[Konryan]

As someone who lives in Italy, a lot of what seems to be considered "Italian" in the US sometimes feels like little more than a caricature. It does trouble me slightly, because it feels like an impersonation of Italian culture.

On the other hand, it's probably just culture diverging and developing in different ways after migration, which is to be expected. So the problem is mostly one of identity: the same label - italian - means very different things to people across the world...

[tranced]

I'm grateful, as an American, that we have access to so many different cultures and cuisines. It's the one thing I missed sorely when I was travelling across Europe.

You're right on the label though, Italian American =/= Italian in the same vein that Chipotle/Taco Bell isn't Mexican. However, there are plenty of institutions in the states that do nail a more purist experience of Mexican or Italian or what have you.

[phil248]

Italian-American cuisine, including places like Buca di Beppo, are absolutely not in the same vein as Taco Bell or Chipotle. Italian-American cuisine is a unique part of a culture that arose organically from millions of Italian immigrants and their children in the United States. Taco Bell and Chipotle are culture-less money-making ventures with superficial ties to a foreign cuisine.

Tex Mex or Cajun cuisine would be a more apt comparisons.

[nilkn]

Is there really such a thing as culture-less food? The fact that Taco Bell, for instance, has struggled so much in some international markets suggests there might be a stronger cultural element to it than you’re giving it credit for. Yes, it’s a business that exists to make money. But the fact that it does make money is because the food connects with millions of people in the US.

There’s something very unique about the US, which is that we’re taught from a young age that “culture” is something that other places have and the US is just a melting pot. But you can’t mix things together for 200+ years and still seriously claim you haven’t created something just as unique as the ingredients that went into it.

[wavefunction]

Taco Bell is junk food Tex Mex and Chipotle is just mass-market Mexicali burritos. You can find Tex Mex and Mexicali analogs to Buca di Beppo.

[ibejoeb]

Sure, but the article points out that Buca was emulating (or evoking or whatever) Italian-American, not Italian.

Maybe those things are conflated in places with no direct connections, but any Italian American with ties to Italy knows that the two are very distinct cultures.

[GiorgioG]

As the son of Italian immigrants (who moved here 40 years ago), I've just learned to think of it as "Italian American" food/culture that evolved/diverged over the last 100 years. It's still painful to hear things like 'pasta fazul' or 'mozzarelle' being passed off as Italian.

[qualitydrew]

Interestingly, some of the "faux-italian" dialects of Italian American culture are descended from dialects that went extinct in Italy, but were preserved in Italian-American immigrants.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-capicola-became-ga...

[United857]

Same can probably be said of any country's cuisine in America.

E.g. many staples of Chinese restaurants in America (General Tso's chicken, chop suey, sweet and sour whatever) are not found in China except at super touristy places.

[culturestate]

There are lots of...I guess I would call them "mashup cuisines" around the world, especially in post-colonial and post-WW2 Asia. Local chefs tried to recreate western dishes with their own ingredients and techniques and it made for some interesting results.

Since it's early morning as I write this, I'll use Hong Kong-style macaroni soup[1] as an example: it's literally macaroni in broth with a slice of processed ham on top and some white bread on the side. Not Chinese in the least, but now it's as much a local breakfast staple here as congee.

Also, an aside: sweet and sour pork is a legitimate Cantonese dish and it's in every Canto restaurant in China. I really miss crab rangoon sometimes, though...

1. https://medium.com/@xinwenxiaojie/in-praise-of-hong-kong-mac...

[philwelch]

Some “Indian” dishes, like chicken tikka masala, originated in Britain in similar circumstances to American “ethnic” dishes. And lots of Vietnamese food has French influences.

[dagw]

Same can probably be said of any country's cuisine in America.

Or any country's cuisine any other country. 'Thai' food tastes different in different parts of Europe for example.