Imposter or the real McCoy?
For those of you who, like me, have been glued to the recent BBC 4 series 'Cooking in the Danger Zone', you will no doubt have shared in the jaw dropping moments of the wilder side of the world's culinary delights.
Stefan Gates (author of Gastronaut), travels around the world, using food to discover different cultures. From dog kebabs in South Korea to sheep testicles braised to perfection by a former Afghan Taliban commander ... it's certainly not for the faint hearted!
The series got me to thinking about authenticity and, how in mainstream UK food retailing, we regularly demonstrate a disservice to the integrity of many of the great culinary nations by developing dishes which are over-anglicised to the extent that their native folk would barely recognise them as their own. I'm not advocating Korean style dog kebabs for the BBQ season, but there is undeniably a wealth of opportunity in premium ethnic ranges, which truly have authenticity at their core.
One of the main problems, aside from cost, is not with knowledge of the native ingredients themselves. Rather, it is a genuine lack of understanding from the creative teams when it comes to the art of balancing the flavours.
I frequently come across chefs and developers working on ethnic development briefs who have never been outside Europe, let alone the other side of the world.
'Authentic' by definition means 'conforming to fact and of verifiable origin' and it is a term that is becoming increasingly ambiguous at best and a misnomer at worst. One of the worst culprits I often find is the ubiquitous Thai fishcake, which is invariably coated in breadcrumbs; or Jasmine Sticky Rice, which combines two distinctly different rice dishes.
So why not add more value to a product recipe through authenticity in order to offer new opportunities on the supermarket shelves?
Angela Mitton is creative product developer at NPD consultancy
