c. The World is Your Oyster

I have travelled in many places in the world, for work or for pleasure, without staying long enough in a given place to immerse myself in a new culinary culture. Therefore, I had rather serendipitous encounters with this or that dish, this or that taste. I cannot claim to know any of those cuisines well, but nevertheless, I have incorporated some dishes in our family repertory where they provide wonderful and refreshing tasting experiences. They are now a part of me, more than many French recipes designed by Auguste Escoffier himself a century ago.

Going through the few countries which influenced me the most, I want to pay homage to their contribution to the world we live in, all the more because some of these culinary cultures may be on the verge of disappearing altogether.

Mediterranean Cuisine

Morocco was the first country where I lived outside of France. A few years after its hard-earned independence, it was a proud country where mass tourism had not yet destroyed the quality of local human exchange with a well-meaning foreigner. I discovered an array of exotic tastes there, starting with herbs -coriander was ubiquitous- and spices like cumin, paprika, ginger, turmeric, or cardamom. Moroccan cuisine, whether Arabic or Jewish (1), favored long preparations and achieved outstanding results: squab pastilla with its subtle combination of onions, ginger, coriander, cinnamon, almonds, and sugar being the pinnacle. Couscous, chicken or lamb tagines, or cumin-flavored salads are still regular favorites at our table.  

These cooking traditions, probably in part brought over at the time of the Arab conquest, are close relatives to the Lebanese, Turkish, or Greek cuisines, which are often labeled Mediterranean. It seems they themselves derive from Persia, a bridge with East Asia for centuries.

Italy, Spain and even Portugal despite its Atlantic tropism are also Mediterranean, of course. They are closer to French cuisine and all have contributed even more to our enjoyment over the years, in terms of choice of ingredients - salted cod, squid, cuttlefish, octopus for example - as well as unique ways to prepare them. 

The Many Gifts of Latin America

It is common today to associate Italy with pizza and tomato sauce, or Belgium with chocolate. However, like so many good things, tomatoes or chocolate originally come from a very different place.

Mexico was conquered in the 16^th century by the proselytizing Spanish who brought religion, sugar, frying, and new forms of death. In exchange, they, and the world, gained access to an array of new unknown produce which are have become ubiquitous the world over: Corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, avocados, chili peppers and chocolate. It is, for a single geographical area an unmatchable contribution!

I was quite impressed by Mexican cuisine when I discovered it a long time ago. I remember sitting at a Latin American sales managers’ banquet in Mexico City in the 1980s, raising my eyes over my bowl of pungent, incredibly spicy soup to discover twenty other grown men experiencing the same mixture of joy and pain, smiling through the tears running down their cheeks. I remember tasting ant eggs or dried grasshoppers, addictive chilaquiles verdes and delicate chocolate moles. A “simple” hand-made tortilla cooked on a hot stone in a remote village restaurant could be a delight in itself.

Nevertheless, probably through a combination of poverty at home and an incestuous relationship with the US, Mexican food seems to have been globalized down, with the same combinations of rice, beans, tortillas and cheap melted cheese everywhere. Today, finding surprising, excellent, authentic Mexican cuisine as I remember it has become difficult, including in the country itself.

Peru has to be considered a major contributor to the world’s health and development as well. Their domestic staple, the potato, was gradually adopted by faraway countries like Germany or Ireland where it alleviated chronic food shortages and fueled population growth. If the French had been more open and adopted it earlier, they would have been less dependent on grain harvests and Queen Marie-Antoinette would have died in her bed at a ripe old age.

Many Peruvian culinary uses of the potato have not been exported, though, and must be experienced in situ. On the other hand, ceviche, a brilliant quickly thrown-together mixture of lime juice, fresh coriander (cilantro) and fish can be tasted in many good Peruvian restaurants outside the country.

Like the country itself, Brazilian cuisine is a melting pot influenced by the terrain, local ingredients and the variety of people who immigrated and maintained many of their traditions.

For example, in the South, vast expanses of land for grazing, similar to the Argentinian pampa, have led to successful cattle raising, and the same attendant fondness for beef and barbecue.

From the North-East comes an array of coconut and palm-oil based combinations which would complement any fish or shrimp. Originating from Brazil are many tropical fruit but also manioc (mandioca in the local language) which has become a staple in many tropical countries around the world, and is much loved in Brazil under different forms, including aipim fries and pan-fried flour, farofa.

This may be an opportune time to acknowledge human ingenuity and wisdom in its use of nature’s riches. Manioc root is deadly if not cooked properly, which probably accounts for its absence in the markets of developed countries. Similarly, potatoes need to be cooked to be edible. And masa harina, the ubiquitous corn flour, needs preliminary nixtamalization, i.e. cooking and soaking of corn grains in lime water before drying and grinding to be fully beneficial.

The American Experience

For cuisine, as for many other cultural activities, the U.S. wants to be exceptional, sometimes with good results.

As we all know, long ago, the people of the United States decided that the history of the world started in 1776 and that they would build a new society based on the U.S. constitution, an explicit social contract. Volunteers from the world over flocked to melt into the pot with others, joyously giving up their roots as so many encumbrances, and smartly using the enormous resources of the land to develop a unique societal experiment. (2)

Unfortunately, on the cuisine front, there is a flip side to this amazing success. Newcomers left their cherished utensils behind. On arrival, they did not find the ingredients they were used to. Surviving was more of a priority than drawing from ancestral wisdom. And probably, the melting pot was just too big, with too many weakened influences.

In their original countries, strong traditions had given depth to unique cooking cultures. These traditions have been mostly lost, except possibly for the latest waves of immigrants: Italians, European Jews, and Hispanics.

Globally, cooking is unimportant for the majority of American people: the emphasis is on value, i.e. price, large quantities, speed, and convenience. Taste preferences are often limited to the most basic tropisms, sugar, starch and fat, accounting for a 35% obesity rate in 2010. However, the US have nevertheless started all kinds of worldwide fads or durable marketing successes based on repetitive duplicable products, from hamburgers to sugared drinks, coated with emotional advertising. (3)  

From time to time, a new item is imported in the larger culture and a new fad takes off, often with unnecessary improvements that original creators would not recognize. For example, New Hummus reeks of garlic, onion, or thyme, and pumped-up New Croissants incorporate ham, sausage and cheese.

Some good American restaurant classics, such as shrimp cocktail or baked potato seem to be disappearing while you can still find good renditions of a well-balanced creation such as Caesar salad. In turn, some sandwich combinations or creative gourmet pizza toppings (and bottoms!) end up tasting wonderful and should be imitated the world over.

For an active, questioning minority, topics have ranged from nutrient considerations to ideological, almost religious choices like vegetarian, vegan, or even raw.

In a place like California’s Bay Area, education, political correctness, wealth, and a vibrant Asian minority have all contributed to an oasis of interest for food and cooking. A wide variety of produce is available at all times. “Organic” is of course popular. “Local” is the next frontier, which is easy to embrace there as such an array of good produce is grown nearby year-round in an ideal climate.

I am fortunate to live there a good part of the year.

Awesome Asia

Wherever you go in Asia, you are assaulted by delightful smells and tastes, totally exotic and often undecipherable for occidental palates. You can find strong cooking heritages in every country. What unites them all is the ubiquitous bowl of white rice and the way food has been cut into pieces in the kitchen, so that it can be eaten with chopsticks or by hand. 

In terms of produce, Asia has indeed given us rice, in many shapes, colors, and textures, but also soybeans, prepared in so many ways, and some other cereals as well. Millet, the original staple of the ancient Chinese civilization never caught on, but buckwheat, born in the Himalayas, went East to Japan and West to Persia, Russia, and Western Europe. Many other foods associated to very different areas have Asian origins. Think of the juicy peach or any citrus species.

In terms of cuisine itself, I would single out 2 major schools, Chinese (or its subtle Vietnamese cousin) and Japanese. Both of them are difficult to really experience and explore in eating places outside of these countries.

Beyond sushi and sashimi lies a vibrant Japanese cooking culture, Buddhist inspired, almost austere with a strong visual component that has influenced French cuisine in the last 40 years.

Dazzling Chinese cuisine can be experienced in China, even from street stands, using a wide variety of ingredients and techniques. There, I have even tasted what seemed to be a new Chinese cuisine, freed from starch, sugar and MSG. (4)  I hope this is the beginning of a new trend which, with the affluence of a growing gourmet class, will conquer our palates and our hearts. 

I have long been influenced by Asian cooking. I have been stir-frying vegetables in a wok for 40 years and have dipped raw fish in shoyu for almost as long. Shoyu, the Japanese soy sauce, is used every day in our kitchen, in Asian inspired dishes, but also in salads and originally Western dishes, imparting its sweetness and nutty flavor, while maintaining simplicity and respect for other ingredients.

We grow Thai basil, Vietnamese coriander, Indian lemongrass, and Japanese shiso in our garden. I use them liberally and they allow me to travel far away without leaving our table.

Integrating more Asian flavors into our repertoire is now one of my last frontiers. It should keep me busy for a while. 

(1)       Jews were still a thriving minority at the time

(2)       This excludes of course African slaves who did not choose to emigrate.

(3)       Although it is clearly unhealthy, the appeal of this model for world consumers seems universal and obesity trends are everywhere on the upside.

(4)       Invented in Japan only 100 years ago, MSG is apparently named “essence of flavor” in Chinese, and largely overused, negating centuries of sophistication in cooking.