European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 23, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                What s american depends on the Cook by Marian Burros new York times member when Les Laurall Tood in Iho United sales Means French. Italian of chinese everything else was what you ale at Home and is Halyvor you ate at Home was called Home cooking it probably had an erotic accent if your parents were first general Ion americans bul in look a Long time for those Exola ingredients la make i hair Way into mainstream cooking in the old Days we used to make fun of children who ale strange food at Nome. Today we can t Wail to adopt he unusual As our own the Lemon grass of the vietnamese and the thais and the tortillas and salsas of the mexicans Are not ust accepted they Are celebrated. Bul All this experimentation has some americans worried How will we Vei live a clearly defined cooking Irao lion. They ask. Some think it is a tradition not Worth preserving a colleague Long ago wrote a piece about his family s Cocking Lodi Lions. Calling it Wasp food. Many readers will recognize Iho dishes immediately Valory boiled potatoes overcooked Gray Green vegetables Bone dry roasts Wilh Library paste Gravy All liberally doused with Salt and possibly Pepper Many of us came to think of these dishes As typically american before the revolution the Lood revolution that is. Which began when Julia child published her first volume of  the of of French cooking in 1961 in inc ensuing decade the trend seders were francophile. If the food was t French it was Unwor fifty Lor serious occasions ii Mado no difference l half the Ingild Lens in an authentic French meal were canned or preserved in was considered better than anything available Here but then the French themselves began la Experiment with classical Coc Xung and the Youvette cuisine Label emerged in the Early 70s we club Chad in to our bosoms As we had the classic French cuisine. Once the French showed us thai rigidity was out and Eisenmen Falion was in he end of Leteir dominance was near our eyes were opened to endless possibilities that weddin l have to import Lood to create Superb dishes Hal we Loo. Could Experiment thai to had been belittling our own treasures. By the lain 70s, a tick Panisse in Berkeley Calil was Ollennu a style of cooking known As California cuisine Alice Waters and Jeremiah Tower were doing magical things there with local ingredients. We arc now willing to admit that she California cuisine of the 70s was clearly based on the cooking of Provence but at the Lime we insisted thai in was different probably because to were so eager to have something to Call our own. Before anyone knew in this kind of experimentation was taking place elsewhere in the United states. Equal by Clover Pec pie from Dallas to Boston irom Chicago to Washington realized that they could use american ingredients preferably local ones la relied regional dishes. Ellen Brown the author of the 1985 Book. Cooking with the new american Chels and president of gourmet Gazelle a shop n new York Hal specializes in spa food Calls he original group of Young heels the Lisl Slage Chels of the new american c they in eluded Larry Forgione at an american place n new Yorac. Jimmy Schmidt at the London Stiop House in oel Roit and Bradley Ogden at an american restaurant in Kansas City. Mo., and they looked to 16th and Early 19lh-Cenury american Lood for Insp ration now we Havo moved to what Brown Calls the second stage of the new american cooking " Chrls Are expanding the Dofi Nilion by new porting the spices and herbs of later immigrants. In Boston. Jasper while the Chol Andrj owner of restaurant Jasper is inspired by Iho portuguese and italian dishes that arnved in that cily in the Laic 19lh and Early 20lh centuries. The peking Duck at the China Moon res Laurall in san Francisco is made with fat free Duck a roast roasted rare. It is served with Hoisin sauce scallions and. Instead of chinese pancakes crepes reflecting the diversify of the commit Nily. Ii is a nokely that we will Ever have n cuisine As car Lully proscribed As the French bul the United slates in t France our country is a Melling pot. We ate a Cross ethnic culture and Hal is rejected in our Lood As it should be. But even As we move on we Are preserving whal is Good about regional american cooking and the few things that might be considered National dishes like meat loaf mashed potatoes and Lemon Mer Nguo pie while american cooking May no a Boas clearly defined As some would like