Culinary Nationalism Research Articles

There's something fishy about that sushi: how Japan interprets the global sushi boom

Since the 1990s sushi has become a global product with a transnational market. Hybridised and localised sushi like California Rolls and Spider Rolls are now even being reverse-imported to Japan as ‘genuine American sushi’. This article examines some attempts to re-nationalise global sushi, both from the Japanese state and from the vernacular media. We argue that, while popular reporting on the ‘overseas sushi boom’ generates a sense of national pride over ‘them’ eating ‘our’ food, the state's position is a more strategic one. It operates with a clear motive of increasing sales of Japanese food products overseas, mobilising the image of authenticity for this specific purpose. Both state and popular expressions of culinary nationalism claim Japanese ownership of culture not only in its ‘authentic’ forms but in its multiple, creative, hybrid and fusion forms. By examining Japanese responses to foreigners consuming sushi, we hope to provide some insights into the relationship between food, national culture, authenticity and globalisation. A further objective is to understand Japan's culinary nationalism within the larger context of the ‘soft power’ and ‘cultural diplomacy’ discourse.

Culinary Nationalism

Culinary consciousness raisers, cooking texts often serve as vehicles of national identification. From Pampille (Marthe Allard Daudet) and her cookbook, Les Bons Plats de France, in 1913 to the international culinary competitions of today such as the Bocuse d'or, culinary distinction promotes national interests. In contrast to the strident nationalism of the early twentieth century, culinary nationalism today operates in an increasingly globalized world. National culinary distinction defines the nation and sells its products in a highly competitive international arena. A recent culinary text, the South Korean film Le Grand Chef [Sik Gaek ] (2007), illustrates the phenomenon, subsuming national culinary promotion in a mega culinary competition, all in the service of Korean culinary achievement.

Palatable nationalism: A study of American cuisine through Gourmet food writing

What is American food? How do we come to know what it is, and what discursive processes shape its boundaries? We document contradictions in American nationalism from the writing in gourmet magazines. First, we take up the oft-heard assertion that there is no American “cuisine” (Mintz, 1996). In contrast to consumption-based understandings of cuisine, we argue that American cuisine is a cultural construction that is discursively produced as part of an “imagined” American community (Anderson, 1983). The production occurs through the mass media, including gourmet food writing, visual images, and culinary television. Second, we investigate the quality and tone of American culinary nationalism drawing from a sample of food writing and visual images in gourmet magazines. We contend that American gastronomy produces a particular brand of nationalism that is palatable to food elites and social elites alike. In particular, an American culinary nationalism tends to minimize class distinctions and erase the historical divides of race and ethnicity. In addition, the American culinary identity has a highly problematic relationship to the ‘Other’, whereby colonial and neo-colonial inequalities are obscured from view, and absorbed into a multi-cultural food identity where a love of good food is presented as the great social leveler.