Thoughts on: Food Criticism
My favorite Disney movie is Ratatouille; incidentally, I think this movie was a major factor in getting me into foodie culture (the scene at the beginning with Remy describing the combination of flavors is something I still cherish to this day). One of the most beautiful lines in all of Disney also comes from Ratatouille. Not to spoil anything, but Anton Ego talks about the role of a food critic in the food industry and the relative (though clearly not perceptual) irrelevance of food critics as a whole.
Though i do think food criticism is generally pretty pointless (look at all the weird vapid stuff on Yelp for your local Chinese restaurants for example), I do think there is a place for professional food criticism, though definitely not in the way it exists now. This week I’ll be talking about my thoughts on food criticism in general, and on Monday I’ll do something fun again!
Food criticism as it exists now is largely a bunch of professional writers, often trained in the culinary arts, reviewing high brow food, and occasionally modern “trendy” foods. They fall into two categories: high-class traditionalists (think Anthony Bourdain), and popular reviewers (think Buzzfeed). As much as I adore Anthony Bourdain and some of Buzzfeed, I do think this is a pretty poor way to critique food.
The general purpose of food criticism is to provide an audience a window into a world of food they might not have experienced, but would very much like to try. But each person’s tastes vary wildly and it’s not very informative if someone with wildly different tastes (or worse, tastes inconsistently compatible with your own) says something is good or bad. A better approach for food criticism is for each food critic to build up a general rapport of their own likes and dislikes and allow readers to find the critic they match up with the most; already, online we see people like J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Chef John build up a pretty solid rapport, though neither have gained the notoriety and fame of Bourdain or Gordon Ramsey.
Though I think a much more interesting approach to food criticism (and this is a path that Bourdain did pretty well and Buzzfeed does a piss-poor job of) is placing food in the context of society. I’m a pretty big proponent of the idea that food is one of the most useful ways to create cultural understanding, but only when it’s properly understood in cultural contexts (racists enjoy Chinese or Middle Eastern food too). Food critics can help provide a very useful window into how food is treated in different cultures, how different food traditions arise, and how to bring a piece of somewhere else into the here. Personally, exploring the sheer diversity in Indian cuisine in middle school was my first foray into learning more about Indian history and culture. I think a similar path can be done through Chinese food (as I hope to do someday), but also for cuisines around the world.
On a more somber note, I also think one of the most saddening forms of racism is blindly insulting certain cuisines. I also think it’s really sad the lack of culinary diversity and understanding here in the United States (my goodness the number of times of people who say that “Asian” food is their favorite...), or that a sense of false understanding of a culture’s cuisine is often created (cmon ramen and sushi aren’t all that Japan has to offer). Food critics should be that bridge for the everyman in America to the everyman everywhere else.
A bridge from the plate of one to another.
