Q&A: How cultural blending, migration are reshaping culinary traditions - SmartBrief (2024)

As migration and cultural blending reshape societies, they inherently impact cuisine. When traditions and cuisines travel, they merge with local flavors, creating new dishes and redefining authenticity. These culinary evolutions reflect the broader trend of cultural integration, where rules around what is “authentic” are continually redefined, and as generations Z and Alpha, with their diverse backgrounds and global perspectives, become key market drivers, the food industry must adapt to these changing expectations.

In November, professionals will gather at the Culinary Institute of America’s 26th Worlds of Flavor in Napa, Calif., Nov. 6-8, 2024, where the very topic of the evolving landscape of food, shaped by migration and new understandings of tradition, will be explored. We talked to Jennifer Breckner, director of programs and special projects at the Culinary Institute of America, about the expansion of last year’s theme of authenticity, how chefs today are honoring tradition while creating something new at the same time, and what she’s hoping attendees at this year’s event will walk away with.

This year’s theme “Borders, Migration and the Evolution of Culinary Tradition” speaks to shifts and evolutions in the cultural makeup of our society today. Why did CIA want to spotlight that this year, and how is it different from last year’s theme of authenticity, flavor and the future?

The theme buildsupon last year’s where we were interested in complicating the idea of authenticity — especially for those chefs who felt constrained both from expectations within their community to keep traditions alive as well as external expectations that they need to cook in a certain way to be considered authentic.

This year, we are diving broadly into the movement of people, ingredients and recipes across countries and how that affects foodways and menus. This spans the work of a Mob Test Kitchen chef and storyteller like Jordon Ezra King, from the UK, who complicates histories of iconic French and Italian recipes; to chefs like 2023 Basque Culinary Prize Winner, Ebru Baybara Demir of Turkey who has used gastronomy to support, train, and employ Syrian refugees in Turkey at her restaurant, Cercis Murat Konağı; to Christine Lau, whose restaurant Chino Grande serves Chino Latino cuisine, a blend of Chinese and Latin foods that emerged because of the impact of Chinese immigrants to Latin American countries and to Latino communities in the U.S. Immigration is changing American menus as generation Z – and generation Alpha after it – is composed of a higher percentage of people with at least one immigrant parent than any prior generation, which expands our understanding of American food. We wanted our audience to understand this more deeply.

Is there still a place for traditional cuisine in today’s culinary landscape? What should/could be done to preserve tradition while also celebrating new forms of authenticity?

Yes, there absolutely is a place for traditional cuisine and several of the Worlds of Flavor 2024 presenters hold that notion central to their work. Emmy-award winning radio producer and cookbook author, Von Diaz, will demo recipes from her new cookbook “Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking” that preserve and celebrate ancestral cooking techniques from the islands spanning the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans for a new generation. In addition, Kiano Moju founded the Jikoni Recipe Archive to preserve the flavors of Africa and African foodways and in her new cookbook “AfriCali: Recipes from My Jikoni,” she builds upon these traditions and makes them personal with inspiration from her travels and the rich food culture of California, where she grew up.

How can chefs meaningfully participate in this evolution? What about chefs who don’t feel they can or should?

First of all, anyone who is grappling with this question should watch Breana Lai Killeen’s presentation on creating culturally sensitive recipes from last year’s Worlds of Flavor. She gave tangible suggestions for taking culinary inspiration from travels and beyond your own community and being mindful and transparent about how you incorporate them into your menu.

So many chefs in all areas of the industry shine when they lean into their own knowledge, passion and experience and pair that with the skills they’ve learned on the job or at culinary school. We are humans who are creatively shaped by our experiences in a diverse, sensorial, and tactile world and chefs everywhere can feel comfortable letting that influence come through in their menus, whether you are working in the college and university space, high-volume food service, or at an independent restaurant, if you are thoughtful about it.

My first career was in art and art history. Here I learned how even the most experimental artists — such as Picasso — began their career learning the basics and once they had mastered those, they could begin to experiment and break rules, reacting to the concerns of the day. It’s the same in the culinary world — each new generation needs to build on or even sometimes reject traditions and push boundaries to find their own way and many gravitate back to creating menus that incorporate many influences.

Is there a trend within this theme that you find to be particularly fascinating right now?

I’m excited by the desire of a new generation of chefsto be simultaneously 100% committed to keeping old traditions alive while translating those traditions to a younger consumer in a way that feels totally of the moment.

Thomasz Skowronski, from Pittsburgh, is a great example of this. Along with co-owner and co-chef, Kate Lasky, he runs Apteka, a restaurant whose menu is focused on Central and Eastern European food and beverage as seen through the lens of young vegan chefs living in the working-class city of Pittsburgh.TheNew York Timeslisted Apteka as one of their 2022 top 50 restaurants in America. I had dinner there earlier in the year and can tell you that the depth of flavor they achieve through their entirely scratch-made vegan menu is astonishing and thrilling. They take “the old ways” like pickling, smoking, and foraging, and incorporate them into the menu with a hyper DIY approach to building flavor and texture, and a sense of experimentation that highlights the breadth and depth of Polish food ways that connect to the land and to heirloom ingredients.

I don’t think we know much about Polish food in the U.S.—beyond sausage and pierogi—and in Poland proper, we’re currently seeing expats return from the UK and other places as the economy grows and they expect a bustling contemporary culinary scene and are pleased to find one. We’ll hear more about this in a session titled “Translating Polish Tradition Today: From Krakow to Pittsburgh,” which will have cooking demos from Skowronski and influential Polish chef, Aleksander Baron.

What do you hope those who attend this year’s Worlds of Flavor conference and festival will walk away with?

The most important thing to me is that I want our foodservice industry audience to leave feeling excited and inspired because they found Worlds of Flavor—now in its twenty-sixth year—an energetic and engaging gathering with information that helps them stay relevant in their career by providing new techniques, flavor combinations, and the opportunity to expand their network.

In addition, I hope they take away a deeper understanding of the cultural contexts of these global cuisines. As a program director, I also hope for moments where they find themselves surprised and intrigued by the food that they taste in the World Marketplace and want to know more.

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