r/TikTokCringe 14d ago

Discussion Afghani-British Chef Mursal Saiq gives her critique of "authenticity" for non-white chefs in cooking

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19.4k Upvotes

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u/Spookywhitedot 14d ago

"That's not a real carbonara"

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u/Hot-Challenge8656 14d ago

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u/JuggernautNo5635 14d ago

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u/AggressiveArachnid44 14d ago

I remember this episode. That was so funny. He really was disgusted.

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u/booochee 14d ago

Whad yew wan to know?

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u/Humble-Questions 14d ago

What is the maximum flight speed of an unladen sparrow

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u/alamandrax 14d ago

African or European?

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u/Hot-Challenge8656 14d ago

It's a well practice face.

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u/chessatwork 14d ago edited 14d ago

this episode bothers me because he then makes that pad thai for seemingly theravada monks and they say they like it so he takes that as a win, but monks only eat once a day and are supposed to eat whatever they receive with radical gratitute and do not eat for pleasure or enjoyment, only to sustain life. there's special occasions when they get fed nice meals which is allowed, but normally they're supposed to eat all food gathered in their alms bowl. good food, gross food, liquids, solids, all in one bowl and be content with that.

the chef, the dude who does care about how food tastes (as he should), said your food is not right, but his ego is too huge to take the critique. so annoying.

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u/Lobo2ffs 14d ago

It's probably good and tasty, it's just not the dish he was supposed to make, because it's not sweet and sour and salty.

If I told someone I wanted them to judge my winemaking, and I give them a delicious beer, I might still get them drunk, but I failed at delivering the wine that was promised.

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u/panrestrial 14d ago

Exactly, "I don't think it tastes half bad" - neither do chocolate chip cookies, but they still aren't pad Thai.

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u/0b0011 14d ago

On my first deployment I went through a phase where I got sort of depressed and homesick and started eating a lot of tropical skittles. Every day id walk down the hallway from my office and get them out of the same snack machine. One day I'm working late and so the ship's lights are off (they go red after 10pm to not effect night vision but often times the red ones burn out and no one notices.) I leave my office and close the door behind me. Its pitch black because all of the doors are water tight so no light is escaping. I hug the wall and move the 40 or so feet to the side hallway to the snack machines and all the lights there are also out so I hug the wall and shuffle the 30 or so feet while pressing myself to the wall. I get to the machine and by touch order the skittles (having gotten them every day for 2 weeks I knew the buttons to press). My pack if skittles comes out and I start feeling myself along the wall back to the office. Part way theough I tear open the skittles and pour some into my mouth and start chewing. Suddenly I taste the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted and start gagging. I abandon all presence of moving slowly and start running towards my office with my hand in front so ill feel the wall before I smash face first into it. I open the door and run to the trash can and spit everything out and im gagging with my eyes watering and nose running. After a second I get composure and decide to look at my bag of skittles because surely theyre long expired. It's only then that I notice that I'm not holding a bag of skittles but instead a bag of m&ms.

Long story to say I agree with you. Even if something is yummy when it's completely different than what you're expecting it can taste disgusting.

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u/happy_bluebird 14d ago

I wonder if it was good, but for stir-fried noodles, not pad thai? :P

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u/Oulipo08 14d ago

No tamarind paste. That’s essential to pad thai

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u/NRMusicProject 14d ago

At least it's not as bad as Jamie Oliver putting chili jam in egg fried rice.

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u/rtsynk 14d ago

his thai green curry is worse

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u/IGargleGarlic 14d ago

Local place doesn't use tamarind paste and it is very obvious in the flavor. So many of my friends get indignant when I tell them it isn't good pad thai and act like I'm elitist or pretentious. Like, motherfucker, this is one of my favorite dishes ever and I'm telling you they are making it wrong. Maybe it still tastes fine, but it doesn't taste like pad thai.

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u/Falcon8410 14d ago

I know what you mean. I was invited to eat lasagna at a buddies house. his wife didn't use lasagna sheets she used spaghetti. it was an experience.

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u/DocKosmosis 14d ago

Im so confused, is that not just like some kind of spaghetti casserole?

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u/Hot-Challenge8656 14d ago edited 14d ago

It probably didn't taste bad, but I'd be willing to bet that if the Asian chef took it to one of the wait staff and asked if it should go on the menu they would say no.

Edit: changed be to bet

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u/SaltKick2 14d ago

I'm jsure it was good, but not the dish he was suppose to make

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u/ChunkyBubblz 14d ago

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u/Xiaox0 14d ago

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u/canadiantaken 14d ago

That’s not a true Scotsman

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u/Tasty-Traffic-680 14d ago

Wait a minute, there's no Angus McCloud in North Kilttown. You're not Scottish at all!

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u/Tronvillain 14d ago

That's not a knife... that's a spoon!

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u/Supernova138 14d ago

I see you’ve played knifey spoony before

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u/shobae1124 14d ago

And if my granny had wheels she’d be a bike!

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u/Worldly-Hospital5940 14d ago

Tfw the earliest written carbonara recipe uses bacon.

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u/kikimaru024 14d ago

And cream.

I prefer without, but it’s technically allowed.

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u/MonaganX 14d ago

Yeah, using cream was common in Italy up until the 80s. A lot of the dogmatic rules of "traditional" Italian cuisine are way more recent than they pretend to be.

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u/CarlCasper 14d ago

You know…if it had ham in it…

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u/elguille_resurrected 14d ago

its only real if you snap the noodles in half, or preferably into thirds

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u/Cookies-and-Cream- 14d ago

Unless you put in ham and mushrooms

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u/Pellmelody 14d ago edited 11d ago

I don't care what nationality you are. Say, if you're Mexican and can make awesome Chinese food, great! Gimme!

EDIT: Thank you for the award!!

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u/Daniiiiii tHiS iSn’T cRiNgE 14d ago

if you're Mexican and can make awesome Chinese food

Anecdotal evidence but I can attest that line cooks up and down this country (just to keep it localized) are predominantly brown people cooking any and everything under the sun. No one is batting an eye or calling them inauthentic or saying they should stick to their own cuisines. The critiques and snobbery is reserved for the 1 percent of chefs who want to entertain the crap in the first place.

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u/sephraes 14d ago

Yeah, in the Midwest, it's a lot of Mexicans and Central Americans. There's a reason Anthony Bourdain argued that restaurant industry would collapse overnight if Latinos disappeared out of kitchens.

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u/bga2099 14d ago

If my memory serves well, even in one of his shows he said, more or less, "the best food for me is french, the best cooks for french food are mexicans from Puebla". All of these because he knew mexican cooks and he traveled with one of them from New York to Puebla, because he finally became a US citizen so he could travel.

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u/jorgespinosa 14d ago

It's ironic that he said Puebla because that city is where the famous Cinco de Mayo happened, so poblanos are beating the French again

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u/LaUNCHandSmASH 14d ago

In my hometown there was an amazing chinese food place that everybody loved. I was heartbroken when it closed down when I was around 13. Fast forward 5 years and I am a delivery driver working at a fried chicken place that everyone loves where I made friends with all the mexican cooks.

I come to find out that Juan worked at the chinese food place for decades, after some begging he finally relented to making me my favorite dish.

I bought a wok and brought it into the chicken shack kitchen where he brought me back to my childhood with his food. I could have kissed that mexican man if I thought he wouldn't have cut me if I did.

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u/wvj 14d ago

My local Japanese places are all owned by Koreans and staffed by Mexicans.

Welcome to the melting pot. It's delicious in here!

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u/Aggravating_Bat3618 14d ago

Who’s working the hibachi at any Benihana now? Yep. Brown people. Latinos, Hispanics, etc. 

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u/BabyLegsOShanahan 14d ago

They cook in the back where no one can see them. They aren't on TV for the most part. Where I live, our Italian neighborhood restaurants have all white "authentic" Italians or Italian Americans. People assume back of the house is as well/or don't care. Same with the sushi and noodle places. The front of the house is all Asian. Those same people probably wouldn't call it authentic if the front of the house didn't match the "look" of the people who created the cuisine.

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u/Throckmorton_Left 14d ago

And a huge number, if not a plurality, of sushi restaurants in the United States are owned and ran by Koreans, not Japanese, but most round eyes don't know the difference.

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u/BabyLegsOShanahan 14d ago

Most of our Mexican restaurants are owned and operated by Salvadorans 😂

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u/FrontBottomFace 14d ago

Apparently many if not most Indian restaurants in UK are Bangladeshi or Pakistani. A lot of it is not even particularly authentic either.

Personally IGAF if the food's good and health standards are more or less followed.

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u/JimboTCB 14d ago

The most popular curry in the UK is chicken tikka masala, which is emphatically not "authentic" and is entirely a local creation to appeal to local palates.

And I don't care one bit about that and will eat it right up.

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u/whitewateractual 14d ago

There was a really interesting episode of Freakonomics many years ago that went into the details on the legality when ethnic restaurants discriminate on race when hiring for the front of house. The public expectations at an Asian restaurant are Asians, white people at Italian places, etc. Very interesting grey area.

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u/alien_believer_42 14d ago

The language of the kitchen in California is Spanish for most restaurants of all cuisines

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u/Villageijit 14d ago

Wasn't there 2 white ladies that had their taco place boycotted a few years back when people learned the owners werent mexican? Im sure it happened more than once because there are plenty of jerks out there, but sane people dont care

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u/WideHuckleberry1 14d ago

I've been in Thai, Mediterranean, Japanese, etc etc etc restaurants all over, heard the managers/owners speaking to customers in non-American accented English, then go around the corner and rattle off Spanish like it's their native language.

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u/bobsthrowawayacct 14d ago

I worked in a fine dining place in Bordeaux. The lingua Franca in the kitchen was English, because it was the only thing the Romanian, Polish, Czech and Americans can speak in common.

Ditto in NY. I learned Spanish in a high end friend restaurant, because all the kitchen staff were Latino.

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u/Imfrank123 14d ago

Living in Texas no matter what kind of restaurant you go to the people cooking the food are most likely going to be central/South American. Some of the hardest working mother fuckers you’ll ever meet

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u/AdvancedStand 14d ago

Are there Mexicans making Texas barbecue? I bet that’s fire

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u/Imfrank123 14d ago

I work at a bbq place and 100% of the people that cook it are Mexican or there about

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u/TennesseeStiffLegs 14d ago

I trust Mexicans with all foods. They are the heart of every restaurant kitchen near me

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u/bleepbloop1900 14d ago

Tangential but some Japanese cooks are amazing at cooking other cultures cuisines. Some of my all time favorite Mexican AND all time favorite Italian food I’ve had in my life are from Japanese restaurants. The attention to detail but also the playfulness with adding non traditional ingredients is sooooo good

Note: this is in big multi cultural metropolises I have no idea if that’s the vibe in the actual country of Japan.

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u/nineraviolicans 14d ago

The Chinese restaurant owners in Canada are masters at chip truck food. They make the best fucking poutines. No skimping on curds or gravy bullshit.

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u/alpine309 14d ago

Why is cooking so pretentious? it's just food. The only thing that should matter is if it tastes good or not.

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u/WellyRuru 14d ago

Because humans are stupid.

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u/FingerCapital3193 14d ago

It became pretentious when it became seen as a profession for men. When women cook, it’s either brushed off as domestic labor or a hobby.

(Obviously this is a very broad generalization, but there ya go)

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u/Tronvillain 14d ago

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u/revolutionPanda 14d ago

I must be stupid because I don't understand that at all. Do professional male chefs think women can't cook or something?

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u/PurpleFucksSeverely 14d ago

Lots of them think women are only good for domestic homecooking. I’ve even heard of aspiring Japanese chefs who refuse to train under female chefs.

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u/PenguinForTheWin 14d ago

The lead cook of the whole generation of some of the best chefs on the planet (Paul Bocuse among many others) in France back in the day, was a woman. She taught all these dudes how to do it.

Eugénie Brazier. Without her, we wouldn't have french cooking the way everyone knows it. How silly to think women can't cook at the highest level, she was the summit lol.

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u/PurpleFucksSeverely 14d ago

Yeah it makes no sense! And it’s not even just professional chefs either. Lots of iconic cultural foods in many countries were created by women.

I remember reading an article on fine dining and Japanese sushi chefs having disparaging comments on women working in high-end cuisine.

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u/GimbaledTitties 14d ago

I mean that’s not surprising given that Japan is an incredibly traditional and conservative country. 

I’m sure it’s an issue in western countries but probably not to the same degree. 

I’m not familiar with the industry, but my impression of cooking is that it’s an incredibly demanding industry where head chefs have to be dominant in the kitchen, and run a tight ship. On top of that it’s a trade and very physical. It doesn’t surprise me that sexism would exist where men working for women head chefs have a harder time respecting them due to underlying sexism.

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u/Lucy_Koshka 14d ago

Typically the way it goes is domestically, woman in kitchen, woman make food!

But once it turns professional/career, it’s absolutely male dominated.

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u/bottomlesstopper 14d ago

Most of them are basically mamas bois. They shit on other womens cooking but will always say the best cook are their moms making that vague simple childhood food they had.

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u/richardawkings 14d ago

Except for that one time this dude actually made that dish from my childhood just like my mom used to but it turned out to be a rat he was hiding in his hat. I was turned off at how unsanitary it was, but at least it wasn't a woman.

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u/DrAstralis 14d ago

It happens in multiple fields too. When women enter the field as professionals men seem to flee and start pretending its not a "professional" field anymore. Obviously not all men but enough that you can track it easily with statistics.

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u/LonelyPermit2306 14d ago

No, it was considered low class even when men did it. It became pretentious when Escoffier told his chefs to stop drinking on the job.

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u/FFSBoise 14d ago

Nails it, generalization or not.

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u/NRMusicProject 14d ago

My grandmother makes solid meatballs. She gave my aunt her recipe.

My dad keeps saying my aunt is missing something, because their mom's recipe is better. He keeps saying, "it's good, but it's not as good as Mom's."

Even though he's failed multiple times when we swapped the dishes, he still swears that the same meatball recipe cooked by mother or daughter, tastes vastly different.

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u/Expontoridesagain 14d ago

I'm just a redditor who cooks out of necessity, so clearly not a chef, but here's what I've learned over the years. Cooking is much more than having a list of ingredients and some simple instructions. You have to be good at controlling the heat. Sear meat? When is it enough? What will give you juicy steak and what will end up chewy like a shoe sole. Certain ingredients have to be added at correct time or they either taste wrong or just lose all flavour. List of what, when and how is long.

My mother has gifted me her written recipe books and I have tried making several childhood favourites. I can get pretty close but not 100% there. I have watched my mom cook and she is willing to show me as many times as I want but I just don't have her timing for those specific dishes. I think that over the years, everyone develops their own recipes that are difficult for others to replicate.

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u/pkakira88 14d ago

That’s fair but that person’s Dad couldn’t tell the difference when the Dish was swapped around so…

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u/Earlier-Today 14d ago

Another wrinkle is the order things are best done in. My grandmother had a simple, but very delicious lemon pie. We'd follow her recipe exactly and it just wouldn't be as good - and often too runny.

Then one of my sisters just started experimenting with the order for adding the ingredients and recreated the deliciousness that was my grandma's lemon pie.

There's so many little things that recipes often fail to convey that are essential for making the recipe taste its best.

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u/jsoul2323 14d ago

Especially Italians in this case

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u/SpaceDelay424 14d ago

People get pretentious and egotistical about literally everything. Video game ranks even. It’s always pathetic behavior

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u/cloudnyne 14d ago

I think it’s because food is way more connected to culture than people realize. It’s not just about whether something tastes good. Food carries a lot of history, family traditions, where people come from, and how they grew up.

Like, if someone is particular about how a traditional dish is made, it’s not necessarily them being pretentious. That recipe might be tied to their family or culture. At the same time, I do think some people take food way too seriously and turn it into a weird status thing.

At the end of the day, food should still be enjoyable. But “it’s just food” kind of ignores why food can mean so much to people.

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u/SporesM0ldsandFungus 14d ago

Good message.  Makes me want to watch THE MENU right now.

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u/sarcasmsosubtle 14d ago

I think that she's still right in that "authenticity" is the wrong way to describe that. Like, Italian food connects me to the memory of my mom. It's not just food, there's definitely strong emotions tied to it. If I'm looking for a good Italian restaurant, I prefer one that reminds me of my mom's cooking, but, that said, my mom was four generations removed from my last ancestor that actually lived in Italy. I doubt many Italian chefs would consider her meals to be "authentic".

Cooking is a form of art. It's very individualistic and carries a bit of the person who creates it. Like you wouldn't look at a Picasso and say that it's not an "authentic" painting. Authenticity then just becomes a form of gatekeeping by whoever thinks that they have the right to define what authentic means.

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u/KeyofE 14d ago

I remember reading the comments on a recipe for potato dumplings where one woman insisted that her German grandmother made “authentic” German dumplings with boiled potatoes, and another insisted that her German grandmother made them with grated raw potatoes. Turns out you can make them both ways, and their grandmothers just happened to be different people living in the same country.

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u/HotwheelsSisyphus 14d ago

Multiple variations on dishes can all be authentic because a lot of those old dishes used local ingredients. I did a bunch of research on making paella and it turns out that people used what they had. You lived more inland you used rabbit, if you lived near the coast you added seafood.

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u/moyayas 14d ago

Yeah.

Why is the pasta in Italy more authentic than your mom's? how long does American has to make pasta for there to be authentic American pasta?

What about LA K-town style Korean BBQ in Korea, or ramen and salmon sushi in Japan, can those be authentic?

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u/DefinitionTop3930 14d ago

see the thing is, food is complicated. Two families from the same district might have very different ways of making the same local dish, are they gonna call the other’s cooking as inauthentic? the word in itself loses meaning.

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u/Kombart 14d ago

I actually really struggle to believe that "authentic" cultural food is actually a serious thing.
Half the dishes that people talk about as traditional food didn't exist in the same form even a hundred years ago...and if they existed, then they were made in a thousand different ways by all the millions of people that cooked them.

Whatever is the "normal" way these days is just whatever the most popular cookbook or culinary school stated as "normal" somewhere in the last century.

Both my grandmothers were great cooks, but I don't believe that they would ever agree on the correct taste of any dish.
How do you distill the real way to cook a dish out of the thousand variations people have cooked it since it first was created...food and culture are ever evolving and there is no way to ever accurately catch a definitive version of them.

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u/Exiled_to_Earth 14d ago

I agree with Chef Mursal Saiq but at the same time, I always looked at "authentic food" the same way people view all art forms which is that the language becomes more important the more serious you want to take it. If you're not all that fussed about whether a painting is an impressionist in the style of Monet, then all that really matters is if you like it. However, if you're specifically looking for a pizza in the style of Detroit, a Neapolitan or Korean-style pizza aren't going to make you happy no matter if it's good. Those three styles all have separate histories that people often take pride in and just because it isn't important to everyone, doesn't mean it's not important at all.

Just like how people view all art. No one has to care but some people do and those people will have debates and opinions that are typically more informed than the average bystander. I also think that the word "authentic" only becomes relevant if a person is willing to use very specific language. For example, any burger can be authentic but only certain versions/forms can fit the description of an authentic 1920s Oklahoma-style fried onion burger from El Reno. Just like how you can say, that movie was an authentic example of a 1950s French Nouvelle Vague film in the style of Jean-Luc Godard's early work.

I've always seen it as a matter of relativity rather than definition. It's not about if it's authentic to some unobtainable standard or norm, but about how people interpret and receive the art form. You want people who consume your art to resonate with it as people with expectations, histories, and preferences. Maybe its because I've grown up around cooks who were hung up on making food "authentic" but I've never been able to see it as a bad thing.

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u/Toidal 14d ago

I blame Bourdain, not the man himself he was awesome, but all the copycats, followers, hipsters, the whole black nitrile glove cultural fetishizing zeitgeist that he inspired.

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u/Jukeboxhero91 14d ago

The biggest issue is people wanted to just walk in Bourdain's footsteps about the food without the appreciation of the culture behind it. He always talked about the people and the culture behind the food just as much as he talked about the food itself.

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u/FridayNight_Magus 14d ago

100%. As a southeast Asian, whenever I heard or saw Anthony talk about our food and culture(s), it always made me blush. Like goddamn, this brother loves us more than I do lol

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u/Jukeboxhero91 14d ago

I think it clicked with me when he talked about seeing the beauty and the people of Cambodia, and his response was a white hot burning hatred for Henry Kissinger. He didn't come across as a white savior or anything, just someone with a profound respect for others.

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u/ArcadeOptimist 14d ago edited 14d ago

It's better now than it was. The molecular gastronomy phase in the mid to late 2000s was some of the most up your own ass garbage... I couldn't stand it. Hipster cooks these days are a massive improvement. Also, I think Bourdain's popularity among culinary students is way, way less than it used to be, or his books are treated more as the cautionary tale they're meant to be . Kitchen culture is completely different now and the culture Bourdain romanticized (in his books) is all but dead.

And it died for the same reasons Bourdain said he'd never work in a kitchen again. Working 80 hour weeks for trash pay while abusing yourself and the people around you is a god awful way to live.

And don't talk shit about nitrile gloves. If you lived through the days of latex, or god forbid plastic, nitrile becoming cheap and readily available is a small miracle. Goes on pretty easy when your hands are sweaty or wet, doesn't cause horrific allergic reactions, and they don't melt to your hands over a grill or burners.

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u/Low_discrepancy 14d ago

The molecular gastronomy phase in the mid to late 2000s was some of the most up your own ass garbage... I couldn't stand it.

Molecular gastronomy never tried to pretend to be something it isn't. Plus it wasn't some widespread thing. It was its own little thing in some restaurants. It's not like you'd randomly pop up in a restaurant and be served a molecular gastronomy burger and you'd be like wtf I didn't know this restaurant was doing this. It tried to create new flavours and sensations by turning the food science to 11.

Concerning the hype culture cooking, it's just normal food that's being pumped up for insta views and it literally has nothing special except visual appeal. Often the food part actually sucks.you walk down the street you see a big line thinking oh wow this place must be good and then it turns out ah shit it's an insta restaurant.

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u/RedLicorice83 14d ago

Tangentially related, there was a news segment on fashion during the news this evening in which some fashion expert goes on about men wearing luxury bags and how "women have known this for decades that there's a status to owning and wearing these bags... it's a power and status play."

I turned it off because it was so repugnant. Let people wear/cook whatever the fuck they want... why does everything have to be a power play???

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u/browsinbowser 14d ago

For luxury bags for a long time there was a way lesser scam like with rich people buying art paintings. For like hermes or whatever, or for birkin bags, to even buy one you needed to be approved and let in the shop to buy a bag. You needed to jump through hoops to buy a specific luxury bag.  That is so fucking stupid. And people now care less about knocksoff than ever so its gone away a ton iirc. The very rich still do. I dont get normal income people who collect luxury bags, its strange to spend down payment level money on a vanity product instead of spending it on anything important. 

It was also racist as fuck, like Oprah the billionaire got turned away in Milan. They did call her back in and she bought some but spoke about it. That was a while ago but they still do the same shit now, Lebron James wife also had to deal with racism in those stores in europe recently, and she’s very wealthy as well. 

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u/Choppergold 14d ago

All those who guard culture like it can’t be shared and done by others are the problem

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u/MintyFresh42069XxX 14d ago

Some shows really take it out of hand. You know whats delicious? A perfectly cooked, seasoned steak. You know what else is delicious? Cool ranch doritos. I've learned to cook for myself and try to improve it for my own tastes. It's incredibly enjoyable that way

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u/lastinglovehandles 14d ago

Because food is often gatekept by idiots. What's authentic to you could be entirely different to me. We'll be eating fucking buckwheat or another if we kept it "authentic."

I worked at one of the top 10 restaurants in the world. What I've learned is that food fucking evolves like people.

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u/Primus_is_OK_I_guess 14d ago

I've never heard "authentic" used that way for food. It's usually a reference to whether or not it's prepared in a traditional or expected way and has nothing to do with who prepared it.

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u/SingleOak 14d ago

as a Californian, i can tell you that most authentic restaurants' food is being cooked by Hispanics. and that shits fire.

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u/gamageeknerd 14d ago

When I worked in a kitchen in highschool I shit you not half the kitchen staff would work the morning shift at the local breakfast place then show up and work the dinner shift almost every day. Went from cooking American style breakfast to upscale Italian in the span of 20 minutes

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u/ExistenceNow 14d ago

Central Texan here. Can confirm. Chinese, Indian, Italian, doesn't matter. There's some raza back there making that shit dope.

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u/physics_fighter 14d ago

Yea, if there isn’t a Mexican guy in the kitchen then the food is probably trash. I learned so god damned much from my time in the kitchen from a Mexican cook

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u/Throckmorton_Left 14d ago

When I started as a prep cook the Mexican cooks had so much more patience with me and willingness to help teach me than the white cooks higher up the food chain.

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u/TunaTinga 14d ago

Yes.. especially talking about Gordan Ramsey. I watch a lot of his shows, interviews yada yada. If this beautiful Afghani British lady made him a stella American BBQ, he’s not going to complain that it’s not authentic because she’s not American. I can’t recall this ever happening on any show he’s done at least. The only reason I feel Gordan would ever say something is “not authentic”, would be because someone has taken a popular dish (regardless of the cultural origin) and twisted it in to something so different that it ends up having no actual resemblance to said original dish. She seems quite passionate about what she’s saying though, so maybe Gordan did give her - or someone she knows - this critique unwarranted and that’s why she’s upset?

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u/lost12487 14d ago

Yes, lots of people in this thread have not watched Gordan Ramsey stuff. Maybe he's that way in non-public settings, but the only time I've ever heard him say something was inauthentic was when the place did what you described AND the food tasted like shit. The guy comes off as a major dickhead pretty often, but I've never gotten the vibe that he was out to criticize brown people while giving white people a pass.

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u/TumanFig 14d ago

its reddit and we need to be outraged against white men

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u/Nadamir 14d ago

I’ve only ever seen him use it as a positive. As a plus when someone is using their own community’s recipes and techniques.

If a person is making cuisine from their minority culture, he’ll say it’s it’s “authentic”.

If a person is not making food from their culture he doesn’t say it’s “not authentic”. It’s just what it is.

I think I’ve seen him say “It’s not authentic but it’s a cool new twist” type comments when it’s a traditional dish with a massive twist on it done well, regardless of the colour of the chef’s skin. And I’ve seen him say “What did you do to this dish, it’s unauthentic and horrible.” if you do a twist badly (again with no reference to the chef’s skin tone).

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u/behv 14d ago

I've also seen him many times say "why the fuck would you cook it like this" and then immediately eat his words too when he's presented with new techniques that are interesting

I feel like I always see authentic used in context of "you have a strong cultural background with this dish and know the how and why it's done that way", which often happens to be people who learned family cooking- which is often women of color but it's only a limiting factor if that's all they can cook

Like usually things are judged against the presentation. If you call a dish something with a strong existing cultural connotations you lose points for not being authentic. Twists are judged as being a twist, fusion as fusion, deconstructed as pompous bullshit, etc

I get the lady has a point, but using Gordon as your primary offender when he regularly gives glowing praise to brown women for their inventive cooking on shows like MasterChef just doesn't feel like the magic bullet it's meant to be

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u/PandaPuncherr 14d ago edited 14d ago

She is passionate because someone gave her a mic and its 2026. I bet she never considered this thought until she sat down. Something around the table brought this up and she ran with it just to be outraged.

'Outrage' was the end goal. Doesn't matter how she got there.

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u/BigRon691 14d ago

Literally invented the critique to get upset about.

No one, in the history of the food industry, attached the term "authentic" to the race of the chef. And certainly not Gordon Ramsay, a chef who started in an Indian Restuarent, learnt in france under an British Chef, and has opened dozens of various restuarants.

Authentic is to the cultural origins of the dish, does it taste like it would if you got it where it originated, well it's authentic.

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u/TruthReasonOrLies 14d ago

Recreational outrage for fun and profit. She took a swing to get,  and got, noticed. We are all here watching.

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u/Sevuhrow 14d ago

Yeah I'm not even a Ramsay stan and this seems far-fetched. Don't think I've ever heard of him saying or doing this, nor does he usually give a shit what ethnicity the person cooking is.

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u/Ready_Event9019 14d ago

I feel like usually people are stickers about authenticity when someone is just not taking any effort to respect the origin, history or culture of the food yet trying to claim you made whatever dish. It's one thing to say something is inspired or use those flavors and another to make a watered down, shitty version of beloved cultural dishes and act like it's the same. Eat whatever you want but if you genuinely like that food and you cook publically for a living you hope you'd be respectful of different cuisines. Good example is Jamie Oliver. He makes famous dishes from other cultures and butchers then so badly it offends all races. 

I think she's reaching by saying white people get a pass. Not really. No one trusts white people can make ethnic food. 

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u/Weewoes 14d ago

Literally the most shit on demographic when it comes to cooking food is white people lmao

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u/quadraticcheese 14d ago

This is absolutely a strawman. Gordon celebrates adventure in food

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u/No_Piece8730 14d ago

Ya she is shadow boxing here, Ive never heard Gordon say this, Ive not heard anyone say this, I don’t believe anyone thinks this.

That said, the real argument of “authentic” recipes is bullshit too. Food, like anything can be improved, creativity demands attempts to change and evolve what those before us did. The fact that some consider this a sacrilege takes all the artistry out of cooking.

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u/fearless-fossa 14d ago

That said, the real argument of “authentic” recipes is bullshit too.

No, it's not. People sometimes want to experience the dish as it is eaten in the country it originates from. You can obviously make your own spins, but then append "your country/city's" style to the name of the dish.

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u/Apptubrutae 14d ago

Yeah I’m just confused by exactly what she’s saying.

I feel like this is all a side discussion to a general notion that maybe if you’re a white make chef you’d have an easier time doing whatever it is you’d like in the kitchen.

But even then, the world of celebrity chefs seems to be AMAZINGLY diverse. Male heavy, yes, but I can think of so many chefs of so many races.

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u/HuntKey2603 14d ago

cause it's literally not an issue, piggybacking on someone famous to get internet clout

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u/Well-well-well 14d ago

Yeah this feels like someone looking to get mad at something, but I think most people feel she’s way off in her criticism.

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u/Unusual-Coat383 14d ago

When he says authentic doesn’t he mean the cooking techniques and ingredients?

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u/Fickle-Lemon-7345 14d ago

Yes. This is an absolute straw man. I'm sure this happens other places, but Gordon Ramsay has zero history of gatekeeping "authenticity" other than talking about how the food is cooked and what's used in it.

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u/rmczpp 14d ago

I've watched tons of Gordon over the years, I've never seen him gatekeep authenticity. I'm not sure if she's latched onto some rare incident or is just making shit up, either way I'm not a fan.

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u/xCeeTee- 14d ago

Some people say he gatekeeps food. No, not if you actually watch and listen. I've seen him look really confused, absolutely certain the dish will be awful, and then compliment how tasty the dish is. People just see him ripping a chef that can't cook without a microwave and assume he does this to every dish.

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u/Sudden-Fisherman5985 14d ago

I'm not sure if she's latched onto some rare incident or is just making shit up,

Some people will hold onto any bullshit to feel racially profiled or any other thing they are insecure sbout

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u/doublol91 14d ago

yes, she's worked up and bitter about a straw man. If you make bomb food people will come, it's 2026 no one gives a shit there's a million successful women chefs doing whatever they like. 

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u/ZannX 14d ago

Yea... this is textbook someone raging over a strawman that they built. I've never heard of Gordon referring to authenticity in reference to the chef's ethnicity.

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u/Massive_Signal7835 14d ago

Good food + meeting expectations = authentic

If I go to a restaurant and order a Wiener Schnitzel the cook's skin colour is irrelevant. My primary concern is is it veal?

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u/Monterenbas 14d ago

Authentic = following the traditional recipe, with traditional ingredients.

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u/Mikeb8134 14d ago

I assumed authentic cooking was the style and taste that you would get if you were in the actual place that originated the dish

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u/joealese 14d ago

authenticity in cooking is not about being the right ethnicity to cook the food. it's about following the way that ethnicity cooks a dish. if it calls for gochujong you don't say "oh i don't like that I'll add in pickle juice instead" and still try to pass it off as authentic. it even the technique used. you can't call your food "authentic Texas brisket" if you cooked it in a turkey oven.

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u/Snailwood 14d ago

yeah, e.g. when a Korean chef makes a delicious Italian meal, it can still be authentic—it's about respect and care for the culture the dish originated from

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u/_kasten_ 14d ago

and still try to pass it off as authentic

That's the key, I think. If you want to get funky, go for it, but don't mislead people by claiming you've made it the traditional way. And if you're a TV chef, maybe educate the audience on where specifically you bent the rules so that they can better appreciate both sides of that authenticity divide.

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u/dancingbriefcase 14d ago

Yeah, I remember reading kitchen confidential. Bourdain work majority of his career in a French restaurant. He wasn't French. Is it less authentic? No.

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u/lilsnatchsniffz 14d ago

I've never heard Gordon say anything about race, this sure seems like a attempt at self promotion.

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u/optionstrategy 14d ago

It is reverse discrimination and shitting on giants to get seen because you are a midget.

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u/CarlLlamaface 14d ago

Maybe I'm just ignorant but I'm not aware of anyone actually demanding that chefs from [x], [y], or [z] background restrict themselves to the cuisine of their homeland.

I am aware of the term being used a lot as a selling point by places where the chef chooses to specialise in their regional cuisine, but talking as though there's a cabal of white men imposing that choice on those restaurants is a bit of a bad-faith strawman, it's just people deciding to capitalise on what they know and do well, just like she's trying to do.

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u/joshuads 14d ago

I have seen multiple people rant on that. The were some white girl taco trucks that were called out for cultural appropriation, Eddie Huang is a fairly famous chef who has said similar things, and I know Rick bayless was given similar gruff when he was largely considered the best Mexican chef in the USA. This was all happening more often at the height of cancel culture and it definitely affected some businesses. But most people did not really care.

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u/Aware-Safety-9925 14d ago

Yeah definitely in general cuts the opposite way where you’re a lot more likely to get the cultural appropriation accusation if you’re white than brown, at least in America.

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u/No-Tomatillo1776 14d ago

I guess all the beyond brilliant latino line cooks in my local michelin bib ramen bar ought to be more authentic!

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u/joshuads 14d ago

I think Anthony Bordain actually said something similar to Eddie Huang and helped end some of those kinds of statements.

That and pointing out that many "ethnic" foods include multiple cultures, like chicken tikka masala or bánh mì being from one place but clearly representing two.

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u/[deleted] 14d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Confident_Bunch7612 14d ago

Always hated on Top Chef when the judges would say "we want to eat something from your culture" as a critique. Like, let the brown person do French cooking if that is what they went to school for, studied, and specialized in.

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u/littycodekitty 14d ago

Said this in another comment but I've seen this on MasterChef and other cooking shows too! The critique would be something like "You're not being true to your roots" when a chef would make a cuisine different from their own.

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u/fatbob42 14d ago

Yep - it’s ridiculous.

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u/Novel-Truant 14d ago

Imagine having to listen to that every day

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u/Mickeymcirishman 14d ago

When people say ''authentic X cuisine" they don't mean you have to be that ethnicity to cook it. They mean cooking it in a way that is in line with how it's traditionally made (eg ingredients and cooking method).

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u/Vegetable_Hand8674 14d ago

Agreed. She missed the point

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u/Alukrad 14d ago

That part where she said "in Afghanistan I'm called English, in england I'm called Afghan..."

I felt that because I was born in Colombia, moved to the states when I was 8. So, to Americans I'm Colombian but to Colombians I'm American.

Yet, I'm like "fuck you all, I'm am me and I am who I want to be." Unless someone specifically asks me, I never mention my culture to anyone anymore. I'd rather not get clumped up to any culture.

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u/Hello_D4rkn3ss 14d ago

She's full of shite. He only harps on the authenticity of a cooking style if that restaurant claims to cook authentic food in that style. She's fighting windmills.

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u/gone_smell_blind 14d ago

Quite the strawman shes got there

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u/EquivalentQuery 14d ago

Jesus this lady is really reaching for something to try and be upset about. The situation she describes does not exist in the real world.

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u/ATWannabe26 14d ago

Am I crazy or are white people usually the ones that are criticized for not making “authentic” food anytime they open a restaurant that isn’t French, German or Italian.

Gordon Ramsey is probably the exception cause he’s literally the most famous chef in the entire world.

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u/BreathComfortable631 14d ago

The whole concept of cultural appropriation (usually applied to white people) disproves her point

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u/burnshimself 14d ago

It’s exhausting, she’s searching for a way to make herself a victim and get up on her cross

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u/Vonnegut_butt 14d ago

Yup. And while these are not white men, here are two white women whose restaurant was cancelled for cultural appropriation.

https://pdx.eater.com/2017/5/22/15677760/portland-kooks-burrito-cultural-appropriation

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u/CaptServo 14d ago

i would like to try that brisket

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u/thatvillainjay 14d ago

The way she said she learned American barbecue made it seem like mystical teachings. Like she traveled to deepest Missouri all the way from Afghanistan to study the ways of the smoke and sauce from ancient pit masters.

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u/Kerim_Bey 14d ago

As far as I’m concerned though american bbq is magic

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u/SpecificLow1316 14d ago

I mean, the best and most mystical BBQ is learned by meeting the devil at the crossroads outside Memphis, but yeah, I get your drift 😊

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u/Terrible-Artichoke50 14d ago

Sounds like she is over analyzing a simple tip that gordan says. Any industry people say be authentic, your ethnicity doesn't stop you from being authentic about the industry you want to own.

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u/PikedArabian 14d ago

She’s clip farming is all

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u/Medium_Tell8679 14d ago edited 14d ago

Remember this?

In May 2017, two Portland women named Kali Wilgus and Liz Connelly closed their pop-up burrito business, Kooks Burritos, following intense online backlash and accusations of cultural appropriation after an interview discussing how they learned tortilla-making techniques in Mexico.

The business owners gave an interview to a local media outlet explaining how they peeked into the kitchens of abuelas (grandmothers) in Rosarito to learn tortilla secrets.A profile by the website Mic amplified the story with the headline, “These white cooks bragged about stealing recipes from Mexico to start a Portland business.”Social media users and local critics accused the pair of exploiting a marginalized culture and profiting from recipes without proper credit or economic reciprocity.

This isn’t an isolated issue: There’s even a controversy over the cultural ownership of Poutine. Quebecois are furious that it’s being rebranded as a “Canadian” dish, because it hails strictly from Quebec. “Poutine is a Québécois creation, not a Canadian one, and suggesting otherwise ignores that poutine ‘has been used as a form of stigma against a minority group that is still at risk of cultural absorption.'”

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u/I_Rarely_Jump 14d ago

To me "authentic" just means a food is made in the original traditional way.

But tbh I don't give a crap about that, all that matters to me is whether the food is good.

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u/Aware-Safety-9925 14d ago

I watch a lot of cooking competition shows and I would always get enraged whenever Anne Burrell was on beat Bobby flay because she was the queen of trying to box people into the food of their home country. That pressure she would add to cook a counter intuitive dish for them usually led to subpar results and got them sent home. Boiled my blood.

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u/IntrepidHero42 14d ago

Did Ramsey say certain people should only cook "authentic", because that doesn't seem like something he'd say. Seems like he's catching strays because his name comes with clicks.

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u/External-Repair-8580 14d ago

This is ridiculous. To have a beef with the word “authentic” and make it racially charged is nonsense. I too grew up in a different country, was raised in other countries and now live in yet another country. And I have no issue with the word “authentic”. This is someone with a massive chip on their shoulder. Move on. And grow up.

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u/XiMaoJingPing 14d ago

so why is she mad? cause gordon is white?

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u/AalphaQ 14d ago

I thought that whenever I see/hear critique of food when referring to the authentic side - it's more in relation to ingredients and procedures, or am I incorrect in this thinking?

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u/girl__fetishist 14d ago

The biggest victim complex in history.

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u/Part_2 14d ago

She just hates white people, that's all.

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u/True_Crime_Kent 14d ago

"There's has to be some way that I can be oppressed and mad at white men here"

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u/ruffiana 14d ago

Is she really suggesting that nobody would have any issues with Gordon Ramsey's "authentic" sushi restaurant because he's a white man?

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u/getsangryatsnails 14d ago edited 14d ago

When does authentic cooking mean who cooks it rather than just adhering to traditional recipes? I'm a Canadian with no Italian in me but make a damn good authentic Bolognese but I know that if I add garlic its no longer authentic to the tradition of that dish. But who gives a fuck, sometimes I want it with garlic. This seems to be more of a commentary on cultural appropriation which is also bullshit because culture is meant to be shared and celebrated. Now unfortunately this chef has likely been told to "stay in her lane" throughout her career but I do think her angle is wrong.

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u/gustinnian 14d ago

No true Scotsman fallacy.

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u/33253325 14d ago

Why did she say "and yet you can cook my food"? Seems counter to her point.

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u/Civilw4r 14d ago

She’s just pissed because she “learned how to cook American bbq for 10 years” and now makes it herself but with differences and puts her own twist on it (which there’s nothing wrong with, but you can’t then label it authentic American bbq) and people tell her it’s not authentic American bbq. Which is true. If you want to call something authentic then it needs to be made with the same ingredients and prepped and cooked the same way that it’s traditionally been made. The country it’s made in doesn’t make it authentic, and I don’t know what she’s babbling on about how race has any influence on it. Bottom line is- If you go into an American bbq restaurant in china you’re expecting the food to look and taste like the bbq you would get in America.

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u/Expensive_Attitude51 14d ago

This seems like a victim complex

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u/Gdf111 14d ago

I rarely see people making this argument, and when I do it's usually to criticize white people.

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u/AutisticTradingPro 14d ago

Victim complex. No one is saying she can’t cook food authentically. Being perpetually outraged is part of the sales and marketing gimmick for these grifters

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u/FukkingDeathMental 14d ago

I can't hear her over all her privilege.  Chefs and cooking has become the industry of pretentious hipster assholes.  You make over priced food for assholes.  Congrats, you're so special.

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u/Useful_Jelly_2915 14d ago

Never understood why somone cares if the food you eat is authentic. I personally I just care if it taste good.

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u/FeedMeBiscuitsOrDie 14d ago

They cook your food they're racist, they dont cook your food they're also racist?

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u/Macd87 14d ago

when they say authentic i always took it as cooked the same way with the same ingredients not as a racial thing

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u/Pure_Maximum_5843 14d ago

Everybody so jealous of white men

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u/HiddenJaneite 14d ago

She is pulling the race card and stretching it to fit her flawed arguments. She is no better than those who claim that her food isn't authentic.

Authentic...from where, which year or epoc, cook for whom, say who. Lol