Fine American Gastronomy

If I say “American cuisine”, most Europeans endowed with rich gastronomical culture would cynically giggle and think of nasty sodium-filled hamburgers, occasionally de-Frenchised, but “all-American” fries, on-the-go hot dogs, cholesterol ridden barbecue ribs and thousand-calorie triple chocolate cookies. Today, even the mere term “American cuisine” sounds a little too elegant in view of the culinary clichés associated with the US, suggesting that microwave-ready junk meals and fast food belongs to the gastronomical premier league.
But strikingly enough, most Americans I talked to about US cooking culture were swollen with pride about their amazingly tasty “authentic” meals like a good Tex-Mex or cheese steak. I overheard American remarks in the finest restaurants in Paris how much they are longing for a good bucket of Buffalo Wings. I snobbishly rolled my eyes thinking they know nothing about good food, these people. Then traveling around this vast country I came to two basic realizations.
Number one: the maxim is indeed true that “what is food to one, is to others bitter poison.” Some fall for steaks and some fall for snails. Both can be ill-prepared and well-prepared. I happen not to go nuts for steaks, BBQs, fries, casseroles, doughnuts, corn flakes and fudge. But millions here do and maybe it’s just a matter of conditioning your taste buds and tummy to more hearty dishes.
Number two: Americans do have their own heritage of quality cuisine it just happened to be systematically shattered by the golden-arched junk food culture that is both cheaper and more time efficient.
Today, 96 per cent of kids recognize Ronald McDonald (only Santa tops him) and the world famous “golden” M is more widely recognized in this most religious Western country than the Christian cross (see Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation on other shocking culinary observations).
It has not always been like this.
Before Big Mac conquered the hearts of Joe, before Happy Meal started to mean nuggets and cheap toys, before women entered the labor market to generate more disposable income… American moms had and took time to cook and they cooked a variety of tasty meals. Back in the 1940s when GM was associated with automotives and not jumbo size yellow tomatoes of questionable origin, less than one fourth of American’s food dollars went to meals-away-from-home. Nowadays almost half of the average American household’s food spending contributes to the thriving of fast food chains, restaurants, delis, etc.
Waist-sizes doubling, diabetes booming and the nationwide obesity epidemic are its domestic implications. But as internationally the gastro-flagships of America became KFC, Pizza Hut and MacDo, the image of US cuisine around the world degraded to the lowest quality of consumable foodstuff that one can imagine. No wonder most people think that “American” and “cuisine” is an embellishment, oxymoron or a bad joke.
Too bad, because there’s some good stuff that tastes great over here that’s as American as apple pie.