Dufresne cooks in one of the most multicultural cities in the nation—if not the world. “We’re OK with mixing disparate flavors, with cross-cultural pollination—with all of that,” he says. But far from considering it an abandonment of our native foodways, such blending is, to him, their apotheosis. “We’re honoring the old idea of America as a melting pot, as a place where anyone is welcome,” he says, nothing that goes for any flavor, as well.
THE CHANGING TASTE OF AMERICA
America’s metropolitan areas are the crossroads of America’s culinary future. “The cities are making their own cuisines because of the neighborhoods and immigrants who are actually doing the great cooking,” says Daniel. “The Mexican and Hispanic and Chinese and French who live here: They bring home what we’re starting to see, which are all these micro-cuisines and trends happening in the cities.” In her own backyard, she finds a Vietnamese community as large as any in Saigon. “And we have our Little Korea—enormous amounts of Korean cuisine. And the Chinese and Japanese communities have grown and changed tremendously since I’ve been living here,” Daniel says. “Those are our local cuisines now.”
Out of these polyglot neighborhoods come innovators like Roy Choi, the brains behind the Kogi Korean BBQ Taco Truck that’s taken Los Angeles by storm with its irreverent take on Korean barbecue wrapped in soft corn tortillas—a delicacy that has foodie fans following the truck’s every move on Twitter. As Daniel explains, Choi “was raised in a neighborhood that was Korean and Mexican, and that’s how he came up with this unique cuisine of his. He’s taken his appreciation of his family’s cuisine and his closeness to the Mexican community and created his own signature cuisine out of it. And that’s where the trends are going.”
Young notes that such mobile vendors have clearly expanded America’s knowledge of ethnic treats, but they’re proving effective outlets for traditional American fare, too. “Mobile trucks in Austin, TX, feature fried chicken from that region,” he says. “You can find grass-fed burgers and bacon jam in trucks in Seattle, and home-baked cookies and bakery items typically found in the Northeast in New York City’s mobile trucks.”
It makes a body downright proud to be American—and to be eating everything we’ve got to offer. As Daniel puts it: “We’re a hybrid. We’re a place where people come for freedom, so our freedom of cuisine is of the people who come to live here. That’s really where our regional cuisines are going to come from in the future and are coming from now.”
Whether that means more flavors of Asia, Latin America, the Middle East or beyond, one thing’s for sure: It’ll taste great. And it’ll be 100% American.
Kimberly J. Decker, a California-based technical writer, has a B.S. in consumer food science with a minor in English from the University of California, Davis. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she enjoys eating and writing about food. You can reach her at kim@decker.net.
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