The cultural appropriation conundrum
How outcries of culinary inauthenticity and white privilege have changed the way we think about restaurant operations
When nutritionist and lifestyle blogger Arielle Haspel opened her “clean” Chinese restaurant Lucky Lee’s in New York City earlier this year, she touted her healthier alternatives to classic American Chinese takeout food that usually “makes people feel bloated and icky the next day.”
The backlash was immediate.
Critics decried her tone-deaf descriptions of food outside her ethnicity and called her out for white privilege and racism on social media and in think pieces.
Haspel has since released an apology and retracted her original restaurant description, telling the New York Times, “Shame on us for not being smarter about cultural sensitivities.”
“As a health coach turned first-time restaurateur, I never meant for the word ‘clean’ to mean anything other than in the ‘clean-eating’ philosophy, which caters towards a specific nutrition and wellness lifestyle,” Haspel said in an apology on Instagram. “I also did not realize that the plays on words we used for marketing purposes were reminiscent of offensive language used against the Chinese-American community. I was naive and I am sorry.”
And she’s not the only one facing criticism.
In November, celebrity food personality Andrew Zimmern opened a Chinese fusion restaurant called Lucky Cricket in Minneapolis, and was criticized for identifying himself in an interview with Fast Company as a guide to Chinese food for the city, “saving the souls of all the people from having to dine at these horses**t restaurants masquerading as Chinese food that are in the Midwest.” Again, the social media response was not favorable.
Similarly, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay in April previewed his upcoming new concept Lucky Cat, an “Asian Eating House” in London and faced a torrent of negative social media posts claiming cultural appropriation. The debate was prompted in part by one Lucky Cat review by Angela Hui, who called a preview of the restaurant “an actual kitchen nightmare.” Ramsay, in turn, pushed back on his Instagram, referring to the comments as “personal and hugely disrespectful.”
The three “lucky” restaurants have become symbols for what has escalated into a particularly thorny issue for the restaurant industry. At a time when public criticism can quickly ignite into a viral firestorm on social media, how does a restaurateur or chef navigate the debate about white privilege and cultural appropriation and find a place of authenticity?
Haspel, Zimmern and Ramsay are hardly the first white restaurant operators to open concepts featuring cuisine outside of their own ethnicity. Chef and restaurateur Rick Bayless, for example, has a portfolio of Mexican restaurants, mainly in the Chicago area, and though he has received backlash for claiming “reverse racism” in response to cultural appropriation comments, the criticism has not halted his restaurant group’s growth.
And yet when chef and restaurateur Thomas Keller opened his first Mexican restaurant La Calenda in Yountville, Calif., in January, San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic Soleil Ho called the effort an example of “cultural appropriation done right” because of how he seemed to respect and showcase his source material.
A matter of respect
New York chef and restaurateur Dale Talde, owner of the concepts Talde, Rice & Gold and Massoni, said it’s all a matter of how you approach these thorny issues.
“It starts with respect, love, and passion for the culture of the cuisine you are cooking,” said Talde, who was born in Chicago to Filipino parents. “Look, I have an Italian restaurant, but I have never been to Italy. I think it all comes down to how you talk about and present your restaurant. It’s one thing if you’re saying, ‘I’m doing real, authentic Indian food but I’ve never been to India,’ but if your point of view is just, ‘I love Indian food and I’m interpreting this cuisine through an American lens, then that’s different.”
Photo: Dale Talde
Talde cited Bayless as an example of a chef who “respects and loves” the cuisine he is working with, stating that every year he takes his staff to Mexico for two weeks to better hone their craft.
And Talde has been outspoken about his politically incorrect approach to cooking. His 2015 cookbook is even called “Asian-American: Proudly Inauthentic Recipes from the Philippines to Brooklyn,” featuring recipes for “inauthentic” Asian-American dishes like kung pao chicken wings and pretzel-wrapped pork dumplings. Talde has often emphasized that he does not want to limit his culinary creativity to appease critics.
“My job as a chef is to make things delicious, not to make them authentic,” he explained.
Politics and privilege
From subtle gestures to larger statements, mindfulness and sensitivity also seem to be key in avoiding reproach.
At La Calenda, for example, Keller’s personality and ego take a backseat to the culture he is representing. In her review, Ho notes that La Calenda’s website lists the names of the Mexican artisans who made the pitchers and platters the restaurant uses — and those names appear before Keller is mentioned. In addition, a good percentage of his senior culinary team hails from the Mexican regions featured on the menu, like Oaxaca.
Still, there are some who argue that chefs should stay in their own cultural wheelhouse. But for Krishnendu Ray, associate professor of food studies at New York University, the idea of white chefs being forbidden to open restaurants outside their ethnicity is preposterous.