Authenticity as it relates to food

When it comes to food, authenticity is one of the most looked upon details. From the taste to the texture it’s no surprise that true food connoisseurs can tell of a food’s authenticity from just one look. But what exactly makes a food authentic and who is it that’s actual deciding what foods are authentic or not?

Saying that a food is authentic is saying that the food has been prepared traditionally. It is my personal belief that the authenticity of food derives not from the chef who prepares it, but from the origin and culture of the recipe itself. In order for a recipe to become authentic though it must follow the already accepted norms of that culture. For example: In Italy the portions are generally larger, and, more importantly, the meals have been organized as a primary entree, be it pasta, meat, or fish, with some sort of side dish all prepared with the freshest ingredients, whereas in Mexican culture the meals are usually served in smaller portions and include foods such as tomatoes, beans, rice, goat and fish.

But who exactly is it that’s deciding what foods are authentic? The answer to that question is an easy: the consumer. Whoever it is that is eating the food is the true deciding factor in the debate of authenticity. No American should walk into an Italian restaurant such as an Olive Garden and expect true, authentic Italian cuisine because ultimately it’s not. The “Italian” food is prepared in American fashion using frozen or pre-packaged ingredients and relying on mostly aesthetics rather than actual taste or authenticity. Hoping that as long as they can make a meal look Italian the consumer will believe that it is. Unfortunately most Americans still fall for such a simple marketing trick.

There are also many websites and magazines out in the world that claim to understand and appreciate authentic cuisine of any kind. But what exactly is the deciding factor for these beliefs? Through research it appears that websites such as chowhound.com conduct interviews and in-depth research of their own to decide what dishes can be considered authentic or not. The website travels to the origin of the meal to discovers it’s delicious history and then using the original recipe as a base, conducts taste tests with other “authentic” restaurants and makes it’s conclusion from there.

So much like it was stated in the beginning of this article, authenticity is all about taste, texture and origin. Most restaurants today boast the “authenticity” of their cuisine but non actually hold up to it. The only way to truly know is to get out there and familiarize yourself with the different tastes and smells of different cultures and their foods and to conduct your own research into authenticity. Only then will completely understand the word “authentic.”

The idiots guide to...being an idiot

Throughout this blog I have discussed my mother’s confounding relationship with cooking. Admittedly, I am a pretty bad cook, but I firmly believe this is because I have never really been taught how to do cook anything. Sure, I’ve picked up a cookbook in the past few years, but usually the idea of going to the store just to get all of the ingredients is more daunting than just pouring a bowl of cereal. Recognizing this tendency, my mom bought me The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the College Diet Cookbook when I moved into a dorm my freshman year. Writing this journal entry is the first time I’ve ever actually opened it, but hey, gotta start somewhere!

Obviously, this cookbook is aimed at college students who, like me, have little motivation to cook dinner for themselves. The table of contents is divided neatly into different types of food the typical American college student might want to prepare, such as “Mexican Flourish,” “Grains that Make the Grade,” and “Using your Noodle,” and are accented by cute little symbol the indicating the type of machinery needed to make it. I guess they assume I would own an electric wok and a slow cooker. Go figure.

I happened to flip to a recipe in “Meaty Meals” on how to prepare “Crowd-Pleasing Mac and Dogs $.” Evidently this is a pretty inexpensive meal to make, and will please the roomies as well! Despite this, the ingredients look more advanced than what can be typically found in my cupboards, such as tomato soup minced garlic. The book also instructs me to look for terms in recipes such as meanwhile so that I know to do something else while one portion of the dish is being prepared. I guess they assume women won’t be reading this ;) All in all though, it’s not so bad of a cookbook. All of the recipes look easy enough to follow, even for someone like me who has no knowledge of cooking. I’m still not sure about that electric wok though…

Thoughts on cuisine

Cuisine is a characteristic manner of preparing food. Though it is not defined by food alone, cuisine is largely influenced by foods that can be locally grown or traded, and is shaped by traditions over a long period of time. The tradition of soul food, for example, is directly connected to the foods eaten during slavery. Because of the physical nature of slave work, food needed to be high in fat and energy. Breakfast was typically a large meal, and provided the proper nutrition necessary for grueling hours of physical labor. Lunch typically consisted of leftovers from breakfast, and dinner was either prepared by women during their down time, or a “kitchen staff,” so to speak. Sundays and holidays were group time in which a community of slaves typically gathered. Communal eating eventually grew to be a hallmark of African-American culture, both in times of slavery and freedom. As such, African-Americans were able to form bonds between each other through food preparation and family gathering. As migration occurred and the population of African-Americans began to leave the South, soul food became an enactment of the past as well as the present. It gave the opportunity to rekindle and maintain connections between families and friends, and provide a greater sense of community within the African-American culture. As evidenced by soul food and African-American culture, subordinate groups can have their own cuisine. Indeed, it is subordinate groups which often have the richest cuisines because of cultural histories and the need to develop a bond in the face of oppression.
Though white people are not an oppressed group, I would say that they do have their own cuisine. Because cuisine is shaped by food as well as culture, “white” cuisine (for lack of a better term) may be better understood in terms of American cuisine as a whole. “White” cuisine is shaped by individual experiences and history, such as roots to foreign countries and traditions mixed with American staples such as hamburgers and macaroni and cheese. In comparison to soul food, which has definitive staples and implications to term, there is no white people’s cuisine, per se. It is instead shaped by a conglomerate of outside influences, which is reflective of the great melting pot of the United States.

Selections from Through the Kitchen Window

Through the Kitchen Window examines the way in which women’s relationship has changed as a result of industrialization in the modern world. By drawing on anecdotes of a variety of cultures and identities, the collection of essays demonstrates that food has a practical purpose as well as a spiritual one. Through women’s history as mothers and nurturers, every woman’s identity is deeply entwined with food and its production, be it historically or more presently. In the ever-shifting and evolving western world, many women are at odds with their immediate relationship with food, however Through the Kitchen Window explores the universal dimensions as food being a source of not only sustenance, but of memory, tradition, and identity.
In “Mother I Hardly Knew You,” Pogrebin describes her unwitting housewife mother who, despite her best attempt at femininity and stereotypical axioms, cannot peak her husband’s interest more than his public interest groups. Though Pogrebin does not know it at fifteen, her mother’s recipes serve as a vessel of tradition among Jews who survived the Holocaust. Similarly, as women, Pogrebin recreating her mother’s recipes acknowledges and honors her memory. The value is not in the food itself, but rather in the handwritten notes that outlast her mother. By cooking her mother’s recipes, Pogrebin is in effect keeping her mother alive. By including this essay, Avakian demonstrates that food can have meaning besides in its practical application and preparation. In this case, the divorce between food and culture is transcended in order to keep memories alive and well.
Similar to Pogrebin’s story, “The Power of the Pepper: From Slave Food to Soul Food” exemplifies the way food can serve as a way to reconnect with family. Though Ire’s story is one of contempt to the westernized society that enslaved her ancestors, Ire comes to accept the gross injustices her ancestors face in centuries of slavery. Though she is at first physically sick and ashamed of her connection to the food that was denied to her ancestors, she is able to transcend this history and accept the ways in which culture has shifted her own identity. Though she is undeniably tied to her ancestor’s slavery, to say it defines her would be inadequate. Her connection to her ancestor’s food and way of life provides just a small part of a largery cultural history that she also embodies in the present.
Salibian’s “Sacred Food” also recognizes and explores the inherent bond that lies between her and her ancestors. She is able to reconnect to food in ways that many of the authors cannot. She writes, “Experiencing food…puts me in touch with something sacred, and with that what it means to be a woman. These two turn out to be same thing…I feel and see how women moved in the bodies when they knew they were world creators, culture creators, and feeders of their people.” With this essay, Avakian finally comes full circle from Smyth’s foreboding. In women’s efforts to gain autonomy, which necessarily results in a divorce from child rearing and nurturing, our cultural bonds to food have been displaced. Salibian, however, is able to recapture this union that women as a history hold. By acknowledging women’s role in cooking and care giving, she is also reclaiming a collective past that women are bound to. Though it has been systematically devalued, “Sacred Food” captures woman’s beauty and talent as bearers of children, creators of poetry, medicine, and pottery, and restores the value of women as people and free sprits. In effect, she realizes that women do not have to be like men to be successful, and indeed, they never will be men. Women instead are deeply and beautifully tied to the earth and nurturing in a way that men will never experience.

Agriculture as it relates to race, class, and gender

Que Vivan los Tamales is an excellent source of understanding how race, class, and gender are shaped by food and its development. Throughout the text, Pilcher examines the way that food production historically shaped women's identity. Women's power was placed in their food, and they used tortilla making as a form of self-expression. The advent of industrialization and mills, however, permanently altered the place of women's work in Mexican culture. Although wealthier women were able to stay at home and continue to make their own tortillas and meals, poorer women had to leave their homes and enter the factories so that they could work in markets with the time saved. This ultimately changed the structure of race, class, and gender as corn agriculture that was once women’s work became mechanized. This effectively altered Mexican culture as industrialization made their long-established agricultural system ineffective and irrelevant. As time progressed, the mills took over, and identities and gender roles were no longer necessarily shaped by food production. Over time, industrialization exacerbated the differences within race and class, and permanently shifted Mexican identity away from agriculture.
In more contemporary times, this domino effect plays out again and again. In Ghana, for example, the country receives federal food subsidies from the United States in the form of rice. Rice, however, is the most grown crop in the country. The American rice that is sent to Ghana is whiter, less grittier, and most importantly, free. Women in particular in Ghana are most disenfranchised by the federal subsidies as people who are desperately poor understandably take the free rice over the rice they have to pay for. These subsidies have wholly depleted Ghana’s economy, and it was said that giving them rice was the same as giving Inhuits snow. Women in Ghana lose their livelihood, which is necessary to support their family. Similar to what happened in Mexico with industrialization, the class system is illuminated, as it is impossible to get ahead. The intersection of race, class, and gender in agriculture is undeniable.