Trained cooks?!
Answers: Does 'pan-fried' carry a specific meaning to a trained cook, or is it just an irritating tautology? What else would you fry something in?
In UK English, it sound(ed) cool as it came from the US.
A cynic might say that not so many years ago, people actually used to cook. It would not then have occurred to anyone that steak or calf's liver could have made it into a deep fat fryer. This meant that 'fried' and, if really necessary, 'deep fried' sufficed to differentiate. Now we are all buying ready meals or takeaway, restaurants feel the need to explain.
Edit: Interesting question. With the rise and rise of the TV cook has come a further bit of jargon to do with the use of the frying pan. You now sweat or fry onions OFF, as opposed to just sweating them or frying them.
Pan- fried vs. deep fried.
as opposed to deep fried (like fries)
Oh and stir fried
What else can you fry something in? Deep fryer. Just has you can have hand-battered vs. buying something battered in an assembly line.
Oven fried, deep fried, pan fried (fried in a shallow pan) they are simply being specific.
Pan-fried implies cooking in a small amount of fat or oil, while deep-fat-frying implies cooking .submerged in fat or oil..You can also oven-fry, as in oven-fried chicken or fish..
I know some who might try a griddle...but, then, not everyone is as good as you...riiight...