Understanding Cuisine WEEK

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▪ Cuisine is a characteristic style
of cooking practices and traditions, often
associated with a specific culture.

Cuisine of the ▪ Cuisine refers to foods and methods of

preparation traditional to a region or
population.
Americas ▪ It is also shaped by culture, the behaviors
and beliefs characteristic of a particular social,
ethnic or age group

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Evolution of the Cuisine WEEK

Defining American Cuisine WEEK

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▪ Clearly a global situation, style, tradition and
▪ Geography and Climate
multicultural philosophy, with no clear definition
▪ Influenced by their habitat ▪ Explorers and conquerors changed the
▪ Colonial Influences traditions of the indigenous people forever
▪ Unique Ingredients ▪ Old World and New World
commodities became
▪ Cooking Methods enmeshed very quickly
▪ Cooking Equipment ▪ One important characteristic of
▪ Economic Conditions American cooking is the fusion
of multiple ethnic or regional
▪ Religion approaches into completely
new cooking styles

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History WEEK History Creates Cuisine WEEK

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▪ America became a melting pot, a blending of ▪ Indigenous Group: the
different ethnic groups to form one culture descendants of a land’s
original inhabitants
▪ The United States developed as a nation of ▪ First Settlers: the earliest
immigrants creating a melting pot of ethnic non-indigenous people to
diversity. arrive in a region
• Colonists are sponsored by a
▪ Between 1820 and 1920 - around 33 million nation to settle an unclaimed,
people immigrated to the US unsettled land (English coming to
America)
• Pioneers settle in wilderness
areas or less occupied areas
within the nation.
▪ Second settlers came later
often called immigrants

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 Indigenous Cuisines WEEK
Native American Food Pattern WEEK

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▪ The pre-contact cooking styles of original • They devised storage pits for
inhabitants grains, nuts, and other foods, used
a variety of cooking techniques,
▪ Based on indigenous ingredients native to the including roasting and cooking in
land (wild or cultivated) and indigenous stones and earthenware, or
cooking technology cooked in or near open fires by
▪ Indigenous Americans fished, hunted, and wrapping food in green or wet
collected foods. leaves, and preserved some foods
by drying and smoking.
• In Southwestern United States
Hornos were used to bake items
such as cornmeal breads, and in
other parts of America, made
ovens of dug pits.

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Native American Food Pattern WEEK

Native American Food Pattern WEEK

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• Main Crops: • Domesticated animals were not a
large source of food. Rather fish
▪ Three sisters: and seafood was very common.
• Maize (corn) • Seafood originated with the Native
• Beans, and Americans, who often ate cod,
lemon sole, flounder, herring,
• Squash
halibut, sturgeon, smelt, drum on
the East Coast, and olachen and
• Other valuable crops: salmon on the West Coast.
potatoes, sweet potatoes, ▪ The Makah Native Americans off
manioc or cassava, yams, the Northwest coast and who
tomatoes, grains, maple, wild hunted the whale, and used for
rice, cranberries, berries, their meat and oil.
chilies.

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Age of Exploration WEEK

The Eastern Explorers WEEK

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• While Grande Cuisine ▪ There were established cultures
was taking shape in and advanced societies upon the
France, American arrival of the Westerners
Cuisine was only in its • Inca
infancy
• Aztec

• Late 1400s: Columbus • Mayan

arrived in the America, ▪ Gold was a driving force, causing
most Native Americans war that destroyed many of those
followed traditional cultures
practices. ▪ Many of the foods were not lost
and are still used today

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 Colonial Food Habits WEEK
Colonial Food Habits WEEK

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▪ The Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, • Native Americans taught newcomers from
English, and Africans all brought foods, Europe the most efficient ways to cook
traditions, techniques outdoors
▪ They also brought live • European settlers learned a
plants and animals that did great deal from indigenous
devastating damage to peoples about growing and
indigenous crops and preparing foods native to the
wildlife New World such as beans and
▪ Rats from ships ate much corn.
bird life and brought • Corn breads, succotash, and
disease Europeans were various soups and stews
immune to. became part of the colonial
cooking repertoire.
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Colonial Food Habits WEEK

Colonial Food Habits WEEK

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▪ When the colonists came • The American colonial diet varied depending on
to Virginia, Massachusetts, the settled region in which someone lived. Local
or any of the other English cuisine patterns had established by the mid-18th
colonies on the eastern century.
seaboard of North America, • Colonists introduced livestock and game into the
their initial attempts at survival diet such as chicken, pigs, cattle, and sheep.
included planting crops
• Wild animals were used as meat. Commonly
familiar to them from back
hunted game included deer, bear, buffalo and
home in England.
wild turkey. The larger muscles of the animals
▪ The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy were roasted and served with currant sauce,
became one of the cookbooks that proliferated while the other smaller portions went into soups,
in the colonies, written by Hannah Glasse . stews, sausages, pies, and pasties.

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Colonial Food Habits WEEK

Colonial Food Habits WEEK

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▪ Aside from livestock, the colonist also brought ▪ As influenced by the Old
with them crops such as onions, wheat, rice, World
coffee and sugar cane.
▪ Colonists also introduced metal cookware and • Meat entrée
frying in fats and oil made from animals served accompanied by
to cook much of the colonial foods, a technique vegetables, grains,
previously unknown legumes, and dairy
products.
▪ They also introduced alcohol prior to
the Revolution, as New Englanders consumed
large quantities of rum and beer, as maritime • Beverage of choice was
trade provided them relatively easy access to cider, beer, rum, or wine
the goods needed to produce these items.

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 The Columbian Exchange WEEK
Effects of the Columbian Exchange WEEK

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Homeland Cuisine: Hybrid Cuisine

The Food of the First Settlers WEEK WEEK

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▪ Colonists bring Old World cuisine to the new ▪ Some first settlers embrace indigenous
land ingredients and cooking methods, creating a
▪ Pioneers bring Colonial cuisine to the new land new and vibrant hybrid cooking style.
▪ This integrated the European cooking styles of ▪ Other first settlers reject most indigenous
America’s earliest settlers while in their former ingredients and create a cooking style based
homes primarily on colonial domesticates. This
translated in Transplanted Cuisine
• Based on Old World ingredients and cooking
technology incorporating Old World foods successfully
raised in the New World.
• English examples: roast beef, apple pie.

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Hybrid Cuisine WEEK

Hybrid Cuisine WEEK

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▪ Positive interaction between indigenous groups ▪ Hybrid cuisine can also be based on
and first settlers typically leads to a blending of indigenous foods and colonial domesticates
cuisines: the resulting new coking style is (Old World foods successfully raised in the
called a hybrid cuisine. new colony)
• A good example is Indian • New England-style
Pudding where British Hasty cornbread
Pudding (wheat) was replaced
• Old World wheat flour and
using corn meal (Indian flour) American cornmeal
due to scarcity of wheat. It was
then flavored with molasses or • Roast stuffed turkey
maple syrup for sweet pudding • Old World wheat bread
or drippings of salted meat for and American-origin
savory. In time it evolved into a turkey
resoundingly sweet dish.

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 18th Century WEEK
Arrival of the Immigrants WEEK

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• During the 18th and 19th centuries, Americans ▪ As opportunities arose in America, immigrants
developed many new foods. started to flourish in due to various reasons:
• Transportation improved, railroad was opened • To escape religious or political persecution
for traders. • In search of economic opportunity
• To avoid famine and starvation
• Ingredients coming in and
out of the country came • To find a better life for themselves and their families
easier.
▪ The New Colossus-
• With the availability of Emma Lazarus
fresh food, more “Give me your tired, your poor,
restaurants began to open Your huddled masses
in big cities. yearning to be free.”

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Arrival of the Immigrants WEEK

Arrival of the Immigrants WEEK

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Mass migrations of immigrants to the United States came in

several waves.
Historians identify several waves of migration to the United States

1st arrival : Germany, Great Britain, Ireland Asian : Ethnic communities spread across America,
and ethnic dishes began to find a place in American
2nd arrival : Scandinavia, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Russia, Greece, cuisine.
Poland, Portugal, and Spain.

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Emergence of Regional Cuisine WEEK

Emergence of Regional Cuisine WEEK

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• Ingredients and cooking methods introduced ▪ They live together in their little communities and
by immigrants are often more exciting and spoke their native language in both homes and
businesses. As such, they had easier access to
complex than those of the existing cuisine in
the food products needed to prepare their
the area. native dishes.
• The culinary impact of immigrants often • Immigrants prepared the recipes from their
changes the destiny of a region’s cuisine. homeland, replacing traditional food items with
available ingredients.

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 Development of American Regional
Cuisines WEEK
Evolution of Regional Cuisines WEEK

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• As such, American Regional Cuisine • Defined by three criteria:
developed. Regional cuisine is a unified style ▪ Geography
of cooking common to most of the people living
▪ Homogenous food culture
in a culinary region.
▪ Defining dishes: That are
unique and noteworthy
▪ A fourth criteria, economic
viability, can also affect the
cuisine of a particular
region

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Geography WEEK
Homogeneous Food Culture WEEK

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• Land characteristics determine the success of • As people live within the same community, they
agriculture, the source of most of our food. speak the same language and abide by the
• Soil: rich, deep, plentiful, and properly managed same societal norms and traditions. Thus, the
soil is conducive to large-scale agriculture same is evident in their food culture.
• Climate: determines which food plants and • People shared recipes with friends and
animals will grow in a particular area neighbors, adopted all they liked, and added
• Topography: affects climate and the use of farm new recipes, ingredients, flavorings, and
machinery, and therefore affects agricultural
cooking techniques.
success (grapes)
• Individuals altered the recipes and the cuisines
• Proximity to other regions affects the exchange
of ingredients and culinary ideas
fused, developing a cuisine particular and
unique to their area.

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Defining Dish WEEK

Economic Viability WEEK

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• Unmistakably represents a particular culinary • Economic viability is the point at which a region
region can support its own population with the revenues
from its goods and services.
• Singular enough to be readily distinguished from
the dishes of all other regions • The population has moved from subsistence to
affluence. A sizable upper class has disposable
• Examples: Chowder, Boston Baked Beans, Collard income to spend on dining.
Greens
• Home cooks have leisure time to prepare complex dishes.
• Chefs are paid high salaries to create culinary masterpieces.
Southern Fried
• Diners are experienced and educated, and can afford
Chicken is a expensive restaurants.
Plantation South • Economic viability generates travel and trade, which
defining dish enrich the cuisine with new ingredients and ideas.

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 New York City WEEK
Jewish Immigrants WEEK

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▪ First settled by the Dutch in 1624 and called • Between 1880 and 1924 - two and a half to
New Amsterdam three million Jewish immigrants came from
Eastern and Central Europe
▪ Served as the major embarkation port for
European immigrants in the early years ▪ They shared a religion but not necessarily
their nationality.
▪ After 1820s - Jewish immigrants came
▪ The Jewish melting pot melded cooking
▪ 1840s - Irish came to escape Potato Famine traditions from many different countries,
▪ Late 1800s to early 1900s - Italians settled on kosher dietary laws, and influences from their
the east side new home.
▪ Asians moved to Chinatown on the east side
▪ Puerto Ricans and Africans settled in Harlem

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Chicago WEEK
San Francisco WEEK

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• Immigrants from foreign countries • Gold prospectors from the US and around the
• People moved from rural areas in the Plains world
and Midwest to trade farming for urban living • Laborers to work on the railroad
• Factory workers
• Drawn to jobs in factories, stockyards, • Workers in agriculture
slaughter houses, steel mills, or refineries • Spanish missionaries
• One of the biggest Polish communities in the • By 1852 - twenty thousand Chinese immigrants
United States lived there
• Many Japanese and other Asians came
because of nearby fertile fields
• Even living outside the city, they came to
Chinatown to purchase food and other goods

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Hawaii WEEK
Hawaii WEEK

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• 1853 - native Hawaiians were 97% of the • To fill the need for cheap labor for the sugar
and pineapple plantations, they brought
population
▪ 46,000 from China
• 1923 - native Hawaiians made up only 16% of
the population ▪ 180,000 from Japan
• Around 1820, Portuguese began arriving on ▪ 66,000 from the Philippines
whaling ships. They worked in ▪ Many Portuguese and Puerto Ricans

▪ Fishing industry
▪ Agriculture
▪ Dairy farms
▪ Ranches

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 Boston WEEK
Detroit WEEK

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• Originally, many immigrated from • Largest Middle Eastern population in the
▪ Ireland United States

▪ Italy • African Americans make up 81.6% of the

population
▪ China
• Today, African Americans are 25% of the
population.

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Miami WEEK
Los Angeles WEEK

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• Capital of the Cuban American and Latin • Immigrants came for work in agriculture
American population in the United States • Many Mexicans crossed the border and settled
• 60% of population is Hispanic in Los Angeles
• Sprawling city - Los Angeles covers more than
465 square miles

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America’s National Cuisine 20th Century:

WEEK Modern Cuisine in America WEEK

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▪ A national cuisine is a unified style of cooking ▪ During the Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
common to most of a country’s population. food production and presentation became
▪ America’s national cuisine emerged in the late more industrialized.
1800s as a result of improved transportation
and the emergence of national media.

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 20th Century:
Foreign Cuisines in America WEEK
America’s National Cuisine WEEK

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“Hamburgers, hamburgers, hamburgers hot;
▪ A foreign cuisine is a national or regional onions in the middle, pickle on top.
cuisine practiced outside its homeland. Makes your lips go flippity flop."
Mongolian German sailors
Steak Tartar in
▪ Remains virtually unchanged, because Hordes
Russia
bring it to
Hamburg
immigrants are able to obtain authentic
ingredients. After about 1970, global trading
made ingredients available from other world
regions.
Modern
▪ Examples: Chinatowns in N.Y. and San “Hamburg Style Steak” in
Hamburger
New York for German Sailors
Francisco, Indian, Thai, Korean.

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America’s National Cuisine WEEK

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“As American as
Apple Pie!”
Cheap and easy to make, Apple
Pie has been a traditional sweet
in America from the beginning
PB & J Sandwich
of the nation.

Pancakes with Maple

“A la mode”- French
expression meaning “in
the fashion”, but in
America, it means you
get vanilla ice cream on Smores
top.

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