cuisine

What is cuisine? Such a deep question can be explained as generally as a system of communication or a code as Mary Douglas or Warren Belasco might put it. Cuisine is a system of thinking about and creating food that often has a “theme” or specific patterning to it that is based from the availability of sources as well as the geography and climate of where the food is produced and made. It is necessary that groups have a cuisine because cuisines lead to cultural identities. Many places are too large to have one specific national cuisine but often the different subcultures have commonalities that can join together to form a general food that can appear to be part of an umbrella cuisine that encompasses a larger number of people. The idea is that cuisine is a form of communication that ties many people together even when they are far apart. As time has progressed more and more people have travelled and migrated to new areas but they have all brought with them the food that has made them who they are. This food that travels with people and doesn’t get lost in the move is what makes up the cuisine of the land that they have left but remains a part of the culture that they are still a part of.
In what is currently Mexico, corn was the main staple of the native diet. With this maize the people made various different dishes but one of the main ones was tortillas. When the Europeans came and conquered the people they brought with them wheat flour that was seen as horrid to the natives. The native people continued to make their tortillas with corn flour even when the Europeans had started to incorporate new foods into their diet. Today in the United States when someone says a tortilla a white flour tortilla is often what comes to mind rather than the traditional corn tortillas that came from the south. Does the change in flour mean that these tortillas are not part of the cuisine that originated in the Mexican area or does this just show that cuisine can adapt to what is preferred for new people? Adapting a food to please employers, the main concept of the tortillas was still kept since it obviously had meaning behind it as well as a connection to other people. Every small group of people is going to have its own specific cuisine but there will often be some similarities that hold all the groups together.
The idea of cuisine is to bring similar people together with food at the center. Soul food originally from the American South has changed as it has moved North but the idea is the same and when someone says “soul food” there is a general idea of greens, fried fish and/or barbeque, and maybe some homemade macaroni and cheese. In the end the exact food served may not be the same but the idea comes from the same place and the smell of the food cooking and the community of people ties everything together and familiarity of the gathering binds the cuisine and the people together.