Japanese also has a word you say to the cook, ご馳走様でした (gochisousama deshita) but that's said after the meal as thanks.

stevefan1999 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I used to hear that when you finished eating ramen and you should say this as a replacement speech of "thank you". It basically means "It must be tired of you to go around to design and prepare for the meal" which implicitly implied an appreciation

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fluoridation 3 hours ago | parent [-]

You can look it up, it's in online dictionaries.

gochisou: "feast"

sama: honorific

deshita: past conjugation of "desu", meaning "is"; thus, "was"

In other words, "[that] was a feast".

	▲	stevefan1999 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		語源は、食事の準備のために駆け回ることを意味する「馳走（ちそう）」という言葉にあります。そこに、敬意を表す接頭語の「ご」と接尾語の「様」が結びつき、「ご馳走様（ごちそうさま）」という表現になりました。現在では、食事を用意してくれた人や、ごちそうしてくれた人に対するお礼の言葉として広く使われています。 from https://jp.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/thank...

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charcircuit 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

There's also a word you say when food is brought to you, ありがとうございます.

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deaton 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Thats just a very general thank you.

	▲	charcircuit 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		And itadakimasu is general too. That doesn't mean there aren't contexts where it is likely to be said in relation to the process of eating food from others.