Ethnic Cuisine

“Ethnic food” has been used colloquially for a wide variety of foodstuffs, virtually any that can be identified in the public mind with a foreign source or a American minority group. In the narrower ethnographic meaning, which will be employed here, however, it pertains only to food prepared or consumed by members of an ethnic group as a manifestation of its ethnicity. Thus it would not be an appropriate term for most foreign food eaten in a foreign land, fusion food as prepared by some innovative chef, Italian food as prepared by Greek restaurateurs, sushi prepared by a non-Japanese American housewife, or food purchased from Taco Bell or Pizza Hut, though it is sometimes extended to all these. Unfortunately, there is no clear cut universally accepted definition. In the end ethnic food is food that members of an ethnic group consider their own and that others attribute to them.

Most social scientists agree that the ethnic group is a social category defined by any one of a variety of criteria, including country of origin, physical features such as skin color, ancestoral language, religion, or some combination of these. Ultimately ethnicity is a matter of identity—recognition of the social distinction by both members of the group and outsiders. Although ethnicity has to do with social not cultural categories, members of each group inevitably participate in a subculture that is more or less different from that of those outside the group. Food and foodways (by which is meant that entire complex of ideas and behaviors associated with food) is a particularly important component of these cultural differences.