Sarah Jenkins Debates the Merits of "Authentic" Cooking

Sarah Jenkins, the woman largely responsible for introducing New York City and the rest of the nation to the crispy, porcine wonder of porchetta, knows her Italian food. In a recent essay for The Atlantic, Jenkins proves her Italian cred (not that she needs to) by name-dropping carciofi alla giudea and rattling off the three types of acqua cotta. So yes, she knows what she's talking about.

But despite her encylopedic knowledge of Italian cooking, she's come to a startling conclusion: Maybe authenticity isn't so important. Authenticity is a weighty topic, imbued with cultural, social, and sometimes religious implications whose subleties can be lost on foreigners and those whose closest experience of Italy is drinking their way through some Negronis. In an age of global food supply chains and increasing knowledge of foreign ingredients, Jenkins questions whether authenticity is even something to strive for anymore.

Jenkins says she still cringes at the things Americans do to Italian food, namely spaghetti and meatballs. But, she says, should Italian cooking exclude Worcestershire sauce or yams, even if they would enhance a dish? Is there anything wrong with manipulating traditional flavor profiles in new, global ways?

The question is an especially relevant one as food culture becomes ever more diffused. You can find Vietnamese fish sauce in chain supermarkets; Anthony Bourdain has convinced Americans to eat street food in Southeast Asia; and even finicky suburban teenagers devour sushi with chopsticks in mall food courts. Whether or not this diminishes the cultural cache of global foods is the question. In the end, Jenkins gets about as close to a conclusion as one can on an topic this broad: "I do believe you have to really understand the classics in anything to start rearranging them. But food is not static, and our tastes are not static." Read her full essay here, then tell us in the comments whether you agree.

--Kate Bernot