Updated Essential Question: What are the criteria that makes food authentic?

I’ve watched two videos on Chinese homestyle cooking and Indian homestyle cooking by Milk Street. Since I’m answering my essential question through the lens of Chinese and Indian food I realized some key factors from each. For Indian food, and specifically curries, spicing is very important. The order of spicing is essential to cooking Indian cuisine in an “authentic” way. From the Chinese homestyle cooking video I learned that China has a very ancient relationship with gastronomy and that texture and “mouth-feel” is very important. Each video was about 25 minutes long and I absorbed a lot of helpful information . Learning about this topic is important to me because I’ve always been interested in food. While thinking about what I was going to do for my project originally I kept thinking about the idea of authentic food. The word authentic is often thrown around and many people have strong opinions on it. I am very curious about discovering is there is one thing or a set of criteria that makes food authentic. The nature of this question is also subjective so I know I am most likely going to get a different answer from each interview subject. Also in the future when some restaurant claims their food is authentic I will have more information about what that really means or if it means anyting at all.

Starting off this project I would say I have a small-moderate amount of information about my topic. I know that “Indian” food and “Chinese” food mean very different things in America than they might in India or China. A lot of “ethnic” food served in America has been changed to fit the American palate. I also know that India and China are both huge countries with thousands of different ethnicities, food types, languages, and local ingredients. Knowing that I know I have to focus on specific dishes because there is no way I could do a project encompassing all of Chinese and Indian food. Something I am also bringing with me into this project is that words in food (especially in America) are used generally when it might not actually be accurate. An example of this is how brands and restaurant paste the word “organic” on their products and people think it means that the product was made ethically or that the product is healthier than regular food. But in reality any brand can paste the word organic on their product without actually having to do anything to show for it.

It’s important that I learn more about my essential question because it is a subjective question. I would like to create a foundation of knowledge that would inform my project before I begin experimenting with cooking myself. In order to try and cook authentically as possible I have to have an understanding of what authenticity means. I want to know more about what chefs think about authenticity and articles say about the topic. I also want to know more about the evolution of cuisine in America which is one of the follow up questions I have related to my essential questions. I want to know more about why Chinese and Indian chefs choose which dishes to serve/which to change for the American palate.

Since I lived in Trinidad and my dad is from there I would also like to do inquire into that. Trinidad is very racially mixed. 35% identifies as East Indian, 35% identify as of African descent, 23% identify as mixed race, and 9% identify as East Asian, European, or Middle Eastern. Indian food has a huge influence on Trinidadian food. Although the East Asian (mostly Chinese) population is significantly, there are many many places to get Chinese food that is very creolized but is still considered Chinese to local Trinidadians. I would love to add some personal anecdotes into this project and explore Trinidad and it’s relationship to both cuisines I’m studying.