Thursday, 28 May 2009
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Local Food Better Tasting When Made By Locals?
Okonomiyaki, Japanese pancake
I worked with Japanese before, and, every now and then, we would dine out together to celebrate the completion of projects. One thing we needed to note when choosing the dining venue is that we should not choose to dine at Japanese Restaurant with a non Japanese chef. Yeah, the Japanese from Japan do not like to eat Japanese food prepared by a non Japanese.
When this information is revealed to some, most will respond "Wow, such arrogance!" or "Wow, they have so much pride in their own culture!". Usually, I will respond by saying, "Will you eat Chinese food prepared by a non Chinese?", to which many of them will answer "No".
From this episode, we can see that pride aside, most of us have this ingrained idea that "Our own local food is the best, only when it is prepared by a local". I guess this is due to the reason that we believe that only a local will understand the local culture and the local community, to prepare a local dish that best represents the local's taste and pride. This may be true to some extent, since culture, feeling, and knowledge are paramount to creating the unique essence of a good dish, not just some formulaic recipe.
However, I personally feel that if the chef had stayed and trained in a local community for a few years, I'm sure that he/she will be able to integrate into the local culture and recreate that local unique essence in his/her food. I guess there is no shortcut to gaining recognition for one's culinary skills in any particular area, no matter what is the demographics that the chef is from.
So do you eat your local food prepared by the locals only?
How about food of other cultures? Japanese food prepared by Japanese chef, Chinese food prepared by Chinese chef, French food prepared by French chef, Italian food prepared by Italian chef, Indian food prepared by Indian chef, etc. Will food of this category appeal to you more than the others?
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About the Author
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- From: ShokuMono@xanga
- Name: Jan
- About Me: Food is a form of art, indulgence and culture
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Comments (18)
well, yeah, otherwise, it wouldn't even be local at all
It's true. I think people will pay more for a cuisine that is made by a person of that culture. But some people can't tell. I am Chinese, but I used to work in an all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant that was owned by Chinese as well. A lot of the chefs could only speak Mandarin. One time, I heard a customer say to her friend, "Oh yea, they're japanese here. I heard them speaking it!" WHATEVER! so stupid. she doesn't know what japanese sounds like!
As long as the food tastes good, I really don't give a damn.
I'd prefer that. I mean, I'd want the person who was preparing my food to grow up eating that food and to thoroughly understand it...
It sucks going to a Chinese restaurant only to find out that all of the chefs are Mexican. [I'm not trying to generalize, it's just something that's happened to me before.]
as long as the food tastes good, I could care less.
have i read this before? i'm confused
i've had pho made by a french chef... let's just say that it didn't taste like pho...
@black_lie@xanga - You did. She posted on her own blog.
Um, I so copy and pasted what I said on your blog:
I don't have a preference, and I think a lot of that has to do with culinary skill being a learned art. Being half-Korean did not make my bulgogi making skills automatically better. No, my constant trial and error makes my bulgogi excellent and requested. My favorite hibachi chef is actually Chinese. My favorite sushi roller is Korean. My favorite local Italian chef is actually Mexican. The list goes on and on. (Alternately, I've met people who cook their ethnic food and were terrible at it.)
I love trying local homegrown out of the way places. Some of the most delightful surprises have come from secret family recipes passed down through the years.
i agree. food does taste...different (in a good way) if made by the actual people of that country like japanese food from real japanese people cause they just know what their doing and how to do it. i dont really think japanese food made by mexicans or americans or even chinese people taste that great cause theres no authenticity. im all about authenticity. if your going to eat it might as well eat the real thing. P.S. that japanese pancake looks good.
Yeah pretty much.
There is a "love" factor in cooking, I think, and yes, I agree that local food cooked by a local is more appealing. I'm sure if you did a blind taste test where you put a food side by side, I wouldn't always pick the locally prepared food. But, like the people the author was writing about, I'll probably always choose a restaurant with a "local chef" over one with a trained cook/chef from another culture.
I had a whole debate over this last night and I said that ethnic food is best prepared by the people that come from the country of origin. I won't refuse to eat it if it's not, but I really do prefer it.
yes most of the time unless im not given a choice. the teriyaki ans sushi in the eating outlets at my uni are not prepared by asians, so when i am stuck in campus and craving for asian food I would still order them. they taste bad though...
Welll, honestly I dont really care. But I can tell it's true that the food tastes better when it's prepared by the 'local' people :)
if i wasn't willing to eat food that wasnt made by that actual ethinic group then i would starve. i live in the Bay Area, near San Francisco, and almost every restauraunt has Mexicans cooking the food at some point. im serious. almost none of the good "Japanese" food is ever made by a Japanese person.
but then you got to remember that lots of the newer, creative sushi rolls are not traditional Japanese food at all and i high doubt that they were invented by Japanese people. avocadoes and cream cheese aren't exactly Japanese ingredients. most of the popular sushi places are not run by Japanese people and don't have one single Japanese employee. usually its Koreans or Chinese and Mexicans.
well i guess Chinese food and Pho is actually made by Chinese people and Vietnamese people, but they sometimes have Mexicans dong food prep.
i do want to say, the only reason so many places do have Mexicans employees must mean they are good employees. the fact that asians would hire a non-asian to prep or even cook the food must mean they trust that person and i think it is astounding that people are willing hire someone of another culture. i know it has to do with undocumented labor being cheap, but still, they have to be good at what they do to keep a job. i toast to all the illegal, underpaid people who made my food so good.
@Erika_Steele@xanga - Ditto.
I love eating Indian/Pakistani food like kabobs and naan - it usually can't be prepared the same way in someone's home. Apparently, the restaurant that my family and I usually go to has a Mexican chef, but the food still tastes brilliant.
I think that idea of local food really only applies to Japanese, Chinese, Italian etc. cuisine cos Westerners usually fudge the whole menu up so that the food ends up being greasy and completely unlike the original.
There are many Vietnamese restaurants around here (at least 3 in every corner), and they're all Vietnamese-ran (or Chinese-ran, but they grew up in Vietnam and recognize themselves as Vietnamese instead of Chinese), so I really have no problem =p. I don't think people are interested enough in Vietnamese cuisine for non-locals to start serving it =x.