Posted on 04/11/2016 11:15:10 AM PDT by TigerClaws
Recently, we started a conversation about food and race. Specifically, we wondered out loud, who gets to cook — and become the face of — a culture's cuisine?
Our question was prompted by a recent Sporkful interview with Rick Bayless, who has faced criticism over his long career. Although he is an Oklahoman with no Mexican ancestry, he has become one of the most prominent ambassadors for Mexican cuisine in America. Rick Bayless is a master of Mexican cuisine. He's also a white guy from Oklahoma. Over the years, that has made him the target of criticism. Who gets to be the ambassador of a cuisine? The Salt When Chefs Become Famous Cooking Other Cultures' Food
To be clear, this isn't about Bayless. (Though the acclaimed chef did hop into the comments section to weigh in.) The question of who gets credit for a cuisine — and how they are compensated and feted — is one that comes up again and again in the food world. We asked readers to weigh in with their feelings about this squishy topic.
As with many things involving race and class in America, there are no easy answers — and we're not expecting to find any clear-cut ones. We're more interested in starting a conversation.
Here's some of what we heard from you.
On one hand, many of you pointed out that cooking the cuisine of other cultures is a tangible way to connect. That's part of what makes America a literal as well as figurative melting pot.
Funny.
Martin Luther King wanted us all to be equal and judged by our merits. Today, they want to segregate by culture and color.
Just try taking Bobby Flay’s jalapenos away!
This is part of the agenda to Balkanize the USA.
I guess non-whites need to stop using electricity, most medicines and vaccines, the motor vehicle, indoor plumbing, etc, since that was all invented by old white guys.
I know a white guy who cooks a mean pho.
His wife is from Vietnam
I hope the idiots at NPR don’t eat Lox and Bagels; otherwise I demand reparations.
Ask to see the patent/copy right paperwork.
None? Cook away.
Same with the rest of “cultural appropriation”.
As usual... the oh-so-high-minded liberals are once again dividing Americans by race and ethnicity. Tell me again who are the racists...?
A corollary to your outlook: Everybody mind your own business! We can all cook, dress, style our hair, talk, etc. in whatever way suits us.
At what point do these people realize that they are being obscene in their PC attitudes.
I Scot/Irish and my 1st Generation Italian mother in law taught me how to cook foods that she learned to cook from her mother. My wife is not crazy about cooking, and I am.
Should I not cook Italian food when we have company? Should I roll my meatballs and cook my sauce in secret?
This is crazy. I understand that I cannot possibly understand what it is to be black or an immigrant. But to make me eat only the foods of my British heritage would just be torture.
At the local food court, its usually Mexicans working at the Chinese restaurant and blacks working at the Mexican restaurant. I can’t explain it.
Someone asks me that question in person gonna get seriously bitch slapped.
Racist morons.
Because liberals have a mental disease.
This is just another (laughable) example.
When is it not?
When it is ok to profit with Europe’s development of calculus, engineering, hygiene, medicine, energy, banking, industry, etc?
I grew up a poor white Southerner. Didn’t know I was cooking “Soul Food” until a black man told me it was the best he’d ever eaten.
I go to Chinese restaurants to eat Italian food. Marco Polo stole everything.
So I gotta put on blackface if I want to cook Bar B Q?
It’s insane. At some university the cafeteria offered different foods on certain days of the week, and the students protested because the food wasn’t authentic because it wasn’t cooked by the food’s corresponding national. I don’t remember if they managed to shut it down.
As a side note, I am known to cook better Chinese food than a lot of Chinese restaurants, and I’m not Chinese.
> I don’t go to vietnamese noodle soup (pho) joints if there are caucasians in the kitchen. I’m caucasian.
I’m caucasian too. I had pho last night, cooked by my Vietnamese wife. I don’t have a clue how to cook my own.
So Mexicans who added meat, cheese, and frying in pork fat to their cuisine from the Spanish need to stop to.
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