Cooking and cooking styles, ingredients, and the planet (evolution), all evolve and change, frequently. People’s tastes and health evolve, and with that ingredients that go along with a tiny part to a giant part, of cultures.
LOL There are just haters in every genre...I am sitting here chuckling as the passions around something as simple as venison chili really flared one year at deer camp as someone had put shrimp in their venison chili...."WHO WOULD DO SUCH AN UNTHINKABLE ACT?!?!" one guy proclaimed.....I thought it was the best chili I every had. An aspect I love about your last cookbook is the flexibility of the types of fish that can be used with your recipes....I say keep pissing the haters off Hank cause you got a great thing going!
I think that where you eat a dish, and who made it, has everything to do with its authenticity... in that moment. So should I be out in California and a friend serves me some "barbecued eggplant," I'm not going to smugly dismiss her with the suggestion so common to my part of the country that, "barbecue" is a noun, not a verb, and that it can't be barbecue if it's not meat (cooked slow over wood coals, no gas and no crock pot). Seems awfully counterproductive, not to mention rude, and a good way to get uninvited from future dinners. Plus... who the hell am I to define her experience?
I'm no professional chef or author, so I have no creds to defend. But it strikes me that "authenticity" is a marketing thing more than a badge to be awarded. The definition of "authentic" seems particularly situational... especially when it comes to something like recipes for ethnic or regional cuisine, as the examples in your piece suggest.
In my opinion, and that's all this is, if you want to make authentic food of any style, then the goal should be to capture the care and craft that go into the preparation, moreso than a specific ingredient or cooking method. At the end of the day, scholarship and chemistry and all those other things aside, authentic cooking is an act of love.
And for the record... My momma is about as southern as you can get, and when we sit down to eat, there's sugar in the cornbread, but not in the tea.
Hank, I appreciate you and the effort you put into your work/passions. Your efforts are obviously heart felt. I LOVE your work and every one of your recipes I’ve made have been outstanding! Continue being true to yourself and to hell with all the naysayers!!!!!!!!!
I really appreciate this essay Hank and Holly. I especially appreciate that you recognize the fault in yourself and talk about efforts to do better. Most people aren't smart/confident/brave enough to do that.
Gatekeeping sucks. Totems for tribalism (clothing, food, ritual, etc) that are used to exclude other peoples invariable make our world worse. Food especially can be such a welcoming thing. Your cookbooks and website have welcomed me into the world of hunting and wild foods, and I'm grateful for that.
In related news, since I moved to AK I have been consistently ridiculed when I scale my fish. Seems "no true alaskan" scales their fish, I have no idea why. My brother in HI says "every true Hawaiian" does scale their fish. I'm going to keep scaling my fish because it works better with the ways I prepare and eat them.
I've been reading Alan Davidson's "A Kipper With My Tea" and he has an entire essay in there about the complete impossibility of determining the nature of an "authentic" bouillabaisse, despite the fact that people from various towns in France will FIGHT YOU if you question their version. Hell, there's not even consensus on the etymology of the WORD bouillabaisse. Until I read your piece, Hank, I don't think I'd really connected the intensity of adherence to one version of a thing or another to the intensity of someone's attachment to a certain *place* -- and it makes me think about how the sense of outrage about people doing "your" dish wrong can really come from a feeling of the wrongdoer misunderstanding or not caring about what makes your home/community/traditions special or important.
It's so much a question of cultural context, as you point out -- if you're the guy who doesn't get out much, then it never occurs to you that there COULD be a place where pizza comes without sesame seeds, or where a bouillabaisse could be made *without saffron* (or *with* saffron, for that matter). I think perhaps some folks find it hard to grasp the difference between understanding that others hold different traditions but still feeling pride in your own, and refusing to accept that other people's traditions or ways of doing things are valid because they're not exactly like your own. A road map for living indeed, as someone else said in the comments!
Gatekeeping always reminds me of the Emo Phillips skit regarding religion...people willing to go to war over the most minute details, especially over food. Being part Czech, the only consensus that I found between Czech recipes is the general lack of written recipes (my half Czech grandmother never used measurements, everything was measured as "a pinch"...maddening when trying to replicate it!). And the only realization I've come to when cooking with the various members of my wife's family from (very different) parts of Mexico is that recipes are guidelines at best!
Love this - noting my favorite and famous cornbread uses sugar! I usually find it best not to discuss ingredients, and just serve the foods. Thank you for sharing!
Cooking and cooking styles, ingredients, and the planet (evolution), all evolve and change, frequently. People’s tastes and health evolve, and with that ingredients that go along with a tiny part to a giant part, of cultures.
It’s a no-brainer.
You do you.
I’m happy to try your style, 🙏 and mine.
Thanks for all your work Hank👌😃
Thanks Hank!
Thought provoking. Will keep this mindful as we serve Lobster Rolls - Mayo or Butter!
I agree with you. Those traditionalists or whatever they want to call themselves are very narrow minded. If they can't take it, fuck em.
LOL There are just haters in every genre...I am sitting here chuckling as the passions around something as simple as venison chili really flared one year at deer camp as someone had put shrimp in their venison chili...."WHO WOULD DO SUCH AN UNTHINKABLE ACT?!?!" one guy proclaimed.....I thought it was the best chili I every had. An aspect I love about your last cookbook is the flexibility of the types of fish that can be used with your recipes....I say keep pissing the haters off Hank cause you got a great thing going!
a *literal* case of 'don't yuck my yum'
Some people may find that they'll be a lot happier by chilling. The one that gets me is "cultural appropriation" as it relates to cooking. Really?
I think that where you eat a dish, and who made it, has everything to do with its authenticity... in that moment. So should I be out in California and a friend serves me some "barbecued eggplant," I'm not going to smugly dismiss her with the suggestion so common to my part of the country that, "barbecue" is a noun, not a verb, and that it can't be barbecue if it's not meat (cooked slow over wood coals, no gas and no crock pot). Seems awfully counterproductive, not to mention rude, and a good way to get uninvited from future dinners. Plus... who the hell am I to define her experience?
I'm no professional chef or author, so I have no creds to defend. But it strikes me that "authenticity" is a marketing thing more than a badge to be awarded. The definition of "authentic" seems particularly situational... especially when it comes to something like recipes for ethnic or regional cuisine, as the examples in your piece suggest.
In my opinion, and that's all this is, if you want to make authentic food of any style, then the goal should be to capture the care and craft that go into the preparation, moreso than a specific ingredient or cooking method. At the end of the day, scholarship and chemistry and all those other things aside, authentic cooking is an act of love.
And for the record... My momma is about as southern as you can get, and when we sit down to eat, there's sugar in the cornbread, but not in the tea.
Let's talk about pineapple on pizza...
Hank, I appreciate you and the effort you put into your work/passions. Your efforts are obviously heart felt. I LOVE your work and every one of your recipes I’ve made have been outstanding! Continue being true to yourself and to hell with all the naysayers!!!!!!!!!
I like this article/essay so much, I have no words to express how much. A road map for living…
I really appreciate this essay Hank and Holly. I especially appreciate that you recognize the fault in yourself and talk about efforts to do better. Most people aren't smart/confident/brave enough to do that.
Gatekeeping sucks. Totems for tribalism (clothing, food, ritual, etc) that are used to exclude other peoples invariable make our world worse. Food especially can be such a welcoming thing. Your cookbooks and website have welcomed me into the world of hunting and wild foods, and I'm grateful for that.
In related news, since I moved to AK I have been consistently ridiculed when I scale my fish. Seems "no true alaskan" scales their fish, I have no idea why. My brother in HI says "every true Hawaiian" does scale their fish. I'm going to keep scaling my fish because it works better with the ways I prepare and eat them.
This is the BEST "To The Bone" EVER! Way to go Henry -00PS Hank! enjoyed all of it including others comments!
Love,
Mum
I've been reading Alan Davidson's "A Kipper With My Tea" and he has an entire essay in there about the complete impossibility of determining the nature of an "authentic" bouillabaisse, despite the fact that people from various towns in France will FIGHT YOU if you question their version. Hell, there's not even consensus on the etymology of the WORD bouillabaisse. Until I read your piece, Hank, I don't think I'd really connected the intensity of adherence to one version of a thing or another to the intensity of someone's attachment to a certain *place* -- and it makes me think about how the sense of outrage about people doing "your" dish wrong can really come from a feeling of the wrongdoer misunderstanding or not caring about what makes your home/community/traditions special or important.
It's so much a question of cultural context, as you point out -- if you're the guy who doesn't get out much, then it never occurs to you that there COULD be a place where pizza comes without sesame seeds, or where a bouillabaisse could be made *without saffron* (or *with* saffron, for that matter). I think perhaps some folks find it hard to grasp the difference between understanding that others hold different traditions but still feeling pride in your own, and refusing to accept that other people's traditions or ways of doing things are valid because they're not exactly like your own. A road map for living indeed, as someone else said in the comments!
Gatekeeping always reminds me of the Emo Phillips skit regarding religion...people willing to go to war over the most minute details, especially over food. Being part Czech, the only consensus that I found between Czech recipes is the general lack of written recipes (my half Czech grandmother never used measurements, everything was measured as "a pinch"...maddening when trying to replicate it!). And the only realization I've come to when cooking with the various members of my wife's family from (very different) parts of Mexico is that recipes are guidelines at best!
Love this - noting my favorite and famous cornbread uses sugar! I usually find it best not to discuss ingredients, and just serve the foods. Thank you for sharing!
Enjoyed this article immensely. Excellent example of the wisdom accrued by life experience.