On a restaurant staff, does race matter?


A regular reader writes:





Sure, there’s a measure of authenticity you get when you go to Saso’s and the eponymous owner, born and trained in Japan, is behind the sushi counter slicing all the raw fish himself. But I remember Saso telling me that he eventually felt an assistant, who wasn’t Japanese, had learned enough to be allowed to make the sushi. It took eight years, but Saso judged the guy qualified. The assistant hadn’t become Japanese, of course, but his cooking had.

And consider Michael Marcus, chef-owner of Bizen, a remarkable sushi and kaiseki restaurant in Great Barrington, Mass. He’s not Japanese, but he studied cooking and pottery-making in Japan, and I defy anyone eating his food to declare it somehow inauthentic because of the race of the owner.

Might I, at first, be a little suspicious or disappointed if I walked into a new sushi restaurant and found its kitchen and service staff to be all Swedes? I hope not. After all, one of the most highly regarded chefs in Manhattan, Marcus Samuelsson, was born in Ethiopia, adopted by a Swedish family and raised in Goteborg, Sweden. He studied cooking in Sweden, Switzerland and Austria, and now owns three New York restaurants: the Swedish-inflected but internationally flavored Aquavit; Riingo, which has Japanese influences; and Merkato55, with food inspied by his native Ethiopia. (Bio credit to Wikipedia.)

Steve Barnes

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9 Responses

  1. Mike in Albany says:

    This reminds me of the old Borscht Belt joke about the couple in the kosher restaurant marveling to the manager over their Chinese waiter who spoke perfectly fluent Yiddish. “Sh! Not too loud,” said the manager, looking around nervously. “He thinks he’s learning English.”

  2. Bob says:

    In 2006 my wife and I were in Venice, Italy on vacation and decided on a restaurant to eat. Immediately after being seated we noticed the entire wait staff and kitchen staff was of Asian descent. I must say the Italian food served was delicious.

  3. Gerry Erchak says:

    A former colleague from China told me that “all the Japanese restaurants around here (Saratoga and capital district) were staffed by all Chinese.”

  4. Herbert says:

    In Italy as well, restaurant work is becoming largely the province of immigrants:

  5. Rogerk says:

    Gerry (#3), that’s a slight generalization. I’m personally aware of 5 Japanese restaurants covering Albany, Schenectady and Saratoga that have some Japanese staff. I’m also aware of Japanese restaurants that have or had Korean, Indonesian, Thai, Chinese, American and Mexican staff. It might be safer to say that there are more non-Japanese than Japanese staff working in Japanese restaurants, and a significant number of the non-Japanese are Chinese.

  6. crumble says:

    It seems to me (and I’m in NYC by the way) that more and more sushi restaurants are owned and staffed by Chinese people that Japanese. My thought is that opening a Japanese/ sushi restaurant is more profitable for newly-arrived immigrant than a Chinese restaurant. For one, people balk at paying 15$ for a plate of sesame chicken, whereas here, that’s standard price for a few maki rolls and some miso soup.

    I really don’t see the relevance of the original question… does the race/ethnicity of the chef/staff really matter? What kind of person asks about the nationality of the staff serving him or her? I would have taken offense to that. Seems only people lacking non-European facial features and who possess accents get asked these types of questions, whereas we all come from somewhere!

  7. Kevin says:

    I’ve had younger staff question how I can still have so much passion for the restaurant business after all these years. It’s more complicated than I can analyze (psychoanalysis might be more in order) but I think part of it may have to do with this notion of meritocracy. It doesn’t mater who you are, where you’re from, or what language you speak, as long as you work hard, carry your own load, get the job done without excuses there’s a place for you in a lot of restaurants. If I try to count all of the nationalities of all of the people I’ve worked with over the years I’m sure I’d leave off more than a few. I can recall inventing new languages (some English mixed with kitchen Spanish, a little menu French, a few hand gestures,a lot of pointing and grunting, some charades and little mime), whatever it takes. I can curse (and have cursed out) in a dozen languages! As a customer, I don’t think it should mater who’s in the kitchen. If an Eskimo can kick ass cooking Thai food, that’s fine by me. The proof is in the pudding (or satay).
    The front of the house is more about the theatre. Foreign accents (even if they don’t match the cuisine) can add to the mystique but it’s all for naught if the server doesn’t know the product or doesn’t convince me they’re glad I’m there.
    Front of the house or back of the house, I’m not sure if authenticity is as important and a good dining experience. I’ve had a lot of “authentic” that was pretty difficult to choke down.

  8. DL says:

    Question in posting is absurd and ignorant – there is no way this person questioned the staff on their ethnicity. Excuse me, the food was very good – please tell the chef – where is he/she from? and you? did you come together? Furthermore, it has absolutely nothing to do with the food/experience.

    I wonder if the actors in the “Calgon” commercial were Chinese. I’d never use it again regardless of how good the product unless there was birth certificate disclosure.

  9. Rebecca says:

    It is an interesting academic discussion to wonder whether race matters, but in all practicality it’s not legal in the US to make it a factor in hiring decisions. Even if customers feel as though the atmosphere is not as authentic, as long as the staff can do the job, their race cannot matter.