IN THE SPOTLIGHT
NYC Chinese eatery heats up cultural appropriation debate
A New York City restaurant owner who touted her “clean” American-Chinese cuisine and derided Chinese dishes as swimming in “globs of processed butter,” sodium and MSG is renewing the long-simmering debate about stereotyping and cultural appropriation in the restaurant world.
Arielle Haspel, who is white and a certified health coach, told the dining website Eater that she wanted to offer modified, “clean” versions of typical Chinese menu items. In a now deleted Instagram post, Haspel said that a Chinese noodle dish, lo mein, can make people feel “bloated and icky.”
Online critics pounced, including New York Baohaus restaurateur and author Eddie Huang who dismissed Lucky Lee’s as “the Fyre Fest of food & ‘wellness,’” on the restaurant’s Instagram page.
Haspel has since apologized, but her comments are the latest misstep in a succession of restaurateurs and TV chefs who have been criticized for insensitivity when dealing with food from a culture that’s not their own.
Robert Ku, a professor of Asian American studies and food studies at Binghamton University, New York, said Haspel came off as relying on age-old stereotypes of Chinese food being unsanitary or grotesque. It was especially tone-deaf in New York City where most locals regularly eat Chinese food, he added.
“These are long-standing tropes that have followed specifically Chinese food more than any other cuisine,” said Ku, who has written about the cultural politics of Asian food in the U.S. “What she’s focused on is health and being clean, which implies the others were not.”
He also said it’s a myth that Chinese-American restaurants use MSG. Most cut it out of their kitchens in the 1970s because it was so unpopular, making Haspel’s reference problematic, Ku said.
Haspel was apologetic in an interview Friday with the New York Times .
“We were never trying to do something against the Chinese community. We thought we were complementing an incredibly important cuisine, in a way that would cater to people that had certain dietary requirements,” she said. “Shame on us for not being smarter about cultural sensitivities.
She previously acknowledged the uproar via Instagram and promised to listen and reflect on people’s comments.
She did not return messages from the AP seeking comment.
White TV chefs like Andrew Zimmern and Gordon Ramsay have been skewered for their respective Asian restaurants (both of which also use the adjective “lucky” in their name).
Zimmern last year said in an interview that his Lucky Cricket restaurant in Minnesota was saving the souls of people who dine at “(expletive) restaurants masquerading as Chinese food” in the Midwest. The “Bizarre Foods” host later apologized.
Ramsay, who is British, is opening the Japanese-inspired Lucky Cat restaurant in London this summer. In a press release in February, the “Kitchen Nightmares” star promised a restaurant that would be “revolutionary” and “authentic,” but many noted the lack of Asians in key executive positions.