It’s certainly no surprise that Arellano would take aim at fast food restaurants and the processed Mexican food sold in grocery stores. But he’s equally critical of the celebrity chefs and cookbook writers who take it upon themselves to reclaim Mexican food from the depths of the convenience-store vat of nacho cheese.
After pointing to the dearth of Mexican cookbooks written by Mexicans, Arellano continues:
… a succession of white authors and acolytes have prodded Americans out of their Mexican-food comfort zone, challenging the public to not only taste new dishes but also to prepare them themselves. In the process they introduced a fraudulent concept to the question of Mexican cuisine in this country: the idea that the food they documented was “authentic,” while the dishes offered at your neighborhood taco stand or sit-down restaurant were pretenders to be shunned.
The passage winds to a harsh conclusion: “Americans, arbiters of ‘authentic’ Mexican. That smile [Rick] Bayless always beams? P.T. Barnum approves.”
As detailed in Taco USA, Arellano and Bayless were chief rivals in a brief digital food fight that took place several years ago. Back in 2010, Pulitzer-winning LA Weekly food critic Jonathan Gold threw a few mild barbs in Bayless’s direction when speaking to a group of Latino journalists that included Arellano. (Gold has since moved to the Los Angeles Times.) At the time, Bayless was opening an upscale Mexican restaurant called Red O in Los Angeles—his first venture outside of his famed restaurants in Chicago. Gold’s criticism of Bayless centered on stories in the local media that hailed Bayless’s coming as the arrival of “real” and “authentic” Mexican food to Los Angeles—a city with no shortage of either Mexican food or Mexicans.
Arellano wrote a blog post for OC Weekly about Gold’s speech, taking the opportunity to mock Bayless—specifically for his use of the word “authentic”. Bayless responded angrily that he had never used the word “authentic”, attacking both Gold and “the state of modern journalism.” A reader dug up an interview with a local TV network in which Bayless didn’t use the word “authentic” but did say that he wanted to bring LA “the true flavors of Mexico.”
Chefs are usually allowed to talk up their own cooking without fear of starting a minor race war. What’s so fascinating about the whole episode is that it centered on the use of that single word “authenticity”—and that the concept became the focal point for a heated discussion of, not food, but ethnicity. Many of the 200-plus comments on Arellano’s story (both attacking and defending Bayless), speak much more about issues of ethnic identity and pride than they do the merits of Bayless’s mole verde versus that already found in the city. It’s also notable that Bayless—who has seemed fairly comfortable applying the term in the past—somehow sensed the danger of using the word “authentic” in this instance, and quickly and loudly denied having done so. (Disclosure: Bayless’s margarita recipe is a staple in my household, written on a note card taped to an ever-dwindling bottle of triple sec.)
There’s no grand conspiracy to the media’s role in idolizing purity in ethnic cuisine. A more innocent version of the casual racism thrown about in the food journalism of the early twentieth century that Arellano documents, it’s more about small assumptions adding up to a larger cultural consensus—and is of course also balanced by a concurrent celebration of all sorts of fusions of ethnic cooking styles. Taco USA cites extensive examples of food writers pining for authenticity, but the funniest involve the recent fall from grace of Tex-Mex cuisine. Arellano quotes Texas food writer and serial James Beard award winner Robb Walsh as defending the food from its critics thusly: “The people who are opposed to Tex-Mex now are opposed to it for some reason of purity…To the extent that we’re comfortable with interethnic marriage, we’re comfortable with mixed ethnic cuisine.”
This didn't fit into my review, but it's interesting to note that the very first paragraph of the introduction of Rick Bayless's cookbook "Authentic Mexican" uses the term "authentic" in a rather imprecise but to me unpretentious way that seems to argue for the merits of Mexican food as it is often encountered in America. Emphasis mine:
"My taste buds were trained on Mexican food. And it was real Mexican food to our family: hot tamales and tacos from a little drive-in wedged in between a greasy auto-repair yard and a hubcap seller, and El Charrito down on Paseo with its oozy cheese-and-onion enchiladas smothered with that delicious chile gravy. We knew it was authentic, assertive, almost wickedly good Mexican fare, and we knew there were few places to find it outside Oklahoma City."
If Arellano and Bayless were willing to make peace, perhaps the meeting could take place over tamales in Oklahoma.
#1 Posted by Michael Meyer, CJR on Thu 19 Apr 2012 at 03:41 PM
There is more heat than light here. As a former resident of LA and foodie, who now lives in Texas, I can tell you that Tex-Mex in California is noticeably different (and in my view better) than in Texas - it comes from different provinces in Mexico. There is an extraordinary variety of Mexican food in LA if you are willing to eat from taco stands and go to East LA (which most Anglos are not). For an outsider to claim to be authentic, comparing his food to Taco Bell, is a joke to anyone who knows LA.
Finally, the article males loses credibility by not acknowledging basic facts - "Mexican food" is peasant food modified for middle class tastes - the Mexican elite does not eat it.
#2 Posted by Displaced Person, CJR on Sat 21 Apr 2012 at 09:54 PM
Really, Displaced Person?
Mexican food is "peasant food modified for middle class tastes" but best experienced by those "willing to eat from taco stands and go to East LA (which most Anglos don't)"?
I find it amusing that you weigh in on an article about the difficulties of assessing a food culture on the basis of the purity of its regional, ethnic, or class origins with sweeping statements like that.
#3 Posted by Michael Meyer, CJR on Mon 23 Apr 2012 at 10:13 AM