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In this live webinar, we will explore the evolution of Japanese cooking in American discourse, from the end of World War II through the end of the Cold War. During this time, Japanese cuisine went from a niche, exotic novelty to a monument of fine dining.

On a national level, white, highly educated, upper middle class—rather than Japanese-American—food writers popularized Japanese cuisine in the United States. Those writers often perpetuated older Orientalist tropes and used Japanese cuisine as a means to accrue cultural capital and perform a form of cosmopolitanism which had become fashionable during the Cold War era.

Host:

Eloi Salvail-Lacoste is completing his M.A. thesis in the History Department at Concordia. His research topic centers on culinary history. He is also interested in cultural history more broadly , as well as the history of everyday life and how it relates to broader socio-political concerns.
Organized by The Concordia Food Studies Working Group