Eating in America. A cultural survey

University of Technology, Dresden

Eating in America
A Cultural Survey

A GLC Project Paper
Material collected in summer term 2000
Essay written in winter term 2000/2001

by

Matthias Vorhauer / Markus Nowatzki

"There is no American food.
When we begin to list American foods, either we
talk about regional things like lobster or shrimp
Creole, or we talk about spaghetti and pizza and
hot dogs...

One could argue it′s what makes us great. The
fact that we don′t have a cuisine is a measure of
our democracy and of our ethnic heterogeneity."

Sidney Mintz, Anthropologist

I CONTENT  3

II INTRODUCTION  4

III CULTURE MAKES A DIFFERENCE  6
III.1 ON TODAY′S DISTINCTIONS  6
III.2 HISTORICAL REASONS  7
III.3 MODERN MEDIA AND THE PUBLIC OPINION  8

IV FOOD AND CULTURE  9
IV.1 AMERICAN EATING HABITS  9
IV.1.1 MIDWEST  10
IV.1.2 EAST COAST  17

V FOOD AND HERITAGE  22
V.1 HISTORY OF AMERICAN FOOD  22
V.2 THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN FOOD: A PERSPECTIVE  25

VI "FOOD - NEXT RIGHT" - FOOD MASS CULTURE IN AMERICA  26
VI.1 OBESIty  27
VI.2 THE ROLE OF ADVERTISING  28

VII THE EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE - FACT OR FICTION?   30

VIII CONCLUSION   31

IX BIBLIOGRAPHY  33

II Introduction

It is an undeniable fact that the United States is a country with a huge impact on the world. Based on its economic power and military strength, America is one of the leaders of mankind, thus not only does it influence the political scene but the culture of foreign countries as well. Throughout the Western hemisphere "the American way of eating" has especially become a symbol for hip and trendy food. American-style cooking represents the food of youth culture. Moreover, it is the food of people who are fond of America, who might want to preserve their vacation memories, or taste the "American dream." American food is fast and easy to prepare, full of sweet calories, and it has a uniform taste. Furthermore, it is considered unhealthy and often unjustly referred to as "trash food." These prejudices are part of the picture most Europeans have when it comes to food from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Despite preconceived opinions about its quality and nutritional value, American food is present everywhere in Germany these days: in countless news reports, throughout the media, and especially in colorful advertising campaigns. Among these are major famous brands, both "native" American and their German counterparts, including familiar names such as Häagen Dasz Ice Cream, Coca Cola, McDonald′s, Pepsi, Burger King, and many more. Within the last ten years it has also become fairly common to buy an increasing number of products related to America in German food stores and supermarkets. Among these products are instant hamburgers, milkshakes, American pizza, various dips and sauces, and even American sweets, e.g. Hershey′s chocolate and marshmallows. Looking closely at this development, Germany is one of the countries with a largely Americanized market, where many young people seem to crave for anything American, including food and fashion. Still, the pure presence of American food and the tiny bits of culture we catch in the media do not necessarily lead to a better understanding of the subject. Although most Germans are convinced they know more than enough about American food (and they are right in their own, somewhat limited perspective), they only scratch the surface of the idea. What they do know to a great extent are clichés and prejudices, and most "youngsters" have not had any personal experience with American culture at all. In fact, sometimes the food served in Germany as "truly American" might not be American at all.

Clarifying this misinformation is the central motive upon which our project, "Eating in America," is based upon.

Before we start our investigation, we would like to introduce our two basic theses: 

• 1st: There exists a rich culture in the United States with too many fascinating facets to allow people to be mislead by preconceived opinions.
• 2nd: Eating culture is an important part of America′s multi ethnic society, and can without doubt serve as a mirror of today′s America ("you are what you eat"- theory).

In the first place, the act of eating is merely a necessity to survive. Yet, it is more than that. As in any civilization worldwide, food culture also plays an important role for the American way of life. All nations significantly express their cultural identity through the food they prepare and the way they enjoy it. This includes traditions handed down from the historic past as well as typical ingredients of the area, merged to form a unique cooking style: it reflects a hidden but powerful entity we would like to call the soul of a region or country. People are proud of their heritage, they like to show it, share it with each other, and preserve their traditions. Naturally, food belongs in this category as well. But it grows still more interesting. When people reside in a certain area long enough, generation after generation, they are interconnected with invisible links - they share the same background, the same feelings, sometimes even the same views of life. We are certain that vital parts of culture can be found in the food people eat, showing outsiders who they are and where they come from. One could say that their eating habits define them in a way similar to the way a haircut expresses an individual′s personality.

All this applies to American cuisine as well, which is as complex and multinational as society itself. Since American food is so often considered to be one-sided and unhealthy, so we aim to look upon this subject from a different point of view than the usual clichés and prejudices that frequently go together with this term. We are well-aware that the range of the idiom "American food" is at least as wide as the state of Texas. Nevertheless, we would like to contemplate American eating culture from a different perspective than is usually the case throughout Germany and Europe. We want to find out how prejudices against American food have developed in the past and are still developing. Finally, we want to compile everything we experienced during our stay in the US to gain a comprehensive picture so as to show what we understand by the term "American food." The main idea here is to provide Europeans with a better understanding for and an entertaining view at this seemingly well-understood but still foreign culture.

An American cook put it this way: "… after cooking French, Italian, Chinese, and other dishes I started asking myself, Exactly what is American Food? I knew it wasn′t hot dogs, Big Macs, and take-out chicken."¹

III Culture makes a difference

Different countries, different customs - this is what people use to say in Germany, and certainly they are right. People in our country (especially the younger ones) do not consider US culture to be that foreign, if they regard it as culture at all. Several reasons are responsible for this odd attitude, with today′s mass media in the first line of battle. Despite this fact, we have had a completely different experience. Agreed; at first sight the idea of America having a comparable culture to Germany seems obvious, and since both are located in the Western hemisphere, it does have many similarities indeed. However, with a closer view on the subject we could hardly think of anything more different in terms of people′s attitudes and their particular ethnic background. "The American way of life," if not taken as a hollow phrase, depicts a few pieces of this unfamiliar concept. Unfamiliar it is, but it is also a whole new fascinating world to explore, and maybe we can find a little assistance in order to support our cause. We would not be surprised at all if local food helped us to illustrate what America is all about, at least to a certain degree.

III.1 On today′s distinctions

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1 Blunt, Richard: American Food. In: Backwoods Home Magazine Source: http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/blunt30.html