This work is devoted to the study of the terms of traditional cuisine as interlingual gaps or lacunae. The author examines the terms related to the traditional cuisine of Russia and Japan as gaps in the English language on the material of English-language culinary sites. The research is descriptive and qualitative in nature using elements of comparative analysis, typology and scientific generalization with an interdisciplinary approach. The research revealed the terms of traditional Russian and Japanese cuisine that are absent in the corpus of the English language. The author classifies them as interlingual gaps. It is noted that the essential characteristics of the studied terms are their motivated and nominative nature, and also their historical and cultural conditioning by the methods of adaptation of the studied peoples to natural and social environments. The identified interlingual gaps function at the lexical level of the language. To understand the text by a foreign language recipient, it is necessary to eliminate the gaps that impede the understanding of the text, that is, to eliminate gaps by filling them in. Based on the research material, it is shown how the filling of gaps can be carried out by means of transcription or the creation of various kinds of comments, notes, explaining the missing concept. Competent and correct elimination of such interlingual lacunae contributes to the improvement of the practices of intercultural communication, a deeper and more adequate mutual understanding of the participants in communication.