Perplexity Scored on This One

When I was writing yesterday’s post I wondered if Chateaubriand should be capitalized, so I typed “Zoe was looking at a piece of Chateaubriand” into Perplexity AI. It promptly came back with (click on picture for higher resolution):

It’s a line from a Cheerful Monk blog post; the author captioned a photo “Zoe was looking at a piece of chateaubriand,” referring to their dog Zoe eyeing a fancy beef tenderloin steak.

I did not expect that. I still wasn’t sure about the capitalization, so I typed,

is chateaubriand capitalized

It said,

“Chateaubriand” is usually capitalized when it clearly refers to the classic French dish or the cut named after François-René de Chateaubriand, because it originates from a proper name.

Many modern dictionaries note that it is “often capitalized,” which means you will also see it in lowercase, especially in general food writing or menus.

Apparently I was correct to capitalize it in yesterday’s post, but it was also acceptable not to capitalize it in the November 2020 post.

I’m amazed that Perplexity went into my Monthly Archives and found the reference. And I’m glad I phrased my first prompt the way I did.

December 28, 2025