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.