Fusion cuisine

Fusion cuisine is cuisine that combines elements of different culinary traditions that originate from different countries, regions, or cultures. The term fusion cuisine, added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2002, is defined as "a style of cookery which blends ingredients and methods of preparation from different countries, regions, or ethnic groups; food cooked in this style." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_cuisine

• A lasting legacy of colonialism is fusion food
• Alongside the creation of new dishes, colonialism also introduced class dimensions of food as cultural capital that modified consumption patterns. Indigenous practices of eating guinea pigs in Peru were banned and considered savage until recent movements to reclaim food practices, resulting in the erasure of much traditional knowledge in indigenous communities
• Immigrants play a significant role in shaping modern fusion cuisine.
• Japanese cooking techniques were combined with French techniques in 1970s France to create nouvelle cuisine.
• Wolfgang Puck is attributed as one of the pioneers of fusion cuisine, with some dispute. However, his restaurant Chinois on Main was named after the term attributed to Richard Wing, who in the 1960s combined French and Chinese cooking at the former Imperial Dynasty restaurant in Hanford, California.
• Chef Norman Van Aken was the first person to use the term "fusion cooking" as he delivered a speech at a symposium in Santa Fe in 1988.

Nouvelle cuisine (French: [nuvɛl kɥizin] ⓘ; 'new cuisine') is an approach to cooking and food presentation in French cuisine. In contrast to cuisine classique, an older form of haute cuisine, nouvelle cuisine is characterized by lighter, more delicate dishes and an increased emphasis on presentation. It was popularized in the 1960s by the food critic Henri Gault, who invented the phrase, and his colleagues André Gayot and Christian Millau in a new restaurant guide, the Gault-Millau, or Le Nouveau Guide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouvelle_cuisine

• The term "nouvelle cuisine" has been used several times in the history of French cuisine, to mark a clean break with the past. In the 1730s and 1740s...
• The modern usage is variously attributed to authors Henri Gault, Christian Millau, and André Gayot, who used nouvelle cuisine to describe the cooking of Paul Bocuse, Alain Chapel, Jean and Pierre Troisgros, Michel Guérard, Roger Vergé, and Raymond Oliver, many of whom were once students of Fernand Point. Paul Bocuse claimed that Gault first used the term to describe food prepared by Bocuse and other top chefs for the maiden flight of the Concorde airliner in 1969.
• Gault and Millau discovered the "formula" contained in ten characteristics of this new style of cooking. The ten characteristics identified were: a rejection of excessive complication in cooking; Cooking times... were greatly reduced in an attempt to preserve their natural flavours. Steaming was an important trend from this characteristic; freshest possible ingredients; shorter menus; Strong marinades for meat and game ceased to be used; Heavy sauces such as espagnole and béchamel were replaced by seasonings with fresh herbs, high-quality butter, lemon juice, and vinegar; Regional dishes replaced cuisine classique as a source of inspiration; New techniques were embraced and modern equipment was often used; Bocuse even used microwave ovens.; The chefs paid close attention to the dietary needs of their guests through their dishes; The chefs were extremely inventive and created new combinations and pairings.

The term "California cuisine" arose as a result of culinary movements in the last decades of the 20th century and is not to be confused with the traditional foods of California. California fusion cuisine has been influenced by French, American, Italian, Mexican, and Chinese culinary styles, among other food cultures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_cuisine

• One of the first proponents of using fresh, locally available foods was Helen Evans Brown, who became friends with James Beard after publishing Helen Brown's West Coast Cookbook in 1952. She advocated using fruits and spices available in one's own neighborhood, forgoing poor grocery store substitutes, as well as fresh seafood, caught locally.
• Alice Waters, who opened the restaurant Chez Panisse in 1971 in Berkeley, has contributed significantly to the concept of California cuisine
• At about the same time, in Yountville in the Napa Valley, Sally Schmitt began serving single-menu monthly dinners that emphasized local ingredients, continuing the concept when she and her husband Don opened the French Laundry in 1978.
• Mark Peel, who worked for both Waters and Wolfgang Puck, went on to co-found La Brea Bakery and Campanile Restaurant with his then-wife Nancy Silverton. As executive chef, he mentored other up-and-coming chefs

American cuisine consists of the cooking style and range of dishes prepared in the United States. It principally derives from a mixing of European cuisine, Native American and Alaskan cuisine, and African American cuisine, known as soul food. The Northeast, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, South, West, Southwest, and insular areas all have distinctive elements, reflecting local food resources, local demographics, and local innovation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cuisine

• Modern mass media and global immigration have brought influences from many other cultures, and some elements of American food culture have become global exports
• The 20th century saw a revolution in cooking as new technologies, the World Wars, a scientific understanding of food, and continued immigration combined to create a wide range of new foods. This has allowed for the current rich diversity in food dishes throughout the country.
• One signature characteristic of American cooking is the fusion of multiple ethnic or regional approaches into completely new cooking styles.... During the 1980s, upscale restaurants introduced a mixing of cuisines that contain Americanized styles of cooking with foreign elements commonly referred to as New American cuisine, a type of fusion cuisine combining flavors from the melting pot of traditional American cooking techniques with those from other cultures, sometimes adding molecular gastronomy components.

New American cuisine, also known as Modern American cuisine or Contemporary American cuisine, is the wave of modernized cooking predominantly served at upscale fine dining restaurants in the United States, originating in the 1980s. New American cuisine is generally a type of fusion cuisine which assimilates flavors from the melting pot of traditional American cooking techniques mixed with foreign and sometimes molecular gastronomy components. There is often a focus on fresh, local, and seasonal farm-to-table ingredients. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_American_cuisine

• The movement was popularized in the 1990s by various celebrity chefs, including Wolfgang Puck, Jeremiah Tower, Alice Waters, and Jonathan Waxman.
• New American cuisine features innovative use of seasoning and sauces. Originally based on French, nouvelle, and traditional American cuisine, New American has since progressed to include elements of Mediterranean, Latin American, Asian, and other cuisines.

Douglas Rodriguez, who claims to be the Godfather of Nuevo Latino Cuisine, is the son of Cuban immigrants, raised in Miami. He grew up with the sights, smells and tastes of Cuban/American cuisine and developed a passion for food early on. At 14, he landed his first restaurant job as a summer apprentice at the Four Ambassadors Hotel in Miami. After school, he gained more experience at the Fountainbleu Hotel in Miami Beach before attending Johnson and Wales in Providence. In 1989 he opened Yuca, an upscale Cuban style restaurant in Coral Gables, which is where Great Chefs first became aware of his talents. Yuca was a success and at age 24, Douglas was a celebrated Miami chef, receiving his first and second “Rising Chef of the Year” nominations by the James Beard Foundation. In 1994, he opened the successful Patria Restaurant in New York City, and it was the laboratory for his new cuisine, which he called “Nuevo Latino”. https://greatchefs.com/chef/douglas-rodriguez-food-recipes-with-pictures/

Jan'2000: Chicama and Patria Clash on Park Avenue South

• When chef Douglas Rodriguez’s restaurant Chicama opens on Jan. 29 in the ABC Carpet & Home building on Broadway and 18th Street, he’ll be just a couple of blocks from Patria, the Latin American-themed restaurant on Park Avenue South where he became a New York culinary star.
• Although the Cuban-American Mr. Rodriguez has said that he left Patria last October to open another restaurant, called Unico, in a town house on East 32nd Street, sources familiar with the situation said he lost his gig at Patria because management deemed his attempt to open another eatery a breach of contract. One source said Mr. Rodriguez did not tell Patria’s owners of his plans for Unico until the day he signed the contract on the new space-at which point he reportedly also offered them an opportunity to invest in Unico.
• a mutual friend of Mr. Rodriguez and ABC Carpet & Home co-owner Evan Cole put the two together.
• Even in a business that moves at a breakneck pace, the speed at which ABC’s husband-and-wife owners, Evan and Paulette Cole, have managed to change restaurants and concepts is startling. If Chicama does open as scheduled, it will have been only four weeks since the previous restaurant that occupied the space, a rustic Italian eatery called Colina, closed.
• Sources said those most surprised by ABC Carpet’s abrupt change of restaurants were the proprietors of Colina, who included Nick & Toni’s co-owner Jeff Salaway. “They essentially threw them out,” said one source. “They’re not completely done,” said another, implying that the divorce between ABC and Colina could end up less than amicably.

In 1996, Aaron Sanchez returned to New York, and worked in the kitchen at Patria under nuevo-Latino chef, Douglas Rodriguez. Sánchez met his future business partner, Alex Garcia while working there. Garcia left Patria in 1996 to open Erizo Latino. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aar%C3%B3n_S%C3%A1nchez_(chef)