Understanding Diversity in America Through Tex-Mex Cooking

April 28, 2006

Oita - Debra Samuels, cooking instructor and Boston Globe food columnist, explained how successive waves of immigrants contributed their own cultures and cuisine to 'American Food' in a cultural and cooking program at a Yoshikan High School Department of Cooking class. Mrs. Samuels started her lecture by asking what students thought was America's contribution to cuisine, and, after getting the typical response - hamburgers, discussed how American cuisine reflects the range of foods from around the world. She explained that most of these foods are appropriated and changed by the larger American culture, and that it is hard to tell now what parts of American dishes came from where.