Chopped: The historical evolution of how foods evolved into belonging to a geographic region in New York instead of their original culture.

Chopped is the discussion of how immigrants have come to America, established restaurants in the area they originally settled in, and then the immigrants move on to a different area while there cultural food stays and is adapted into a different culture. These foods are now not only part of a culture but are part of a bigger American culture because of immigrant succession. This topic follows partly the lecture we heard from Joseph Salvo. During his presentation he displayed various maps of the different New York neighborhoods and the immigrant succession in these neighborhoods over the past century. These maps are a different representation of the idea, chopped. His maps displayed how different cultures moved from one area to another one, chopped displays the after effects of Salvo’s immigrant succession. As a result of one culture moving on and another culture moving in the leftovers/ establishments left in that area are therefore coveted by the new culture. This new culture can either choose to adapt these establishments into their culture or get rid of them so they can make room for their own establishments.

I feel this topic would be a good selection for our final project because it enables each and every student to do research on his or her own, in small groups, and as a whole unit.

For this project I envision each student individually finding a restaurant, or any place that sells food, and researching this establishment from its opening till the present. What cultures have surrounded this establishment? Has that culture moved on to live in a different area and a new culture taken its place? Did the new culture enjoy having this previous cultures food establishment or did they want it to close? Is the establishment doing well financially, and customer wise? Do any people of the old original culture return to this neighborhood specifically for this establishment? There can also be examples of establishments that have closed as a result of immigrant succession. These establishment’s questions would be more in the direction of why this establishment closed? Was the new culture discriminatory towards this establishment? Did the establishment after failing in its old location move to where the previous culture moved or did it just close?

Once every individual has researched a specific establishment the class will divide into groups dependent on where the establishment chosen is located. This portion of the project will reflect weather peoples research have come to the same conclusion about the same areas.

The last part will be to create a presentation as a whole. Our website would include tabs for every neighborhood in New York. Within each of these tabs there will be a section of history of the neighborhood regarding what cultures have lived. Then under that there will be a discussion layout of which establishments cultures have left behind and which establishments they have taken with them.

The multi-media aspect of this project would include Google maps, audio interviews, images and many more. The Google maps would indicate the path taken by the establishments researched either leaving their culture behind or following it wherever they move. The audio interviews would be from the establishment’s workers/ owners sharing their perspective of the immigrant succession. Images could be of different cultures enjoying different culture’s foods.

I hope you like my ideas!!!