Food & Culture

Though I am not against travelling to experience other cultures and cuisines (I also believe that if you want to really understand an ethnic cuisine you must travel to the country of origin), I am of the opinion that this country has a lifetime of learning opportunities with all of its various regional cuisines. As an American chef, I am proud of our culinary heritage and I find it very interesting how our regional cuisines evolved as new immigrants moved into areas, adding their ethnic cuisines to the mix. There are tremendous opportunities to study how food evolves here in this country. And it gives you a chance to meet a very diverse mix of people.

I find it interesting that American chefs still feel the need to travel to other countries to learn all they can about different cuisines. It sometimes seems as if we are embarrassed by our cuisine or feel the need to justify our skills by "taking on" another culture. I should be one to talk with my love of the great cuisines of Europe, and wish to travel, once again, throughout the area. But, I think that young American chefs quickly set their sights abroad, forgetting about the diversity we find here at home. Most chefs in other countries have made it their lifelong endevor to study their nations cuisine and its every little nuance. American chefs, for some reason, feel the need to attempt to learn all of these nations cuisines. I am afraid that it has made many chefs a "Jack of all trades (cuisines), master of none".

I am not against studying the cuisines of different countries at all. I just thnk that young American chefs tend to look overseas, before they really even have an idea of what is happening in this country and our diverse heritage. I do feel though, that American chefs have too many options. In this ever shrinking world we can pick ingredients from every corner of the earth, and are exposed to hundreds of different cuisines. Too many American chefs want to take them all on. I am sorry, but there is no way any one chef can master all the cuisines out there, though many try. That is why there is a glut of crappy "fusion" food out there. Too many chefs what to take what they learned from a week in Thailand, a week in Mexico, and a week in Germany and combine them all. How can you even think of tinkering with a cuisine until you have mastered its basics. It takes chefs, of these native cuisines, years to master them, yet young American chefs often times spend a week somewhere and think that they have "master" the cuisine there. It seems strange, but I truly think that one of the major delimmas facing American chefs, is what kind of food to do. With an opportunity to play with so many cuisines it is no wonder that many chef's menus lack any form of cohesion, and that the food they do is lackluster at best.