After reading Ruby Tandoh, I started listening to a podcast called “Racist Sandwich” in which chef and food writer Soleil Ho and journalist Zahir Janmohamed discuss racism, gender and class in relation to food. Most of the chefs or writers that they interview are also people of colour, who share their experiences of growing up surrounded by different cultures but also how white (American) society often forced them to suppress their heritage because it was viewed as an imposition or wrong. It suddenly dawned on me that not only are our eating habits controlled so that we look a certain way, but they are also controlled so that we become and act a certain way; White.
Richard Dyer discusses how when we refer to someone who is in an “other” category, we must list that category to show their otherness for example a black writer, or a gay actor. This is because white is seen as natural or universal, the unmasked human norm and as a result other minorities measure themselves against it. He suggests that to end this privilege we must view whiteness as another ethnicity because its power comes from its unmarkness.
Arguably, this is evident when we describe food for example, Mexican food and Chinese food are not considered the same as “everyday” food which is inadvertently white food. This also extends to shopping as we distance ethnic stores from everyday, normal supermarkets such as Tesco. Already we have decided this isn’t the same as our white British foods and supermarkets and we must other it.
I can't imagine what it must be like to control your food in such a way that you are suppressing your identity and a part of your being. My family are from Guyana, and for my mother and I, it was an enlightening, joyous, bonding experience to leaf through our aunts recipes and Guyanese cook books in the hopes that we would learn something about ourselves.
Soleil Ho and Zahir Janmohamed (in episode 3) make a point in highlighting that embracing this otherness does not mean white, young hipsters opening pop up cafes and restaurants, culturally appropriating the food and culture of someone else whilst simultaneously shunting those from that culture. Ruby Tandoh reiterates this point, mentioning that too often we see some famous white chef appropriating the food of another culture, but preventing them from establishing themselves and still making their food seem inadequate. We can see this in Gordon Ramsey new Chinese restaurant “Lucky Cat” or in Jamie Oliver's “No Fuss Food” in which he completely twisted traditional Indian and Mexican recipes to fit the British palette. It’s ridiculous that we will only accept “other” food when it is either; made by a white person or adapted so much that it is unrecognisable.
However, I recognise that there are many cases such as Gordon Ramsey in which they hire chefs from such cultures in order to provide as authentic food as possible as well as learning from and going to these countries to better understand and recreate these dishes. Food is often the best way for us to understand other cultures and connect to different people, and as a result we should be careful when throwing around claims of cultural appropriation. What we want to see is people enjoying and exploring new cultures through food without excluding those from those places by commodifying and whitewashing the food and restaurants. Furthermore, we can't allow this Neoliberal society to control not just our bodies but also our culture. We must encourage a society of acceptance, allowing all beings to flourish and share. Our bodies and identities are ours therefore, we should not allow the white, capitalist man to create an acceptable norm for us to mould to. We create our own norm.
Blair, O (2016) “Jamie Oliver's paella recipe blasted by Spaniards over inclusion of chorizo.” The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/jamie-oliver-recipe-paella-chorizo-spain-controversy-a7346081.html
Storey, J. (2010) Cultural Studies and Popular Culture.
Tandoh, R. (2018) Eat up: A book about food, appetite and eating what you want.
The Racist Sandwich Podcast http://www.racistsandwich.com/
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