Cultural Appropriation in Restaurants
Everyone knows Rick Bayless makes the best Mexican food in Chicago; in New York, Alex Stupak is the taco king, Andy Ricker is the go-to-guy for seriously authentic Thai food, and Ivan Orkin is the ramen maestro; in the South, Sean Brock mines the history of Southern food to find its roots in Senegal. In a culinary culture preoccupied with notions of authenticity, does the cultural provenance of the cook matter as much as the cultural provenance of the recipe? Is a white chef cooking the food of another ethnicity or region doing beneficial work of amplification, or is he taking credit for another culture's bounty? What about a Jewish chef cooking Italian food?
Presenters
Alex Stupak
Chef
Empellon
Helen Rosner
Features Editor
Eater/Vox Media
Helen Rosner is the features editor at Eater, overseeing the publication's award-winning narrative journalism and essay programs. A veteran of Saveur and New York magazines, a founder of the influe...
Show the restMichael Twitty
Writer
Twitty is a food writer, independent scholar, culinary historian , and historical interpreter personally charged with preparing, preserving and promoting African American foodways and its parent tr...
Show the rest