‘Not authentic Asian’ food – but what’s cultural appropriation and what’s a respectful evolution of another’s cuisine?
- Chefs invent dishes ‘inspired’ by foreign recipes and ingredients but the challenge is knowing what is and what isn’t a respectful reworking of another’s cuisine
- Chefs globally renowned for their interpretations may occupy positions that those from other backgrounds might have used to showcase their own culture’s cuisine
At Ynyshir – the first restaurant in Wales to earn two Michelin stars, and the winner of Britain’s National Restaurant Awards 2022 – English chef Gareth Ward has his version of Peking duck on the menu.
Also on offer are Iberico pork char siu, farmed Japanese bluefin tuna in a deconstructed “un-rolled” hand roll and his take on a Thai green curry with Welsh shrimp. In fact, most of the dishes on the menu are Japanese, Chinese or Thai with a new spin.
Ward has, however, never spent time in Asia, except for a 10-day guest-chef trip he took to Singapore, which he describes as “no culinary tour” – it was “long hours of cooking in a basement kitchen and going out and getting drunk at night”.
Does it bother him that he has never tasted the authentic versions of the dishes he is recreating, cooked in their place of origin?
On the contrary, he says, he is nervous to travel to Asia as it may influence how he cooks. He also believes that cooking the food he loves is being authentic – to himself.
“What I cook is not authentic Asian and I would never say that it is. It’s my interpretation of Asian food served in the UK,” he says. “I love a Thai green curry, and the shrimps here are amazing, so that’s what I cook. I just do me, and if I did anything else I would not be being honest.”