[Ishbel]

DC - I think you'd find that nearly every 'Indian' restaurant in the UK has a tandoor oven - maybe fuelled by gas nowadays, but still 'authentic' by todays standards!

[shel]

Originally Posted by OregonYeti

We went into a restaurant and the menu offered braised duck web and fish-lip soup.

There was - and maybe still is - a local restaurant that served fish lip soup. It's been several years since I've eaten there, but it may be worth checking out again.

Shel

[KYHeirloomer]

The basic question is, seems to me, how do you define "authentic," putting aside any specific instance.

In the first place, almost all ethnic cuisines are drawn too broadly. We say "Indian" or "Chinese" or "African" as if these were monolithic wholes. In fact, each of them is composed of a diversity of cultures, cuisines, and worldviews.

Why is it that we don't say "European?" Simply because we recognize the differences between French and German; English and Baltic; Italian and.....whoops. Now we're back to the basic question. Is there a French, or a German, or an English, or an Italian cuisine? Of course not. There are, within each of those countries, regional differences.

Looking to identify those regional differences, what we find is not so much specific recipes (although those certainly do exist), but, rather, an approach to preparing food. How is it that the people in X province look at the preparation of available foodstuffs, and how does it differ from the people in Y province?

There is another aspect of the problem. In any specifically identifyable regional cuisine we recognize that each housewife prepares a dish slightly differently, doing something that makes it her own. Not only do we recognize these differences, our tendency is to applaud them. Why, then, are we unwilling to make the same allowances for a restauranteer?

So, perhaps that's really the answer. "Authentic" is whether or not the cuisine in the restaurant reflects the outlook of the ethnicity it purports to portray---given the constrictions of available foodstuffs and the taste-orientation of the customer base. If it does; if the menu is true to the culinary outlook of the ethnicity, then I, for one, would call it authentic.

[OregonYeti]

If on the other hand, you can tell it's not close to any of the regional cuisines, they can call their restaurant "Joe's Sort-Of Italian Food" or "Sue's Somewhere In The World Cafe" or something like that The Indian restaurant I was talking about wasn't just adapting to American tastes, they were also taking shortcuts.

But as others have said, if the customers enjoy the food and the experience, that's what matters most.