American Cuisine

Ruby M. Lim, RND, MAEd.

WMSU

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Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you can
• Explain the Historical Development of
American Cuisine.
• Describes the methods and
preparation of cooking.
• Identify authenticity of American
Cuisine.
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American Cuisine
• The cuisine of the United States is
characterized by the broad diversity of
foods, driven by the tendency of the
country as a whole to interrelate widely
divergent ingredients and styles of
cooking.
• Cuisines differ from region and are
influenced by innovation and centuries of
immigration.
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• The cuisine of California is a cuisine
marked by an interest in “fusion” –
integrating disparate cooking styles and
ingredients – and which, influenced by the
state’s health-conscious tradition, tends to
be freshly prepared.
• The food is typically prepared with
particularly strong attention to
presentation.
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• Alice Walter, of the restaurant Chez
Panisse in Berkeley, California, is usually
credited with originating California cuisine
and retains the reputation of offering the
ultimate California cuisine experience.
• Her cuisine emphasizes the freshest
ingredients which are in season and are
produced solely from local farms

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• Wolfgang Puck, from the Spago
restaurants, popularized California cuisine
by catering high profile celebrity parties
such as the Oscar after party.
• Puck became a celebrity in his own right,
one of the first celebrity chefs.

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• Besides the cooking style, the cuisine is
characterized by an abundance of fruits and
vegetables as the state is one of the major
agricultural centers of the United States. Locally
grown produce that are less common in other
parts of the country include: avocados,
artichokes, figs, dates and persimmons.
• In the northern coastal regions of the state,
Dungeness crabs, salmon and oysters are in
abundance during the season.
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• California was home to the first
McDonald’s and other fast-food chains
such as Carl’s Jr., Jack in the Box and
Taco Bell.
• In-N-Out, Del Taco, Original Tommy’s and
Fat burger are also California natives.

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• The native cuisine of the Native Americans
of the United States:
• American Indians of the Eastern
Woodlands planted what was known as
the “Three Sisters”: corn, beans and
squash.

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• In addition, a number of other
domesticated crops were popular during
some time periods in the Eastern
Woodlands, including a local version of
quinoa, a variety of amaranth, sump
weed/marsh elder, little barley, may grass
and sunflower.

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• Some known dishes are corn bread; fry bread
is a dish made from ingredients distributed to
Native Americans living on reservations;
• Succotash, a trio of lima beans, tomatoes and
corn; Pemmican; Bird Brain stew, from the
Cree tribe;
• Buffalo stew, from the Cherokee nation also
called Tanka-me-a-lo;
• Acorn mush, from the Miwok people.

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Cuisine of the Southern United State
• The Southern United State has a distinct
cuisine that draws heavily on influences
from various groups that have inhabited
the area.
• The most notable influences come from
African-American, Native American,
Scottish, Irish, French and Spanish
cuisines.

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• Soul food, Creole, Cajun and Tex-Mex are
examples of Southern cuisine.
• In more recent history, elements of
Southern cuisine have spread north,
having an effect on the development of
other types of American cuisine.

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• Some foods commonly associated with the
South, since Africans of the time were fond
of deep fat frying.
• Whites mostly avoided African cultural
influences, but cooking styles quickly
seeped into all corners of the South.

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• An example of a traditional Southern meal
is deep fried chicken, field peas, turnip
greens, cornbread, sweet tea and a
dessert that could be a pie (sweet potato,
pecan and peach are traditional southern
pies), or a cobbler (peach, blackberry or
mixed berry are traditional cobblers)

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• Fried chicken is among the region’s best-
known exports, though pork is also an
integral a part of the cuisine, with Virginia
ham being the most renowned form.
• Green beans are often flavoured with bacon
and salt pork, biscuits served with ham
often accompany breakfast and ham with
red-eye gravy is a common dinner dish
though most genuine Southerners prefer
country gravy made with milk. 16
• Southern cuisine varies widely by region. In
Southern Louisiana, Cajun and Creole cuisine have
developed.
• African American soul food is well known and is
commonly eaten by black populations throughout
the country, as well as by whites in the South.
• Rice was historically an important crop in the
coastal areas of North Carolina and South Carolina,
leading to local specialties like “Hoppin’John” (a
mixture of rice and black-eyed peas flavoured with
salt pork) and Charleston Red Rice.
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• Although Tennessee and Texas are
particularly noted for their barbecue, it is
extremely popular throughout the South
with many regional variations of its own.

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• Southwestern cuisine is food styled after
the rustic cooking of Texas, Oklahoma,
New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and
Colorado.
• It comprises a fusion of recipes for things
that might have been eaten by cowboys,
Native Americans and Mexicans
throughout the post-Colombian era.

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• Southwestern cuisine is heavily influenced by Mexican
cuisine but involves more large cuts of meat.
• This style of cuisine is known for its use of spices,
particularly Chili pepper and Tabasco sauce.
• Chili con carne and fajitas are particularly well known
Southwestern foods.
• Southwestern cuisine is also associated with the
concept of the barbecue, Barbecue sauce and
barbecued ribs.
• Recently, several chains of casual dining restaurants
specializing in Southwestern cuisine have become
popular in the United States. 20
• New Mexico is known for its dedication to
the chili (the official “state question” is Red
or Green? which refers to the preferred
color of chilis) and also serves up a unique
kind of bread known as sopapillas.

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• Midwestern cuisine is a regional cuisine of
the American Midwest. Midwestern cuisine
generally features simple but hearty
dishes.
• Meals tend to be served family-style or
smorgasbord rather than in courses.
Seasoning is typically light, very rare
(according to stereotype) featuring hot or
spicy flavours.
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Historical Development
• The Midwest is frequently referred to as the
breadbasket of America.
• As such, grain production, particularly wheat and
corn, has dominated the agriculture and the food.
• Native American influences are not known, as the
Midwest is a major producer of wild rice.
• Beef and pork processing always have been
important Midwestern industries, with Chicago
and Kansas City as traditional stockyard and
processing centers of the beef trade, while Iowa
is the center of pork production in the US.
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• Dairy, especially cheese, forms an
important group of ingredients, with
Wisconsin traditionally known as
America’s Dairy Capital (though California
produces more cheese).

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• As with most American regional cuisines, Midwestern
cooking is heavily influenced by the immigrant groups
which settled there.
• Strong Scandinavian influences exist in Minnesota and
Wisconsin. Throughout the northern Midwest, Northern
European immigrant groups predominated, so Swedish
and Norwegian lutefisk, or Polish paczki are common.
• Missouri, Kansan and Illinois were destinations for many
ethnic German immigrants, so sausages and potatoes are
more prevalent.
• Miners looking for a convenient meal to bring to work
popularized the pastry, which is now the iconic dish of
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. 25
• Kansas City is an important barbecue
center with a distinctive style, while
Omaha is well-known for its unique
steakhouses, several of which are Sicilian
in origin.
• The greater Chicago area features
many items exclusive to the area like
Italian Beef, Chicago-style hot dog and
Chicago Style Pizza.
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• Detroit’s unique style of hot dog is known as a Coney
dog and can be found at hundreds of Coney Island
restaurants, which are not a chain of restaurants,
throughout the Detroit area.
• Famous example includes Lafayatte Coney Island and
American Coney Island which stand next to each other
serving Coneys all night in downtown Detroit.
• The Polish paczki is also celebrated in the Detroit area
on Paczki Day which Fat Tuesday is better known as in
this region. Polish bakeries concentrated in the Polish
enclave of Hamtramck sell a selection of paczkis whose
ingredients have diverged slightly from the original.
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• The Detroit area has many other large groups
of immigrants most notably the largest Arabic-
speaking population outside of the Middle East
and the most Lebanese storefronts outside
Lebanon.
• Thus, numerous Mediterranean restaurants
dot the region and typical foods such as gyros,
hummus and falafel can be found in many run-
of-the-mill grocery stores and restaurants.
•
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• St. Louis, Missouri, reflecting its varied
immigrant influences, is known for dishes
such as “toasted ravioli” (which is actually
breaded and fried), frozen custard and for
making the ice cream cone s popular food.
Saint Louis style barbecue competes with
the nearby Kansas City style in popularity.

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• The large numbers of German immigrants
have made “beer and brats” (bratwurst)
the standby at baseball games and street
festivals.
• St. Louis-style pizza has a crispy thin crust
and is usually made with Provel cheese
instead of traditional mozzarella cheese.

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• Italian cuisine is popular in both Chicago
and St. Louis. Neighborhoods like The Hill
have many Italian restaurants and
Chicago and Italian restaurants offer pizza
all ways-thin-crust, deep-dish or stuffed.

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• Distinctive cuisine of Indiana includes the pork
tenderloin sandwich, consisting of a lean,
tenderloin-cut pork chop which is pounded flat,
breaded and deep fried before being served on a
seeded hamburger bun with ketchup, mustard,
mayo, and a dill pickle slice.
• It is interesting to note that the main ingredient of
this dish bears a striking similarity to schnitzel and
as such, may be related to the large population of
German immigrants that originally populated
central Indiana.
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• Minneapolis and Saint Paul are odd in that
despite being major cities they do not yet
have traditionally associated cuisine,
however because of the strong influx of
Asian immigrants over the past few
decades, a form which combines
traditional Midwestern dishes with Asian
techniques and spices is developing

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• The Twin Cities-based University of
Minnesota has been a strong location in
food research in recent years; such
inventions as the Honeycrisp apple have
come from the “U of M”.
• Additionally many important agricultural
conglomerates including General Mills
make their home in Minneapolis-Saint
Paul.
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• One dish associated with the Twin Cities, although
it couldn’t be called very popular, is the Jucy Lucy
(or “Juicy Lucy”), a hamburger with a core of melted
cheese (as opposed to the traditional cheeseburger,
which features the cheese on top of the patty).
• Twin Cities residents eat more ice cream per capita
than in any other region of the country (despite the
area’s notoriously long and cold winter), and most
cities- in fact most neighborhoods – have at least
one and often many ice cream parlors, each with its
own houses style of ice cream.
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• New England cuisine is a type of American
cuisine found in New England, the
northeastern region of the United States.
New England cooking characterized by
extensive use of seafood and dairy
products, which results from its historical
reliance on its seaports and fishing
industry, as well as extensive dairy farming
in states like Vermont.
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• Two outstandingly characteristic ingredients
native to New England are maple syrup and
cranberries. Well into the 19th century,
molasses from Caribbean and honey were
staple sweeteners for all but the upper
class. The Mediterranean herbs, with a few
Caribbean additions like nutmeg. The starch
is potato.
• The favoured cooking techniques are
stewing and baking. 37
• Maine is known for its lobster, once a poor
man’s supper, Vermont is known for its
cheddar cheese and maple syrup, coastal
Massachusetts is known for its clams, cod
(formerly), haddock and cranberries, while
apples are grown in the state’s interior
(Johnny Appleseed heralded from this
commonwealth).

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• Rhode Island is known for quahog clams,
Johnny cakes, coffee milk, and pizza
strips.
• New Haven, Connecticut is known for its
pizza-particularly a white clam pie-and for
its claim as the birthplace of the
hamburger sandwich.

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• New England is also known for many of its
fine, local lagers and ales, the most
famous of which is Samuel Adams of the
Boston Beer Company in Boston,
Massachusetts, even though the recipe for
the beer does not come from New
England.

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• Even today, traditional cuisine remains a strong
part of the New England’s identity. Some of its
plates are now enjoyed by the entire United
States, including clam chowder, baked beans
and homemade ice cream.
• In the past two centuries, New England
cooking was strongly influenced and
transformed by Irish Americans, the Portuguese
fishermen of coastal New England and Italian
Americans.
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• Currently, the oldest operating restaurant
in the United States, the Union Oyster
House is located in Boston,
Massachusetts.

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Thank you :)

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