At the Culinary Exchange, we’re all about experimenting in the kitchen. Creating new recipes, trying new ingredients, and playing around with different styles of cuisines is what we’re all about. But how far is too far? There’s a long-standing discussion happening across the blogosphere about whether or not chefs should mix cuisines.
On one side of the camp you have the purists: these are people who want their food to be traditional and authentic. On the other side you have the experimenters. These are the people who love to merge different cuisines and dishes to create and taste new things. You can probably guess which side we’re on.
Technically, mixing cuisines is called “fusion” and it’s become a bit of a dirty word in the culinary world. But fusion can be interesting and beautiful. And if you want to really get down to the basics, all culinary trends had to have been the result of fusion cooking at some point.
This argument came back onto our radar when we saw this article on The Independent about the takeover of the Sushirrito. As a quick crash course, the sushirrito is a burrito-like creation made with sushi-grade rice, seaweed, and stuffed with all of the makings of a delicious sushi roll. Just much larger.
All of which brings us to the question: should cuisines be mixed? Yes, it can create some strange culinary dishes like the Ramen Burger. But it can also churn out some culinary brilliance like the S’moreo (alright, so this isn’t exactly merging two culinary styles – but it’s still tasty).
What do you think? Do you like to mix culinary styles and cuisines? Or do you choose to keep things traditional and follow tried and true recipes? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!
