I see a bright and much needed future for the study of foods. Anyone concerned with the history and cultures of past or present civilizations can not avoid the importance the role food plays in the developement of such. Universities are taking notice of this, many offering courses and degrees specifically pertaining to food studies, and most certainly to anyone studying anthropology. There are very active orginizations in Europe and elsewhere, doing independent research and studies on the importance of this. (google: “anthropology of food”) The following post are thoughts and studies on American Food History and Culture.
America the Regional“Regions are above all useful devices for helping us make sense of a geographically and culturally diverse and sometimes chaotic world. Regions are way that humans carve up a complex landscape into manageable units and then invest them with emotion and meaning. Regions provide a context for how humans living in a certain landscape organize their experience of space. One gets a sense of identity belonging to a place…”
This paragraph might be the foundation we are looking for when trying to decipher American Cuisine. This article comes from Food Arts magazine, one of the most sound monthly food publications there is. The June 2007 issue deals greatly with southern gastronomic culture. Very fascinating read. I am learning that if you want real American Cuisine, you must break it down regionally, and then even into sub-regions. One must also begin to trim the fat on what some believe to be part of our cuisine. The fat I refer to is any source of food idealism that can be found in any major city around the world. Foods that do more harm than good. Foods that anyone in the world can produce at any given time or space. Yes, these foods do play a part in the way we choose to eat everyday, and by some standards fast food is part of American Cuisine, but has lost all credibility other than nostalgic, by mass producing more than food…itself. What I am searching for is what can be found in American Regional Cooking. Foods that you are not going to find just anywhere. You may only find them in a certain county in a certain state. Or even deeper down to a certain family. We are a young country by the standard of world history but from the very begining we have been a country of immigrants who have had to adapt to the region we washed up on. This has led over the years to a culturally rich heritage that people can be proud of. People know when they have something nobody else does, and they hold on to it and pass it down to the next generation.
I recently had a conversation with James Sharpton, one of the greatest culinary thinkers I have ever met, about this American Cuisine. It started with him noticing an American cookbook on my desk published in 1967. A time when shockingly, people were proudly proclaiming what American Cuisine was. This being towards the start of the fast food and commercialism of foods we see today. None the less, the author takes you around the country and showcases its many talents and also take you into his own family history and how culinary traditions are passed down. One of my favorite books. Anyways, he said “Nobody cooks like this anymore, this cuisine is being killed. People want to see a chef perform miracles, but don’t understand these ingredients have been used for hundreds of years.” If you are tuned in at all to the world of chefs and restaurants you will hear of places serving you thirty five course dinners of foams, vapors, aromas and textures as different course. One course may be served to you on fire because the chef believes the aroma of a burning maple leaf ties into the flavor of chestnuts and foie gras. Come on! Ok…I get it. It makes some sort of sense. The sort of sense someone is looking for in culinary theatre, but this sort of cooking will never become a foundation of a cuisine for I highly doubt a normal house hold is going to feed its hungry children a sea urchin foam with carbonated asparagus. Spain is still more regarded for its traditonal tapas bars, wines and cured ham than for the founding father and his disciples of molecular gastronomy. This should be a fun ride through the unkown America. Into the basements of old farmers with pickled cows tongue and hard apple cider.
Works Cited:Food Arts June 2007 Article:“Pilot Light” pgs. 9 & 10 Michael Batterberry Editor-n-Chief/Publisher &
Ariane Batterberry Founding Editor/Publisher Excerpts from Dr. Wilson Speech
Leave a Reply