Lecture 31: Immigrant Cuisines and Ethnic Restaurants

Immigrant Cuisines and Ethnic Restaurants ..................................

Lecture 31

I

n this lecture, you will learn about immigration and the proliferation

of ethnic cuisines in the late 19th and 20th centuries. This lecture will

examine not only the people who came to the United States and their

cooking styles, but also how those cuisines went mainstream and became

part of American cooking in general and, thereafter, became part of global

cuisine. Specifi cally, you will discover that the narrowing of the menu, using

familiar ingredients, and then marketing explain how Americans became

such avid consumers of ethnic cuisines.

Immigration’s Effect on Food

 In the course of the 19th century, the population of Europe more

than doubled—from 188 million to about 432 million. The largest

concentration of migration occurred between 1815 and 1932, when

immigration quotas were imposed. About 60 million people left

Europe and went to North and South America, Australia, and New

Zealand. The population of North America (including Canada) went

from 6 million to 81 million, largely due to immigration.

 In Europe, the population explosion led to increased pressure on

land in terms of serious crowding. Usually, a generation after a

sharp spike in population, the children born in these baby booms

had no other recourse but to leave. The largest exodus was from

precisely those places that were not yet industrialized, where there

were no big factories and teeming cities in which to fi nd work—or

new colonies to fi nd administrative jobs or running plantations.

 The sharpest rise in emigration from Europe also came at the

very end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. This was partly due

to climactic changes and crop failure. There was also a phylloxera

epidemic in wine-growing regions. In addition, it was physically

possible to travel long distances via steamship.