I think a bisque contains tomato paste....cream of is just that and chowder contains potatoes....at least that's the way I think of it.
And what's the difference between a chowder spoon, a cream soup spoon a boullion spoon and just a plain soup spoon?
I am gathering an old silver pattern for my grand daughter and it has all four...
And how de classee is it to serve chowder with a cream soup spoon?
Remember....a rose by any other name.....

By definition:

Chowder contains potatoes. Bisque contains rice. This according to my culinary textbook.

A bisque is a puréed soup. A velvety concoction, often thickened with heavy cream. They're traditionally made with shellfish, but vegetable, game and poultry are also suitable.

Sol

A bisque (traditionally) is a long thick, long simmered, pureed soup, without chunks or lumps...fancy food, created by chefs to show off complex layers of flavor, whereas a chowder is more of a "stew", with chunky ingredients in a thick soup, meant to be a hearty meal.
A traditional seafood bisque owes it's thickness to finely powdered seafood shells and cream and a chowder to boiled down potatoes and cream.

Of course, the art of cooking is fluid and innovations and changes are inevitable. Vegetables don't have exoskeletons to puree, but along the way, someone decided that calling their bread-thickened, creamy tomato soup a bisque, the definition of the word widened.

There is a fierce debate among cooks as to what defines a "chowder." My stepmother (from Maine) wouldn't stoop to adding flour to a chowder to thicken it, if she wanted to eat paste, she would. As far as she's concerned, "Manhattan clam chowder" is tomato soup with clams in it. Others insist chowder must be thick, they want to see the bottom of the bowl for a moment as they scoop up a spoonful.

Looking into the matter, the origins of the term "chowder" are debatable. Some trace the term back to the name of a pot in which French fishermen threw whatever the day's catch was along with a variety of vegetables or potatoes, sometimes adding crushed crackers or bread to thicken it into a more rib-sticking meal.

In the Colonies, clams were plentiful and cheap, and clam chowder became popular. My suspicion is that it started out as a meal that made the best of what few ingredients were on hand...potatoes produce abundantly even in a short growing season and store well, and a cow can be milked year round. Onions and smoked, cured pork also store well and are relatively inexpensive to produce.

I expect that many a housewife, struggling with how to put a filling meal on her family's table from a limited pantry found sending one of the children down to the flats to dig a bucket of clams while she milked the cow a handy solution indeed.

Sol:
I'll second that.

I did it again ! Didn't have heavy cream so I used Vanilla Ice Cream and a shot of Peach brandy.
Plus one for me.

Lou

I agree, to me a bisque is pureed, a chowder has chunks of vegetables. A cream soup is, well, something else. LOL.

I just made corn chowder with big hunks of red potato, fresh corn, pieces of carrots and celery and onions, simmered in chicken broth then added cream at the end. It's lovely, but how is that different from cream of vegetable? Beats me....

Annie

"Cream of..." comes from 10.75oz red and white can?

FOAS:
I have a lot of them around. And New England Clam Chowder.
That's really easy to make . Just open the can and heat.

Rachel:
Sorry I Posted without seeing your's. Good Info !!!
Lou

""Cream of..." comes from 10.75oz red and white can?" ROFL! It does in my world too! Bisque comes from the restaurant and chowder I make at home (not from a can.)

Seriously, I appreciate the answers. Thank you Rachelellen for going into detail.

It is also said that Bisque" comes from the Bay of Biscay where a cream sea food soup was made.
Rachelellen....really ground up shells in a seafood bisque? I know the stock is made from cooking the shells....but never heard that shells were ground up in the soup....somehow, thats ounds icky to me!

And why do you supposed a creamy soup of oysters is called "oyster stew"?

"Cream of..." comes from 10.75oz red and white can?"

Well, in Ashley's world it does, but not in mine, LOL. She eats Cream of Mushroom right from the can, but I'm not totally convinced that it's actually a food substance or that there are any mushrooms OR cream in there....

Annie

Annie:
Why don't you make Ashley some real Cream of Mushroom Soup.
It's easy !!! and you can use Vanilla Ice Cream if you don't have any Half and Half. LOL!!!
Lou

Lou, she doesn't like homemade, she likes the stuff in the red and white can. She doesn't want it heated or diluted, just right out of the can. Ugh.

I very seldom have ice cream around because I just don't care that much for it, I'm not wasting calories and my arteries on something I don't love.

Annie

Annie;
How can she do that, Ugh !!!
I usually don't eat Cream of Mushroom either but I mix it in Meatloaf and other things.
Lou

Oh yes, lindac, pureed shells, though I know it sounds improbable (and yucky). Personally, I prefer to make a very strong stock from the crushed shells and other ingredients and thicken with a roux, but I have eaten bisque made the traditional way and then made them that way myself, and they are luscious...but very time and labor intensive.

Annie, I think that "cream of" veggie soups generally are at least partially made of pureed vegetables, whereas a traditional corn chowder isn't? Of course, when I make corn chowder, it is to use up the cobs I've cut corn from. Waste not, want not, and I boil the cobs in stock and scrape the milky looking hearts out into it before adding whole kernel corn, so I suppose my chowder is not completely "traditional" :D

Also, in the very foo-foo restaurant I used to manage, the "emergency" soup was cream of mushroom...the soup the chef would whip up if we ran out of soup or if the soup from the day before had unaccountably spoiled.

He opened up commercial sized, red and white cans...and then added big pans of sauteed mushrooms, celery and onions, and then deglazed the saute pan with sherry, added white pepper and extra cream, and stirred that in.

Honestly, we had customers who called ahead of time to find out when we would have our cream of mushroom soup on the menu before they would make their reservations. Customers raved about it...it was our most popular soup, and we had really, really good soups, mostly made from scratch!