Ethnic dining has always been a hot-ticket item for new restaurants and chefs looking to make a splash in the culinary world. As the Internet and “foodie” television shows have opened up consumers to an entire world of cuisine outside the basics of French, American, and Italian food, more and more people want to experience other cultures by feasting on the ingredients and cooking styles that make them unique.
Types of Ethnic Cuisine
For an American diner, everything from a tortilla to an egg roll counts as ethnic cuisine, since these items incorporate the flavors of countries outside our own. However, when it comes to a truly unique dining experience, it’s usually necessary to go a little bit further outside our borders – oftentimes even combining two unique cultures to create a new approach to food.
The newest ethnic restaurants typically hit New York and Washington D.C. first before spreading throughout the rest of the country. Much of the reasoning behind this is that the waves of immigrants moving to the United States start in these cities, and often bring their food and cooking techniques with them.
In recent decades, the Vietnamese food trend was followed by a large wave of interest in Thai food, and Pan-Asian restaurants combining the flavors of both with more traditional Chinese flair became a standard. Indian restaurants soon followed suit, only to be replaced in popularity by Ethiopian and Somali food, which make up a large part of the current “hot ethnic restaurant” list.
Other popular choices include Japanese food (think sushi), Brazilian cuisine, and Mediterranean food (including Greek restaurants), although virtually every country is represented on the American food scene. For the most part, anything European isn’t considered very cutting edge, since traditional foods from Europe have long been a part of our American culinary backdrop.
Ethnic Cuisine at Culinary School
The top culinary schools keep abreast of the food trends and adapt their curriculum accordingly. Although traditional French schools like Le Cordon Bleu tend to shy away from what’s popular in favor of what’s tried-and-true, a real interest in other techniques and styles can come into play during an internship or after you graduate and land your first entry-level job.
Because few culinary programs are going to focus solely on one type of cooking – especially if it’s a hot new trend – your best chances at a good education is to land a hands-on opportunity at a restaurant that specializes in your type of cuisine. And as long as you stay current and continue to explore how to entice customers to your particular brand of ethnic cuisine, you should be able to enjoy a long and sizzling culinary career!
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