PrintIs It Still Italian If It's Not Made by an Italian?
The New York Times raises the question of authenticity of Italian cuisine as it examines the growing number of foreign chefs cooking in kitchens of Italian restaurants. Does, say, an Indian chef preparing Italian food make it any less Italian? One restaurant owner claims that "it's not racism, it's culture"; another says that the ethnicity of a chef changes nothing. This isn't anything new in restaurants in the U.S., but it might be a different story if you're eating abroad: Do you go to the Italian restaurant manned by the Chinese family or stick to the one run by Italians?
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14 Comments:
I understand the national pride some chefs have regarding who is able to cook "their" food to the standards they want. However, we've all encountered plenty of people who claim they can cook... I don't know about you, but I have never encountered so many dodgy chinese restaurants in my life here in the UK, and these are run by Chinese, not to mention the horrible italian food in come restaurants run Italians. If the person cares and can cook, why not let them?
Kharina at 5:16PM on 04/08/08
This is quite the ridiculous question. Bourdain addresses this many times in his writings, talking about how the best chefs in French restaurants in NYC are Hispanics because of their culture's rapid ability to learn and their work ethics. Also look at the prevalance of cross-culture education beginning with Julia Child's and similar books. To say you have to be of a specific culture to cook that particular food is utter hogwash.
LunaPierCook at 5:29PM on 04/08/08
I agree. This is a silly question. I've been to more than my fair share of authentic Italian restaurants that were terrible and I've been pleasantly surprised by Italian restaurants who were run by non-Italians. However, the best Italian meals I've had were prepared at restaurants where there is a connection to Italy in some way, be it by blood or training. If the chef and restauranteur know what they're doing then there's your recipe for success.
favabeaner at 5:36PM on 04/08/08
I sometimes wonder the same thing when I haven't had sushi made by a Japanese sushi chef in probably a few months...
sharsd at 5:39PM on 04/08/08
Ridiculous. As mentioned earlier, Latins do most of the cooking anyways.
However I snickered imagining "Ironic Hell" for Gordon Ramsey, where he is only allowed to cook Scottish food.
archmichael at 6:11PM on 04/08/08
I make different ethnic foods all the time. I do not penalize the chef for his race creed color or national origin. But as an italian I can tell you I have had meals made by ethnic italians that were crap. One that was sub crap meaning it needed a whole degree better to qualify as crap.
It's in the way that you use it. Eric Clapton baby!
JerzeeTomato at 6:21PM on 04/08/08
It doesn't make a difference to me. In my book, it comes down to training, real world experience, and mentoring. If a Korean chef wants to whip me up some awesome tapas, I'm all for it. I'd rather have that than lousy tapas from a Spanish chef.
I was a little bewildered, though, by a recent addition to one of the local Chinese takeouts: a Mexican menu complete with tamales, enchiladas, burritos, tacos, nachos, etc. How 'bout some refried beans, fried rice, tacos and egg rolls for dinner? :) I can just see egg roll nachos on the horizon.
MelsDiner at 6:49PM on 04/08/08
Not having been to Italy in ten years, I was really surprised by this article, with its paranoia over protecting the "authenticity" of Italian food. From what I understand, what makes many regional Italian cuisines glorious is precisely that they are fusions, incorporating tomatoes from the New World and (arguably) pasta from the Far East.
piglet at 8:52PM on 04/08/08
I'll admit my partner and I were a little wary when greeted by a friendly asian lady when walking into a restaurant in Milan, in fact the whole staff were asian including the chefs visible in the open kitchen (I'm Oz-born Chinese myself). However the food was some of the best Italian we ate while in the country! Ethnicity counts for naught I reckon. A good trained chef is all you need.
djimbo at 10:42PM on 04/08/08
Cooking style isn't in your genetics, it's something you learn. Some people learn it from their parents and relatives, and they live in the culture, others study it as adults.
If your parents were born in one country and moved to another, where you were born, which cuisine should you cook? The question doesn't even make sense. You should cook the cuisine(s) you enjoy. If you do it well enough and are crazy enough to open a restaurant, then it's all a matter of whether you do it well enough, not what county you or your parents were born in.
dbcurrie at 1:29AM on 04/09/08
Definitely agree with the comments posted above. I live in Poland, and there are a host of "Vietnamese" eateries in Warsaw, some run by Poles, many by Vietnamese. But it doesn't matter which you go to - you never get real Vietnamese food (at least not what I'm used to, having grown up in San Francisco). What you do get is this sort of ok kind of Chinese food with Polish influences - for example, there's almost always a side of cabbage salad. It would never pass if I were still living in San Francisco, but here I miss tofu and anything Asian so much that it's great. In any case, no matter who's making it, it's not what I would call "authentic" Vietnamese. Vietnamese-Polish, maybe.
mballena at 4:16AM on 04/09/08
Most of the good Chinese restaurants in San Jose (CA) are Chinese owned, but have mexicans doing the cooking. That doesn't stop me from going.
We have a running joke in our family that every thiing we cook (even though most of what I cook is not Chinese food) is Chinese because we are Chinese.
gnomatic at 1:52PM on 04/09/08
@gnomatic, i'm right there with you. haha
nothin' better than a Chinese hamburger. deeee-lish. :)
foodinmouth at 2:36PM on 04/09/08
Personally, I'd go to the restaurant with the best-tasting food and I'd assume that the best-tasting food would be made by chefs with some sort of connection to that particular cuisine. That connection may come by way of family heritage, travel, study, or any combination of the three. The authenticity of a cuisine obviously is connected to whatever country or region it comes from, but with globalization that direct connection can easily become not-so-direct. Some of the best Chinese food I have had in New York was cooked by Chinese people, but some of the worst Chinese I have had was also cooked by people of that descent. Again, though, for me it comes to taste. If I want to read a book on African American history I'm not going to seek out a historian based on their race. My decision would be based on the quality of the book and the ability of the historian.
phillipjman at 1:01AM on 04/11/08