What Makes A 'Cuisine'?

[Chainsaw]

What is English cuisine? Or American or Australian? Does anyone know?

[KarenBravo]

.........and this is in the Phuket sub-forum because.............?

[LivinginKata]

.........and this is in the Phuket sub-forum because.............?

Agreed. Move to food forum

[petercallen]

All i know is a small bit of steak on a large plate with fancy sautes on the side is not 5 star to me just expensive

[Jingthing]

What is English cuisine? Or American or Australian? Does anyone know?

English? Yes.

American? Yes.

Australian? Yes.

Also regional cuisines as well such as Cajun cuisine, California cuisine, Southern (USA) cuisine. Slice it and dice it however you like!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisine

[Chainsaw]

.........and this is in the Phuket sub-forum because.............?

Just thought it would make a nice change to discuss a subject other than the usual boring moaning about what a terrible place Phuket is. I guess the subject is a bit too highbrow for the regulars...ho hum. Does that answer your question?

You should never start a sentence with a conjunction by the way -bad grammar -tsk!

[Pseudolus]

Cuisine; To cook. Word now changed in meaning to relate to "the food of". Cuisine as a word can be used very much like the word Race and there is just as much confusion about the correct use of the word.

The cuisine (food of) of Italy is the best example, after all, its from Latin that we derive the word. Most people believe they understand the cuisine of Italy. So where do you put Pizza into the mix which along with Pasta is seen as most likely 100% Italian? Well, pizza is American; immigrants from Italy basically putting their pasta sauces etc onto a flat bread. Then look at some of the Italian foods from the south which has some african influences but is still clearly defined as Italian. moving to the north, the southern France influences are in the food which in themselves borrow more than a little influence from both Spain and indeed African cooking as well. But yet still the food is Italian. Speak to a Sicilian and ask him what he is. He will say Sicilian or Italian, which he is, but there is a huge possibility that his blood is more north African than actually Italian (Italy is after all the north leading edge of the African tectonic plate that has smashed into Europe, with the Pyrenees and the Alps being the aftermath and continuing crash (very very slowly, 2cm a year) of this collision.

There really is very few dishes that you can categorically say "that is the true cuisine of this country" because although the Aussies tried to invent something called fusion cooking (European mixed with Asian) this in fact has been around for centuries. In fact the vast majority of food is some kind of fusion of regional varieties. Take bouillabaisse for example, that archetypical French food. Once eaten, can you honestly believe that in Barcelona through to Genoa the Fish soup is that different? nope.

Beef Wellington.That bastion of English cuisine. Names after the Duke of Wellington. Or as the French call it filet de bœuf en croûte.Even the Kiwis believe it is named after Wellington NZ but most people would say a Beef Wellington is British.

So what is Cuisine? It is what ever you want it to be basically. I am English, a quarter Scottish, but if I was a cuisine, I am English. When I make a beef Wellington, that is true English cuisine. When a French man makes filet de bœuf en croûte then that is French.