It is ridiculous, if not comical to see how upset some people can become if a certain food dish is not made to what they consider to be the right way. To me, cooking is an art not a science, which means it evolves and changes. To others it something that is chiseled in stone. You are wasting your time if you make a dish that is different then from what they think is the right way. No matter how delicious others think the dishes is, they will tell you, "you made it wrong."
i dare you to read it, lol! imagine if that was the one in the video XD
anyway, i thought about this topic of "authenticity" a lot after diana kennedy died recently. a white british lady seen as an "authority on mexican cuisine" is its own can of worms, but she was influential and she did certainly do her research. however, the way she applied that research, imho, missed the mark. she completely divorced the people from the food. she credited geographic areas and not the people she learned from. it was as if these dishes she made simply existed in these places - like there was a culinary big bang and this food just appeared, and then the citizens followed some divine recipe never to be changed.
she did not allow for variations - whether it be by native locals or, on a larger scale, offshoot cuisines like tex mex which she dismissed outright. when you remove the people - and their stories, their struggles, their evolution - from the food, you are doing a disservice to yourself, to history, etc and looking down your nose at the very thing you claim to uphold. it's sad. there's almost never one exact way to make a dish, and there is infinite room for all of them to exist. comments on food forums used to be about sharing (didn't they? maybe i have my rose colored glasses on but i swear they did!) and now it's just a bunch of people excited to tell someone else how wrong they are without even reading the post. i'm not saying to crumble bacon on kraft mac n cheese and call it carbonara, but we need to understand and appreciate that food is made by people, and people - especially POC - are not a monolith.
Thanks for your insight on this! (and sorry for the late response) Very interesting re: Diana Kennedy, and I wasn't aware of her work until news of her passing.
no worries at all! between the zillion youtube comments, plus the blog, filming videos, and your upcoming book (and also, just, you know, life!) i know you have a lot on your plate. appreciate you and all that you bring us :)
It is ridiculous, if not comical to see how upset some people can become if a certain food dish is not made to what they consider to be the right way. To me, cooking is an art not a science, which means it evolves and changes. To others it something that is chiseled in stone. You are wasting your time if you make a dish that is different then from what they think is the right way. No matter how delicious others think the dishes is, they will tell you, "you made it wrong."
Growing up my Thai father always added green beans to our pad krapao. It’s the only way my family eats it!
i had to know about rachael's pad thai and when i googled it i actually got this recipe:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/pad-thai-with-chicken-and-shrimp-recipe-1952109
i dare you to read it, lol! imagine if that was the one in the video XD
anyway, i thought about this topic of "authenticity" a lot after diana kennedy died recently. a white british lady seen as an "authority on mexican cuisine" is its own can of worms, but she was influential and she did certainly do her research. however, the way she applied that research, imho, missed the mark. she completely divorced the people from the food. she credited geographic areas and not the people she learned from. it was as if these dishes she made simply existed in these places - like there was a culinary big bang and this food just appeared, and then the citizens followed some divine recipe never to be changed.
she did not allow for variations - whether it be by native locals or, on a larger scale, offshoot cuisines like tex mex which she dismissed outright. when you remove the people - and their stories, their struggles, their evolution - from the food, you are doing a disservice to yourself, to history, etc and looking down your nose at the very thing you claim to uphold. it's sad. there's almost never one exact way to make a dish, and there is infinite room for all of them to exist. comments on food forums used to be about sharing (didn't they? maybe i have my rose colored glasses on but i swear they did!) and now it's just a bunch of people excited to tell someone else how wrong they are without even reading the post. i'm not saying to crumble bacon on kraft mac n cheese and call it carbonara, but we need to understand and appreciate that food is made by people, and people - especially POC - are not a monolith.
Thanks for your insight on this! (and sorry for the late response) Very interesting re: Diana Kennedy, and I wasn't aware of her work until news of her passing.
no worries at all! between the zillion youtube comments, plus the blog, filming videos, and your upcoming book (and also, just, you know, life!) i know you have a lot on your plate. appreciate you and all that you bring us :)