Szechuan cuisine is one of the great culinary traditions of the world. It is famous for its numbing heat, its complex layering of flavors, and its distinct use of Sichuan peppercorns. The cuisine is named after the province. The province is named Sichuan. The English spelling of the cuisine is Szechuan. The two do not match.
The word Szechuan entered English through the Wade-Giles romanization of Sìchuān. Wade-Giles rendered the si- initial as sz- and the -chuan final as -ch’uan or -chuan. The apostrophe, as always, was dropped. The result is a spelling that suggests a pronunciation of sech-wan—an approximation, but not the word.
Sichuan, in pinyin, is pronounced roughly ssu-chwan. The pinyin spelling is now the international standard. Maps use it. Airlines use it. The Chinese government uses it. But restaurant menus—the place where most English speakers encounter the word—remain stubbornly attached to Szechuan.
A tourist who learns the word Szechuan from a menu in London will not recognize the word Sichuan on a map of China. The menu has taught them the wrong name for the place. This is a small failure, but it is repeated across every menu, every cookbook, every food blog that uses the old spelling. Small failures, multiplied by millions of readers, become large ones.
Sichuan is one syllable shorter than Szechuan. It is the standard spelling. It is used by the people who live there.
Our Recommendation: Sichuan. Name the province and the cuisine the same way.