The discussion between what is “American” food has been a debate that my parents and I have had years. When I am with my family, “American” food is classified as anything that did not originate from India and was not cooked at home. Even food that originated in India but was typically consumed in different parts of India was considered to be “American” food. Whenever I asked for “American” food, my parent would tease that “American” food only consisted of hamburgers or hotdogs. This concept of what “American” food was also held by people from other countries. Family and friends who lived in other places, such as India or Europe, would often say that there was no such thing as “American” food or culture. They would say that “American” food was either just fast food, such as McDonald’s or KFC, or processed foods, such as canned or frozen meals.
Gabbacia talks about how immigration has eroded away the concept of “American” food. During the time periods when large amounts of immigrants came to the United States, nativist fears like the loss of national identity began to perpetuate. The social elites of the time decided that the best way to preserve the American cuisine is to educate the immigrants in the proper way to eat and prepare food. They developed cookbooks that taught public school girls to prepare baked beans and Indian pudding, while middle-class ladies were taught to prepare and serve all-white or all-pink meals. These strange rules were established to make American cooking to be healthier and appealing to eat, while it diminished the significance of cultural foods by making them to appear more unhealthy and dangerous.
But one of the challenges of standardizing the American cuisine is that majority of the foods were very regionalized. Although today, the regional cuisines have transcended boundaries, each region is known for a particular dish. For example, when I think about Massachusetts I think about clam chowder, or when I think about a southern cuisine I think about barbecuing and smoking. Even though that I can get these foods anywhere, I make sure to make an effort to eat that specific meal in that region. Establishing the concept of the American cuisine proved to be more difficult as most “American” foods actually originate from somewhere else. When I was thinking of food that would be considered as “American” I thought of casseroles and meatloaf because shows used to show the mother calling the whole family for dinner to eat a casserole or meatloaf, but it turns out that casseroles originate from France and meatloaf originate from Germany and Scandinavia.
