Afghani-British Chef Mursal Saiq gives her critique of "authenticity" for non-white chefs in cooking

Why is cooking so pretentious? it's just food. The only thing that should matter is if it tastes good or not.

"That's not a real carbonara"

Maybe I'm just ignorant but I'm not aware of anyone actually demanding that chefs from [x], [y], or [z] background restrict themselves to the cuisine of their homeland.

I am aware of the term being used a lot as a selling point by places where the chef chooses to specialise in their regional cuisine, but talking as though there's a cabal of white men imposing that choice on those restaurants is a bit of a bad-faith strawman, it's just people deciding to capitalise on what they know and do well, just like she's trying to do.

Sounds like she is over analyzing a simple tip that gordan says. Any industry people say be authentic, your ethnicity doesn't stop you from being authentic about the industry you want to own.

"I think Gordon's quite cool, but I don't like the his use of the term 'authentic', because where does that place someone like me? In Afghanistan I'm called English, and in England I'm called Afghan. I learned American barbecue for over a decade but I am Afghan."

"The authenticity trap for racialized people means someone like me shouldn't cook outside Afghan food. And those white men are the guys who did that. How dare you fucking tell me to be authentic, yet you can cook my food jerk style, this-style or that-style. Fuck you, quite frankly. I'll take the power back and cook my food in as many ways, and I will not be told it's not authentic. Fuck you."

link to the original video

Jesus this lady is really reaching for something to try and be upset about. The situation she describes does not exist in the real world.

I've never heard "authentic" used that way for food. It's usually a reference to whether or not it's prepared in a traditional or expected way and has nothing to do with who prepared it.

The way she said she learned American barbecue made it seem like mystical teachings. Like she traveled to deepest Missouri all the way from Afghanistan to study the ways of the smoke and sauce from ancient pit masters.

Ramsay scatters the words 'authentic', 'signature' and 'iconic' like finely chopped parsely in an eighties steak house. They dont mean anything. Its just noise.

i would like to try that brisket