"Fusion," I often find
Chef Samia Ahad saying,
"is the culinary 'F' word." She says it with such fantastic condescension. It's times like these that I'm glad for the existence of this blog, where I can keep track of such memorable moments. You'll be hard pressed to find a chef these days who won't recoil in defense at the mere suggestion of the word.
Tom Aikens (youngest chef to earn a Michelin star kitchen) calls it, "Fusion-confusion." Sometimes, I want to toss the, "So, is your cuisine fusion?" question on the Q+A list, just to see how much of a reaction I can get. (To date, Chef Hal Yamashita from Tokyo is the only culinary professional I've met who embraces the term with open arms. But this might be due to the fact that he doesn't speak English)
If you want to catch her live, Chef Samia will be doing a joint culinary demo with Aussie heartthrob Curtis Stone during the Singapore Sun Festival. She also teaches cooking classes at her Clarke Quay restaurant, The Coriander Leaf. Check out November's issue of Appetite Magazine for my feature on her.
Other culinary 'F' words I can think of? How about "Foodie." I can't think of a term more execrable. The term is so used and abused, it screams
wannabe. Oh how it offends me. Unfortunately, there are few, if any alternatives to the term.
Tell me your culinary F words.
[photo from http://www.zazzle.com/foodie_tshirt-235308006882680803]
