Food and Drink Editor Safreen AC looks at what it means to use the word "authentic" in the context of food culture.
Whether it’s TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, Yelp, or even a social media platform, chances are that you will find some variation of the word “authentic” mentioned a couple times when people are reviewing restaurants or other food establishments. But what does “authentic” actually mean? Is it about the ingredients and their level of ‘exoticity’? Is it about the identity of the person making the food? Or the identity of the person who developed the recipes? The historical origins of a dish? Spend a second trying to develop a concrete definition for authenticity in relation to food culture, and it reveals how abstract the idea really is.
In a study of Yelp reviews from 2019, Sara Kay discovered that when it came to European cuisines, the word ‘authentic’ was associated with fine-dining characteristics and elegance. However, for non-European cuisines, authenticity was connoted by low prices, cheap furniture, and other lowbrow aesthetics. The use of authenticity in this landscape therefore plays into and reinforces existing binaries that place “European” culture above other, often non-white, cultures as the pinnacle of refinement and civility.
Chefs from minority backgrounds working in Europe or the US have also spoken about how the expectation of “authentic” food can pigeonhole and limit the kind of food they make. While it’s understandable that people would like to support chefs or restaurateurs who are not potentially exploiting other cultures, the line between appropriating food tradition versus taking inspiration from it may not always be clear.
However, a focus on authenticity doesn’t make it any easier to differentiate between the two. If anything, the preoccupation with a static and universal idea of “authentic” food only serves to flatten the complex histories of cross-cultural contact that have created the foods that we eat today. Alberto Grandi, an Italian academic, has worked extensively on the “invention of tradition” in relation to Italian cuisine. Many of the dishes now associated with the culinary purity of Italian cooking are, according to his research, recent creations. To point that out is not to say that the food is bad or not worthy of acclaim; rather, it disabuses us of a notion of authenticity centered around centuries-long traditions passed down over generations.
The use of authenticity in this landscape therefore plays into and reinforces existing binaries that place “European” culture above other, often non-white, cultures as the pinnacle of refinement and civility.
Oftentimes, what people mean by “authentic” is closely connected to the idea of traditional recipes passed down over generations. However, it is impossible for a dish to stay exactly the same while the world around it changes. As people travel, migrate, and connect with other cultures, food is transformed, and more often than not, to incredible results. The Chinese food that you get at the average Indian restaurant is by no means “authentic,” but the fusion of Indian flavour palettes with Chinese-style ingredients and methods is, at least in my opinion, incredibly delicious. Many of us probably have personal recipes that cut corners or use “non-traditional” ingredients, resulting in what would be called “bastardised” foods, but I would argue that authenticity comes precisely from the fact that these dishes are rooted in a specific time, place, and personal history.
The answer to what “authentic” can mean in relation to food is deeply subjective and carries with it cultural biases that flatten the rich and varied experiences of the chefs and cooks behind restaurants and recipes. No, saying your favourite hole-in-the-wall shawarma place is better than the overpriced fine-dining establishment isn’t reinforcing colonial binaries, but grading it based on its proximity to an abstract idea of tradition doesn’t actually say much about what makes the food delicious. At the end of the day, the joy comes from experiencing (and tasting) how different people bring in their own interpretations to much loved foods. “Authentic” doesn’t have to be the only way through which you describe an incredible meal.