Why is there so much premium on western/european food?

[Anonymous]

I read an article about this exact problem. “Ethic” food is cheap and thereby restaurant owners are limited in making a good living while European restaurants can be fine dining.

[Anonymous]

Hakkasan is $$$$$$$$$

And worth it.

https://hakkasan.com/

[Anonymous]

This is why I only go out to eat Euro-centric foods in...Europe. In America Asian, Mexican, and Indian are far better in quality and value.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There used to be cheap French and Italian restaurants around - like Italian Market in Philly and French bistro places. Certainly there are expensive Asian restaurants. I think the more interesting question is why in a standard restaurant there will be a default Italian-American pasta dish, but not say a default Asian noodle dish like Pad Thai?

Time, exposure and numbers. Something like 300,000 Thai people have immigrated here vs 5.5 million Italian immigrants, and Thai people, along with most Asian people, weren’t allowed to immigrate here. Therefore Thai food hasn’t had the same period of time to assimilate into “common” food (and will likely do so in a different way given that Italian food really made it big here outside the east coast after WWII).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't eat cilantro. People use way too much of it and it tastes like soap.

That’s your genes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why I only go out to eat Euro-centric foods in...Europe. In America Asian, Mexican, and Indian are far better in quality and value.

Huh? Most food in America is "euro-centric."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Take French or Italian restaurants for example. You will almost always undoubtedly pay through the friggin’ nose for those types of cuisines, despite the fact that a restaurant in those categories may be throughly mid. It’s not like Italian food here in America is often prepared with that many complex techniques and exotic ingredients. People will pay $30 for a basic pasta dish, which might even be prepped with boxed dry pastas. Contrast that to say Chinese, Thai, Mexican etc. where customers expect cheap eats for high quality food. Have you seen the prep and number of ingredients that go into say making a Thai curry from scratch? It takes far more prep work than 99% of pasta dishes, yet you’d be hard pressed to sell Thai food to customers for $40 per plate. Or Mexican places making all their masa from scratch while cooking marinated meats for hours. Oh so an Italian place may make pasta from scratch? Big whoop. There are so many Chinese places that make hand pulled noodles and dumplings from scratch, yet people expect to pay $15 or less per bowl of noodles and probably even less than $10 for a plate of dumplings. And French food is even more overpriced. Big whoop, throw in salt, tons of butter, and a few herbs into most dishes that have one dimensional flavors. The French never really wow your palate with pungent herbs, sourness, spicy, and sweet. So why do people have no qualms about paying exorbitant premiums for bland European foods, yet foods in other ethic categories often require far more complex prep yet people want high quality and for it to be ‘cheap eats’? It’s pretty egregious to charge over $20 for any pasta dish when it is a low technique and limited ingredient entree.

Excellent point, OP.
I remember coming to America as a graduate student with limited funds. My new roommates took me to eat out at a small Thai restaurant. With the very first bite my mind was blown with all the flavors and the heat delicately dancing around my tongue. We could eat a filling meal for just $10+tip. I’m jonesing for a plate of pad se ew now.

[Anonymous]

Interesting question. As a vegetarian, I also prefer Asian (which covers a lot, I know) and Latino (also covers tons of places) cuisines/restaurants. There is so much more variety and flavor in the non-meat dishes.

[Anonymous]

I've wondered this, too. Often when I'm choosing where to eat out, I think about what would be too time consuming or finicky to cook. Thus I almost never eat out Italian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't eat cilantro. People use way too much of it and it tastes like soap.

.

That's because you are part of the 20% who have a gene that makes cilantro taste like soap. I love cilantro and cook often with it. https://www.britannica.com/story/why-does-cilantro-taste-like-soap-to-some-people

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've wondered this, too. Often when I'm choosing where to eat out, I think about what would be too time consuming or finicky to cook. Thus I almost never eat out Italian.

Me too. I’m not paying $20 for a plate of cacio e pepe.

[Anonymous]

Part of it really is the ingredients. Asian food uses lots of fresh food but they are more interested in cheap than organic, pasture raised, humane, or IPM or anything like that. And why do they use so many flavors in their food, instead of simple preparations like French food? For the obvious reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The answer is, in a completely apolitical way, that the US’s heritage is primarily Western European, so “fine dining” historically meant European. The US is still majority European-descended. If you go to areas that are not, you will find plenty of restaurants of different fine dining traditions - head out to Annandale for Korean for example. On the flip side, we don’t have strong immigrant French or Italian communities anymore that create a base for affordable small restaurants with the national cuisine. So those cuisines are slotted into general American fare. But where we do have strong immigrant communities (like Ethiopian in DC, Vietnamese in Falls Church) they form the economic basis for affordable restaurants.

Now American Chinese restaurants (the neighborhood type with the long menus) are an entirely different economic phenomena with a fascinating history.

thats true- you can still find super cheap and good Italian food in Italian enclaves all over American cities- Philly, Boston, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland. Places that still have the remnants of Italian enclaves have amazing cheap italian food and wood fired pizzas. French food was the food of the English (Norman) aristocracy and so deemed fancy in the whole of the anglo-world. I fond that funny since the genius of French cooking is the ability to take humble ingredients and through technique transform them into something absolutely amazing. And you can find very upscale Chinese places. As these communities grow in wealth and establish themselves- there will be super bougie Korean and Thai places as well. What surprises me is the lack of upscale Greek food here since fine dining in Greece itself is amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of it is the physical restaurant. I rarely see nice places to eat Thai or Chinese, whereas it's possible to find fancy dining with Italian or French.

I'm with you on the French. Their food is thoroughly overrated.

Because it is a chicken and egg. Who wants to dump millions into fine dining fir Chinese or Thai if the vast majority of consumers associate it ‘cheap eats’ and it’d be hard pressed to get them to spend $30-50 per entree? Yet look at an Italian place, they can serve you mid food like chicken parm with boxed pasta and charge you $30+ per plate.

You never heard of places like Moon Rabbit, Slanted Door, Hiraya, any number of luxe sushi restaurants with omakase?

Japanese food is the only one that gets premium treatment from westerners. It’s kinda funny too, because Japanese food is pretty bland. It must be a thing - the more bland and one dimensional your food is, the more premium it gets.

lol I kind of agree, not that you state this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Part of it really is the ingredients. Asian food uses lots of fresh food but they are more interested in cheap than organic, pasture raised, humane, or IPM or anything like that. And why do they use so many flavors in their food, instead of simple preparations like French food? For the obvious reason.

you have zero clue if that French bistro uses organic anything.