For the last several years, there’s been a culinary shift and belief that food derived from foreign cultures should seek to be authentic or feature authentic elements. It’s appears that younger consumers—those in the Millennial and Gen Z age brackets—are driving this greater interest in world culture. Meanwhile, there is a general, larger shift among US mainstream consumers to be more conscious of the true nature of world cuisine.
Is that premise as simple as it seems, though? The Culinary Institute of America hosted its annual “Worlds of Flavor” event this spring and several speakers questioned the nature of “authentic” cuisine and what it means to appreciate food from cultures not our own.