In order to understand American food culture, we need to talk about some American history, geography and customs. There are two main factors in the formation and development of a national diet culture: one is regionality, and the other is diversity. For the United States, multiple human factors are more critical than local geographical factors. In Europe and Italy, due to topography, soil, climate and other reasons, there are differences between southern and northern cuisines, but the differences are not great, mainly because the people in this country are all of the same language and species, and there is little difference in human factors. France, Spain, Britain and Germany all have some different regional dishes, but their styles and tastes are not so different, because the people in the country are all of the same language and species, and there is little difference in human factors. The situation in the United States is quite special, with a vast territory and abundant resources and a short history. People from 100 countries and different races immigrated to the United States. At present, the total population is about 280 million, including 43 million Spanish residents and 36 million black people. The number of immigrants from Asia has exceeded10 million. Such a large foreign ethnic group settled in the United States. The United States is a melting pot of all nationalities in the world, and the formation of American food and dishes also comes from the "melting pot".
The foods that Americans contact most in daily life, such as hamburgers, fried chicken, pizza, Zhajiang Noodles, tacos, sandwiches, hot dogs, French fries, doughnuts, etc., were all introduced from western European countries in the early days. Steak, lamb chops, dog chops, fish chops, etc. were not the earliest foods invented in the United States, so many people think that they cannot be regarded as American foods by strict standards. So what is real American food?
Reasons for the backwardness of early American cooking technology
There are three main reasons why the early American cooking industry was underdeveloped and the cooking level was backward. First of all, the length and depth of history and culture are not enough. It has been 230 years since the United States became an independent country in 65438 to 0776, and it has only been 50 to 60 years since the victory of World War II. At that time, primitive Indians in the United States desperately searched for food to live on, hoping to keep themselves and their families alive. It is impossible for them to create any delicious food, let alone create a unified national dish. Second, the founding spirit and folk customs of the United States tend to be conservative and simple. /kloc-At the beginning of the 7th century, the English Puritans crossed the Atlantic to America to preach Christianity for religious freedom with the spirit of adventure and struggle. These devout Puritans pay attention to spiritual life rather than material life, religious etiquette, and advocate a hard-working and simple lifestyle. These people are the ancestors of the United States, and their descendants living in the United States have also inherited the tradition and developed a simple, polite and well-behaved moral code. Their mainstream values of simplicity, no waste, no vanity and seeking truth from facts restrict and hinder the progress and development of food. Third, the United States has no royal promotion and encouragement. China, France, Italy, Spain and even Persia, India and Thailand once had royal aristocrats who attached great importance to food. Think about it, if the emperor and king of a country like to eat, then the motivation for innovation in cooking dishes must be enormous. Whether it's the capital, the palace or the palaces around the country, chefs all over the country will rack their brains to surpass the favor of emperors and ministers, and make the food culture and cooking skills by going up one flight of stairs. Unfortunately, the United States seems to have only heard of a lecherous president, but not a delicious president, so it has not formed a set of gourmet recipes that can cover the whole country.
The Formation and Characteristics of American Cuisine
Influenced by early immigrants (English Puritans and American pioneers), traditional American cuisine is just like traditional Americans. Its characteristics are "seeking truth from facts in the rough", using fresh raw materials, not relying on additives and seasonings, maintaining the original flavor of food, not dragging its feet in the cooking process, neither roasting, frying or frying, nor paying attention to slow stewing (except for a few local dishes), and not overdoing it. The main structure of American food is 1234 system, just like a triangle. The most important thing is "beef", followed by chicken and fish, sheep, pigs and shrimp, and bread, potatoes, corn and vegetables.
/kloc-at the end of 0/9, with the development of American civilization and economy, coupled with the development of information and transportation, Americans' demand for food has gradually increased. Especially since 1965, the United States has relaxed its immigration policy, and people from all levels and industries have poured in from all over the world. These huge new immigrants have had a great impact and far-reaching impact on the social and cultural structure of the United States. The cooking methods and dishes brought by new immigrants are like a single spark, which makes a variety of foods appear on the tables of American families and restaurants.
Undoubtedly, Americans all admit that European cuisine is the ancestor of American cuisine. American cuisine takes European cuisine as its "root", and then through self-cultivation, germination, growing branches and leaves, it gradually prospers, establishes its own main body and even spreads to all parts of the world. The western United States is rich in Pacific seafood and all kinds of seafood, the freshest and most diverse vegetables and fruits in the United States, including famous California cuisine and Asian fusion cuisine); With the characteristics of Asian cuisine; TexMex cuisine with Mexican characteristics in the south, Louisiana cuisine); With French, Spanish and African characteristics; There are German, Dutch and Nordic Chicago cuisines in the midwest. There are British, French and Irish New England cuisines and new york cuisines in the east, and Hawaiian-Polynesian cuisines in the eastern islands of Oceania, the Philippines, Portugal and Japan.
The vigorous development of American catering industry
In recent years, high-tech industries have advanced by leaps and bounds. Americans, especially the younger generation, pay more attention to leisure and food because of their increased economic income and increased work pressure. Especially for dinner, I am willing to spend money to enjoy relaxing food and choose mellow grapes and wine to match it. Due to the strong market demand, all kinds of restaurants, whether it's fast food restaurants with general consumption, family restaurants with medium consumption or high-end restaurants, have mushroomed all over the United States, setting off a boom in American catering industry.
The rapid development of American catering industry has two successful pillars, one is to attach importance to research, and the other is to stress efficiency. American enterprises are willing to invest a lot of money to hire experts and scholars, not only to improve the varieties of raw materials such as cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, aquatic products and agricultural products. While improving the breeding and planting techniques, increasing the yield and quality, we should also make appropriate and ingenious changes to the world's best-selling food dishes with objective standards to meet the needs of the region, inject brand culture with happy and fashionable packaging, and launch inexpensive products in a planned way, which are welcomed by consumers. On the other hand, Americans attach great importance to efficiency, especially businessmen. They closely tied quality improvement with marketing, standardized product quality and management methods with scientific methods, and promoted them to various places with precise marketing methods, thus forming regional chains, national chains and even global chains. Each franchise store has a detailed management manual, and every employee in the whole store has a clear division of labor and responsibilities. Chefs must also follow the rules in the manual to cook food and dishes. Besides paying attention to quality and exquisiteness, they should also know how to control costs, pursue profits and enhance the vitality of enterprises. This kind of operation mode combined with humanized management is worth learning.
American cooking is one of the most dynamic foods in the world today. There are more than 1000 culinary colleges, two-year community colleges and four-year universities in the United States, which is the country with the highest level of culinary education, the largest number and the most popular in the world, and has trained many outstanding catering and cooking talents. Zhen Wenda, Cai and Si Wanchun, Chinese living in the United States, are outstanding in the mainstream cooking field in the United States. In recent years, American senior chefs have injected new concepts into dozens of national cuisines around the world, combined the innate advantages of various ethnic groups with the reality of daily life in the United States, and created many fusion cuisines that suit local conditions and complement each other, so that the cuisines of all countries in the world can blend harmoniously, hand in hand and heart in heart, pushing the culinary art to a new height. American cooking stories can never be told, and American cooking songs are staged again and again. Food from another country can not only be an interesting enjoyment of American taste changes, but also become the pillar of mainstream American diet. In America, cooking always changes, but in the end, it is American food.