ho, ho, ho," Hitsamitsu Pharmaceutical Company's in which HITSAMITSU is sung over the sound of four musical tones, and America Online's "You got mail." Often the signature is the logo of a trademark or brand as the iconic emblem of the Red Cross or Coca Cola'script which is recognized all over the world. There are thousands of signatures like these all over the world.
So, a signature is kind of like a fingerprint designating a trait or characteristic revealing origin or responsibility, etc. Acoording to my eyes or rather taste buds, my Mom's signature dish is her homemade spaghetti.
Finally, Will, if having a signature dish, is not declaring one. "Ambiguous Bill"
Signature author
These are excellent posts to show to my co-teachers who are more advanced English speakers, but don't know so many of these expressions in the English language. Then perhaps, if they read these posts and take a liking to your book, would I be improperly using the expression by saying that you would be their signature foreign author in Jeju?
"Not quite."
Certainly, it would be an honor, but that would really, really be stretching the usage of the meaning, i.e. something that characterizes something else. Of course, there have been references, such as trekkies and deadheads.