Culinary Dimplomacy

This thought was posted on Thinkaloo on 15 March 2008 by member james85

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What if all countries could designate one restaurant in every country to represent them as the country's most authentic culinary ambassador?

The main criterion for culinary embassy designation should not be which overseas restaurant has the best taste or the most number of awards. It should rather be which restaurant offers the most authentic taste, as if customers received a culinary experience that is the closest they can get to having traveled abroad and eaten at a local restaurant.

There are many merits to this idea which is not that hypothetical after all. Actually I came up with it after a talk I had with a friend about Tokyo being designated as the gourmet capital of the world for the high quality of its restaurants.

I found out that the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture has set up a Council to put into effect a recommendation program for Japanese restaurants outside of Japan for the purpose of increasing consumer confidence in Japanese restaurants and promoting the export of Japanese agricultural and marine products while also popularizing the food culture of Japan and further establishing its food industry.

You might be wondering why they did so. Apparently, there are an increasing number of Japanese restaurants outside Japan providing Japanese cuisine that is removed from traditional Japanese cooking, i.e. do not use Japanese ingredients or cooking methods. Such restaurants, however, continue to operate under the guise of a Japanese restaurant.

I can certainly imagine the French who are very proud about their national cuisine setting up something similar. I take it a step further and think that every country should do the same, even designate one restaurant in every country as its culinary ambassador. What do you think? Wouldn't it be nice to know or be able to compare the authenticity in the taste of the ethnic cuisine restaurant you just visited?